Consumer

July 2012
Safety and reliability in home alternative-energy systems

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Figure 1: A typical AES design includes power sources sharing a common high-voltage DC Link, an inverter for generating AC, and a system controller ensuring coordinated operation.

Solar- and wind-power-based home AESs (alternative energy systems) are becoming more popular among consumers. To achieve the product lifetime that consumers demand and ensure user safety,
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Date:
07/25/2012

Consumer-Friendly Power Design

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Figure 1: Step-down converter efficiency used to power the main processor in a set top box

The intricacies of power design are not conversation pieces for electronic-product consumers. Nor should they be. Consumers care about visible signs of power design in the product, including the
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Date:
07/24/2012
Improving battery-fuel-gauge accuracy

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Figure 1: The principle of fuel gauging based on coulomb counting: The stored energy represents state of charge. A circuit measures the in- and out-flowing current.

For simplicity, you can imagine the battery as an energy storage device analogous to a fuel tank. However, measuring stored energy from an electrochemical device is far more complex than that comparison
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Date:
07/20/2012
Input-line-current synthesis in PFC control

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Figure 1: Converter input power vs. line current with a symmetric conduction angle, constant current peak and resistive load.

Traditionally, PFC (power-factor-correction) controls present a purely resistive behavior with respect to the power line. By means of multiplier or equivalent blocks, front-end converters draw
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Date:
07/13/2012
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