Powering AI

February 2024
­Efficient, Compact MOSFET Modules in Full-Bridge Configurations

SemiQ’s high-performance 1200V SiC modules are designed to operate reliably in high-frequency and high-power environments.

  SemiQ unveiled the latest addition to the company’s QSiC family. The QSiC 1200V SiC MOSFET modules in full-bridge configurations deliver near zero switching loss, significantly improving efficiency, reducing heat dissipation, and allowing the use of smaller heatsinks.   With a high br
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Date:
02/26/2024
TTI Europe Acquires Specialist Transportation Cable Assembly Manufacturer and Interconnect Distributor Raffenday Limited

Geoff Breed, Vice President Marketing TTI, Inc. – Europe

­TTI, Inc. – Europe, a leading specialty distributor of Interconnect, Passive, Electromechanical, Sensor, Discrete and Powercomponents, announces the acquisition of Raffenday Ltd. With production and a distribution center in the UK plus facilities in Slovakia, Raffenday’s high-quality, technical
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Date:
02/21/2024
­SBDs Achieve Class-Leading Reverse Recovery Time

ROHM has developed 100V breakdown Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) that deliver industry-leading reverse recovery time (trr).

  The SBDs are intended for applications including power supply and protection circuits in automotive, industrial, and consumer applications.   Although numerous types of diodes exist, highly efficient SBDs are increasingly being used inside a variety of applications. Particularly SBDs with a trench
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Date:
02/18/2024
­GaN FETs Deliver Power Density and Efficiency

EPC GaN FETs leverage drivers and controllers by Analog Devices to simplify GaN design, increase efficiency, reduce cooling cost.

  EPC announces the availability of several reference designs that feature EPC GaN FETs and Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) controllers. The newly released EPC9195 synchronous buck converter reference design board, operating at 750 kHz switching frequency, converts an input voltage of 36 V - 48 V to a regu
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Date:
02/18/2024
­Farnell Adds Murata’s Latest DC-DC Converters

­Farnell Adds Murata’s Latest DC-DC Converters

  Murata Power Solutions is known worldwide as the leading manufacturer of DC-DC converters as well as compact, high-efficiency power products designed to address power application requirements of all sizes.   The new products added to the range carried by Farnell include the MGN1 series of DC-DC conv
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Date:
02/18/2024
CES 2024 Showed that the Future of Cars will be Defined by AI

Connected and software-defined vehicle features.

IDTechEx’s new report, “Future Automotive Technologies 2024-2034: Applications, Megatrends, Forecasts”, highlights the biggest changes coming to cars over the next ten years. Electrification will change what powers cars, and automation will change how they are driven, but one of the biggest opportunities is
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Date:
02/16/2024
Renesas Electronics Announces Intent to Acquire Altium

Hidetoshi Shibata, CEO of Renesas

­Renesas Electronics Corporation and Altium Limited (“Altium”, ASX: ALU), a global leader in electronics design systems, today announced they have entered into a Scheme Implementation Agreement (“SIA”) for Renesas to acquire Altium by way of a Scheme of Arrangement under Australian law (“Scheme”). Un
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Date:
02/15/2024
SiTime Complete and Differentiated Clock Portfolio Now Available

Multiple SiTime clocks and oscillators are used throughout the cloud and datacenter.

­For datacenter, AI and networking applications to function properly, you’ve got to get the timing right. That can be a challenge as data proliferates and workloads continue to increase. For example, in the datacenter, data travels through switches, active cables and SmartNIC cards to se
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Date:
02/14/2024
Argonne Scientists Use AI to Identify New Materials for Carbon Capture

Scientific visualization of the AI-guided assembly of a novel metal organic framework with high carbon dioxide adsorption capacity and synthesizable linkers. Building blocks, predicted by generative AI, are shown on the left, while the final AI-predicted structure is shown on the right.

­Generative AI techniques, machine learning and simulations give researchers new opportunities to identify environmentally friendly metal-organic framework materials. Carbon capture is a critical technology in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other industrial facilities. But a sui
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Date:
02/14/2024
A New Way to let AI Chatbots Converse All Day Without Crashing

A New Way to let AI Chatbots Converse All Day Without Crashing

­When a human-AI conversation involves many rounds of continuous dialogue, the powerful large language machine-learning models that drive chatbots like ChatGPT sometimes start to collapse, causing the bots’ performance to rapidly deteriorate. A team of researchers from MIT and elsewhere has pinpointed a surpris
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Date:
02/13/2024
­IP67 – even when unmated

Protective caps for binder's 670- and 770-series cable connectors reliably protect the components against any ingress of dust and liquids when unmated.

