Smart Power Grid

April 2016
GaN Systems to show the latest in tiny Inverters, motors, energy storage, and power modules at PCIM Europe 2016

GaN Systems’ transistors reduce the size of EGTRONICS’ 48V, 12 kW inverter 5X versus silicon

The stream of smaller, lighter, lower cost, and highly efficient commercial power systems entering the market continues. Computer travel adaptors, AC/DC power supplies for datacenters, battery chargers for solar, DC/DC converters, energy storage systems, and traction inverters for automobiles are among the dozens of a
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Date:
04/28/2016
The 23rd World Energy Congress, which is taking place in Istanbul, between 9 and 13 October 2016 has announced the first key highlights of its official event programme. Headline sessions will include weathering the commodity price storm and the impact of the COP21 agreement on the energy industry. Prominent le
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Date:
04/28/2016
AWS Electronics Group, a leading specialist electronics manufacturing services provider, has added a new high-voltage production capability to its plant in Newcastle Under Lyme. The company has dedicated 1000 ft² of manufacturing space purely for work that requires up to 50kV; high currents of up to 180A can al
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Date:
04/28/2016
NREL finds nanotube semiconductors well-suited for PV systems

Single-walled carbon nanotube semiconductors could be favorable for photovoltaic systems

Researchers at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) discovered single-walled carbon nanotube semiconductors could be favorable for photovoltaic systems because they can potentially convert sunlight to electricity or fuels without losing much energy. The research builds on the Nob
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Date:
04/26/2016
Germany readies itself for a new era

87% of German companies currently feel that a change to digitalisation over the next five years is a priority

In multiple presentations at the Year Of The Monkey digital festival in Munich on Thursday, the figure "87%" was prominent. This is - according to a number of research papers - the number of German companies currently feeling that a change to digitalisation over the next five years is a priority. At le
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Date:
04/22/2016
PLS’ UDE 4.6.1 now supports NXP’s latest MPC5746R Power Architecture microcontroller

PLS’ UDE 4.6.1

PLS Programmierbare Logik & Systeme has now introduced version 4.6.1 of its Universal Debug Engine (UDE) including a specifically optimized testing and debugging environment for MPC5746R high end multi-core controller – the newest member of NXP’s Power Architecture family. The high performance dual-core
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Date:
04/18/2016
IBC SOLAR AG, a leading system service-provider for photovoltaics (PV) and energy storage systems, will once again be showcasing its products at this year's Intersolar Europe, Europe's most important trade fair for solar technology. The company from Bad Staffelstein will be presenting its entire product range in h
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Date:
04/18/2016
Transformers can often provide an inexpensive solution for a variety of applications. The purpose of the transformer is to isolate the secondary side of the circuit from the primary power source, transfer power efficiently from the electrical source to the target load and protect users from hazards like electric sh
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Date:
04/17/2016
LEDs are increasingly used in 24VAC and 12VAC lighting systems as a robust, energy efficient and high performance alternative to halogen lamps. Power converters that drive the LEDs should have a high power factor (above 90% in order to meet generally-accepted green standards), should be efficient, use a minimal nu
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Date:
04/17/2016
LED technology has developed over recent years, and is now the obvious choice for many applications from energy-efficiency architectural lighting to outdoor displays. These applications tend to vary considerably, each requiring a different number, type, color and configuration of the LEDs, which means that driver ci
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Date:
04/17/2016
Power management company Eaton today announced the global launch of Intelligent Power Manager software version 1.52, which can be integrated with the VMware vRealize Operations platform. Now, data center and operations managers can use Eaton’s Intelligent Power Manager software and Infrastructure Management Pa
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Date:
04/15/2016
Schaffer's latest line card details their power quality products

Power Quality Line Card

A new four-page, full color Power Quality Line Card provides a comprehensive overview of Schaffner Active and Passive Harmonic Filters, Sine Wave Filters, dV/dT Filters, Line Reactors and more. These products ensure the efficient and reliable operation of power distribution systems by shaping electrical power. Act
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Date:
04/15/2016
An effective method for filtering high-frequency power supply noise and cleanly sharing similar voltage supply rails (i.e. analog and digital rails for mixed-signal ICs) while preserving high-frequency isolation between the shared rails is the use of ferrite beads.  A ferrite bead is a passive device that fi
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Date:
04/15/2016
In the third part of this series, we’ll see how Dr. Fred Lee’s analysis of current-mode control resulted in a high modulator gain, and also look at the consequences of this gain on current-loop predictions. Current-Mode Control Circuit Figure 1 shows a buck converter with peak current-mode control. T
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Date:
04/13/2016
Powerbox, one of Europe’s largest power supply companies and a leader in optimizing power solutions for demanding applications, announced they acquired the assets of former Power Technics in Etten-Leur, the Netherlands. The assets includes products IPs, laboratory equipment, warehouse etc. This acquisition wi
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Date:
04/12/2016
The large “IDTechEx Show!” in Berlin April 27-28 with over 2500 paying delegates once again invests in startups. Chief Executive Raghu Das says, “It is one way we are different from other events because they are run for cash. We believe in this industry and we invest in it, not directly in the company sh
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Date:
04/12/2016
On March 29, 2016, Utah signed into law the Sustainable Transportation and Energy Plan Act (SB 115), which establishes utility investments in battery storage, electric vehicle infrastructure, and several clean energy programs. The new law seeks to boost energy storage solutions to improve the reliability and co
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Date:
04/11/2016
Power electronics in data center hardware can make or break the ability to enable an implementation for success or not. A common industry practice is to use simplified assumptions for loading and power conversion efficiency to provide approximate calculations of power utilization. Unfortunately, implementers fi
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Date:
04/11/2016
Molex, a leading global manufacturer of electronic solutions, announced today the acquisition of Interconnect Systems (ISI), which specializes in the design and manufacture of high density silicon packaging with advanced interconnect technologies. According to Tim Ruff, senior vice president, Molex, the acqui
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Date:
04/08/2016
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced approximately $35 million in funding, subject to congressional appropriations, to assist small- and medium-sized U.S. manufacturers with increasing their energy efficiency, productivity, sustainability and competitiveness and to help address the shortage of engineering pr
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Date:
04/07/2016
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