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All Things Good and Powerful

Jason Lomberg, North America Editor, PSD

­We’re finally here! The show and the most exciting 5 days of the year for power engineers and the greater power industry. It’s the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC), once more emanating from the cozy and historical confines of San Antonio. And given that APEC focuses on the “practi
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Date:
03/01/2026
Spring Exhibition Time

Ally Winning, European Editor, PSD

­Welcome to the March edition of Power Systems Design Europe. This is the month when new product launches go into full swing. Manufacturers often wait until important exhibitions before they release their most exciting products, hoping that coverage will increase visitor numbers to their stands. There are two
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Date:
03/01/2026
Revolutionizing Power Electronics: Silver Adhesive Pastes for Next-Gen Semiconductor Reliability and Thermal Performance

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Figure 1: Silver adhesive paste for die-bonding

­As power electronics evolve with the rise of wide-bandgap semiconductors like silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN), the demand for advanced die bonding solutions becomes increasingly critical. Die bonding solutions enable power systems that operate at significantly higher switching frequencies, de
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Date:
03/01/2026
Power Density vs. Reliability in Industrial Motion Systems

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Figure 1: High Power Density vs. High Reliability. An isometric view showing how compact designs increase thermal stress, while spaced layouts enhance cooling and reliability

­Manufacturers want smaller cabinets, lighter machines, and higher throughput, but they also expect equipment to operate for years in harsh environments, including heat, dust, vibration, and electrical noise. As automation spreads and switching frequencies rise, margins shrink. A few degrees of temperature or
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Date:
03/01/2026
The Shift in Power and the OEM Collaboration Opportunity

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Figure 1: ENNOVi-SealTech – ENNOVI’s shrinking method for sealing 3-phase busbars at a lower cost and faster processing time compared to conventional methods

­The automotive industry is undergoing significant change as hybrid and electric vehicles rapidly evolve. Instead of relying on Tier 1 supply partners for the manufacture and supply of systems and modules, OEMs are increasingly bringing development and manufacture in-house. This is particularly true for high-value sy
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Date:
03/01/2026
Powering Global Energy Resilience with Backup Solutions

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­In an era where energy is essential even with increasingly extreme weather, backup power is no longer optional for critical operations. Power interruptions cost American businesses an estimated $150 billion each year. Add in recent regional outages, such as the 2021 Texas winter freeze that caused up to $130 bi
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Date:
03/01/2026
Gate Driver Power Supply Challenges for SiC and GaN Devices

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Figure 1: A few of the many RECOM DC/DC modules optimized for WBG gate driver applications

­Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) are wide‑bandgap (WBG) semiconductor materials offering advantages over traditional silicon (Si) in power electronics because they switch faster with lower losses. They are gaining significant market share in applications where high efficiency and power density ar
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Date:
03/01/2026
Industrial PoE Switches: Powering the Edge Computing Revolution

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Figure 1: The IEEE has evolved PoE standards from 15.4W (802.3af) to 30W (802.3at) and up to 90-100W (802.3bt) to meet rising demand for power-hungry devices

­The global edge computing market has reached a transformative inflection point. With valuations ranging from USD 21.4 billion to USD 554.39 billion in 2025 depending on market segmentation, and projected growth rates approaching 28-33.5% CAGR through 2035, the infrastructure demands of distributed computing ar
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Date:
03/01/2026
Silicon Reinvented: Architectural Innovations Beyond SuperJunction Power MOSFETs

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Figure 1: The evolution of semiconductor architectures from HEXFET (left) to SuperJunction (middle) and the latest SuperQ technology (right), with dielectric charge-balancing structure shown in red

­In the 1970s, the 1D power MOSFET, aka HEXFET™, was introduced. The 1980s saw the launch of the IGBT, and in the 1990s, reduced surface field (RESURF) devices – aka SuperJunction™ devices were introduced. Over the last two decades, improvements in silicon power devices have been largely evolutionary rather th
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Date:
03/01/2026
Parallelized Bidirectional Switches Drive Efficiency Higher

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Figure 1: BDS modes

­The push for efficiency in power conversion is unrelenting, especially in systems that need to deliver high power levels on a continuous basis. Though novel power-switching topologies have improved conversion efficiencies, high-power systems can benefit vastly from improvements in semiconductor technology. Topology Considerations
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Date:
03/01/2026
Solving High-Voltage Power Challenges

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Figure 1: A cyclotron application block diagram

­When integrating a high voltage power supply into equipment that requires very high voltage and high power, accuracy and reliability are critical. This applies whether the equipment is a medical cyclotron or an advanced manufacturing tool such as an e-beam welder. High voltage design presents its own set of ch
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Date:
03/01/2026
Using Output Discharge to Address Power Supply Systematic Failures

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Figure 1: Example autonomous mobile robot (AMR) subsystems

­Power supply blocks provide one of the most critical functionalities in electronics systems, as their behavior affects how the system will behave during the different modes of operation—power-up, power-down, steady-state operation, and in the event of failures—which is critical in achieving the safe state in
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Date:
03/01/2026
The State of the Merchant Power Supply Market in 2026

Kevin Parmenter, Pins Out Engineering, for TSC America, Inc.

­The total revenue of the power supply market, valued at $37.24 billion in 2024, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.73% from 2025 to 2032, reaching nearly $ 53.90 billion, according to Maximize Market Research’s latest forecast. The merchant power supply market, comprising standalone power conversion products
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Date:
03/01/2026
Michigan Aims to Become Epicenter for Advanced Air Mobility

Jason Lomberg, North America Editor, PSD

­America has intensified its efforts to keep Chinese drones out of U.S. markets (and our airspace), leaving the door open for a revitalized domestic market to fill the void. And one of the largest manufacturing epicenters in the U.S. is stepping up. Last summer, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed Ex
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Date:
03/01/2026
Following the Money on Energy Storage

Ally Winning, European Editor, PSD

­In the various blogs and columns I write for this publication, one of the subjects that comes up most frequently is battery technology. It’s not really surprising that it is so popular, and the amount of news on the research of new energy storage technology and processes is greater than almost any other to
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Date:
03/01/2026
A Reliable Power-Up and Power-Down Sequence

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Figure 1: Typical electronic system requiring eight voltages

­Today’s electronic applications often require more than just one supply voltage of 5 V or 3.3 V. The need for 10, 20, or more voltages is not unusual. Added to this are voltage domains that have the same voltage level but must be generated separately as domains—that is, these voltages must be generated tw
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Date:
03/01/2026
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