  The requirements of protection degree IP67 are thereby met. binder, a leading supplier of industrial circular connectors, is adding protective caps for the cable connectors to its NCC (Not Connected Closed) 670- and 770-series portfolio. Their task is to prevent the ingress of particles and humidity
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Date:
02/12/2024
­Innovative Double-Sided Cooling DFN 5x6 Package

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor has announced the AONA66916, a 100V MOSFET packaged in a top and bottom side cooling DFN 5 x 6 package.

  Delivering a state-of-the-art package that keeps its semiconductor products cooler, AOS is taking a huge step in enabling engineers to develop more efficient designs in telecommunications and industrial applications that must frequently operate in harsh conditions.   Typically, when using
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Date:
02/12/2024
­SOT-223-3 600V MOSFETs Contribute to Smaller Designs

ROHM has added a lineup of compact 600V Super Junction MOSFETs – the R6004END4 / R6003KND4 / R6006KND4 / R6002JND4 / R6003JND4.

  These devices are ideal for small lighting power supplies, pumps, and motors. In recent years, power supplies for lighting and motors for pumps are required to be smaller as devices become more sophisticated – spurring the demand for compact MOSFETs that are essential for switching operation.  
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Date:
02/12/2024
Making AI a Partner in Neuroscientific Discovery

Making AI a Partner in Neuroscientific Discovery

­The past year has seen major advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT. The ability of these models to interpret and produce human text sources (and other sequence data) has implications for people in many areas of human activity. A new perspective paper in the journal Neuron argues th
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Date:
02/12/2024
New AI Tool Discovers Realistic 'Metamaterials' with Unusual Properties

New AI Tool Discovers Realistic 'Metamaterials' with Unusual Properties

­The properties of normal materials, such as stiffness and flexibility, are determined by the molecular composition of the material, but the properties of metamaterials are determined by the geometry of the structure from which they are built. Researchers design these structures digitally and then have it 3D-printed. Th
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Date:
02/12/2024
There is no Proof that AI can be Controlled, According to Extensive Survey

There is no Proof that AI can be Controlled, According to Extensive Survey

­There is no current evidence that AI can be controlled safely, according to an extensive review, and without proof that AI can be controlled, it should not be developed, a researcher warns. Despite the recognition that the problem of AI control may be one of the most important problems facing humanity, it remain
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Date:
02/12/2024
­Würth Elektronik extends MagI³C-FISM family

­Würth Elektronik extends MagI³C-FISM family

  The device is 100% pin-to-pin compatible with the previous MagI³C-FISM. It has improved properties: the efficiency goes up to 84 percent, the ambient temperature range has been increased to 105°C and the isolation voltage is 3 kV (for 60 seconds). Like some of its predecessors, this power module ha
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Date:
02/08/2024
How Teachers Make Ethical Judgments When Using AI in the Classroom

Researchers at the USC Center for Generative AI and Society and the USC Rossier School of Education investigated teachers’ perspectives on ethics around AI for the first report to be published by the center.

­A teacher’s gender and comfort with technology factor into whether artificial intelligence is adopted in the classroom, as shown in a new report from the USC Center for Generative AI and Society. The study, “AI in K-12 Classrooms: Ethical Considerations and Lessons Learned,” explores how teach
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Date:
02/08/2024
­PI introduces InnoSwitch5 offline flyback switcher IC

­PI introduces InnoSwitch5 offline flyback switcher IC

  The single-chip switcher achieves over 95 percent efficiency with a novel secondary-side control scheme which achieves zero-voltage switching (ZVS) without a dedicated and costly additional high voltage switch. The new IC, which features a 750 V or a 900 V PowiGaN™ primary switch, primary-side contr
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Date:
02/08/2024
High Voltage GaN Transistors for Speed and Efficiency

Click image to enlarge

Figure 1: Doped silicon transistor cross section compared to GaN HEMT

The high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) is a relative newcomer in the world of mass-produced power switching devices.  Unlike its traditional doped Silicon counterpart, HEMTs are heterojunction devices built using two semiconductor materials with distinct bandgap voltages.  First demonstrated in the late 19
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Date:
02/04/2024