Motor Drives, Robotics & Controls

Current

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

Welcome to the June issue! We’re less than a month away from the official start of summer, so it’s time to kick back, relax, and give maximum effort (because we haven’t had the summers off since we were kids). But hey, it’s fine to live (and relax) vicariously through our kids, right? We’re

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Date:

06/01/2025

Ally Winning, European Editor, PSD

Electrical Motors Get Powered Up with GaN

Ally Winning, European Editor, PSD

Welcome to the June issue of Power Systems Design Europe. June marks the end of the first half of the year, and so far it has been a busy year for the industry. Personally I’ve been to both APEC in Atlanta and PCIM in Nuremberg, finding out about the latest innovation in the industry. I’ll be writing about th

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Date:

06/01/2025

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Figure 1: The 8/20 µs current waveform is widely used to test overvoltage devices and originates from UL 1449

Designing to Protect: Industrial Motor Drive Circuits

Jennifer Joseph, Vice President Bourns Protection Division and Jed Boyer, Power Applications Engineer, Bourns

Motor drive circuits employed in a wide range of today’s industrial, commercial, and consumer applications are responsible for controlling the speed, torque, and position of electric motors, enabling precise motion and energy efficiency. However, motor drives are often exposed to electrical threats such as

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Date:

06/01/2025

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Figure 1: Melexis’ Tactaxis® technology supports the move towards more human-like robotics that can operate closely with humans in applications ranging from industrial cobots and domestic service robots

Unlocking Robotic Intelligence

Julien Ghaye, PhD, Product Line Manager, Robotics at Melexis

As the robotics industry advances into increasingly sophisticated roles, especially within service and humanoid applications, the need for machines that interact with their environments almost as naturally as humans has never been greater. While intelligent control systems lay the foundation for autonomy and pr

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Date:

06/01/2025

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Figure 1: Current- and voltage-sensing accuracy impacts how precise robotics can perform tasks

Advanced Current and Voltage Sensing Enables Ultra-Precise Robots

Kia Rahbar, marketing manager for isolated converters, Texas Instruments

Robots have become commonplace in industrial applications. However, up until now, their usage has been restricted to tasks that do not require the highest levels of precision. It is hard to imagine a humanoid robot being asked to attempt to thread a needle, or a collaborative robot (cobot) to handle fragile it

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Date:

06/01/2025

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Figure 1: Comparing power outputs for discrete and IPM MOSFET/IGBT and GaN solutions

The Benefits of GaN in Motor Drive/Inverter Designs

Di Chen, Director of Business Development & Technical Marketing, Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD)

Although gallium nitride (GaN) has been discussed as an interesting solution for inverters and motor drives for ten years, there have been very few real applications of GaN in this sector to date. However, now that GaN has been proven in other applications, such as chargers, its value proposition is now being se

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Date:

06/01/2025

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Figure 1: 600W washing machine drive built with silicon IGBTs

Motor Drive ICs With Performance, Protection & Bi-Directional Sensing

Llew Vaughan-Edmunds, Senior Director Product Management and Marketing, Navitas

Electric motors and drives are estimated to consume about 45% of the total electricity generated worldwide. That’s equivalent to more than 12,000 terawatt hours (TWh) per year, or about 1,000 times the total output of China’s 5 GW Xinjiang solar farm (the world’s largest), which was connected to the gr

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Date:

06/01/2025

Kevin Parmenter, Director, Applications Engineering. TSC, America

Robotics, Motor Drives and Controls

Kevin Parmenter, Director, Applications Engineering. TSC, America

As of 2023, the global market for motors and drives for robotics was valued at approximately $6.8 billion. It is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5% by 2030, fueled by the widespread adoption of automation technologies across sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics, ac

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Date:

06/01/2025