Technical Features

March 2012
Molded Power Inductors

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Figure 1a: Saturation current (Isat) comparison between a hard saturation ferrite power inductor (orange color) and soft saturation powdered alloy power inductor (blue color) at different ambient temperatures displayed by REDEXPERT. Saturation at an ambient temperature of 20ºC

Higher power requirements and miniaturization expose passives to rising temperatures, increasing the probability of thermal aging. This article explores how to select molded high-current power inductors, which are exposed to high temperatures for an extended time. The constant market demand to increase power density
Date:
09/28/2024
Flyback Controller Incorporates Active PFC into a Single Stage Converter

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Table 1. IEC 61000-3-2 Classifications

Any power system operating from the AC mains has an associated power factor defined as the way it draws current from the source. The power factor of an AC electric power system is defined as the ratio
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Date:
03/26/2012
Understanding Common-Mode Noise in Low-Power Offline Supplies

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Figure 1. A flyback converter's main common-mode noise sources and transfer paths.

Yet the ruggedness of the underlying technology makes the core designs attractive to a much wider audience, such as industrial users who need low-power supplies for DIN-rail and similar equipment.
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Date:
03/16/2012
Inverter Efficiency

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At least two power reactors are needed for solar inverters: one in the boost converter (step-up chopper) and one at the ouput of the inverter for EMC filtering. Besides the IGBTs, the losses in the reactors are a major determining factor of the overall efficiency of the inverter

Low-loss and high saturation flux density core materials in reactors and transformers are a key determining factor for the efficiency of inverters. The new TDK PE90 ferrite is a cutting-edge
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Date:
03/06/2012
Efficient Power Protection

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Figure 1: NetRiver desired a solution capable of easily scaling to match its unpredictable future growth.

NetRiver, the leading provider of collocation and interconnection services in the state of Washington, has been making data center managers green with envy — racking up hefty utility rebates, generating
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Date:
03/06/2012
Wiring for Safety and Efficiency
This article describes a unique spacer cable system designed to power an industrial renewable energy plant pipeline. When the L'Anse Warden Electric Company in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
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Date:
03/06/2012
Multiphase DC/DC Converters

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Figure 1: High output current 1.5V/50A application schematic

The data centers' incremental overhead power consumption, due to inefficiencies and cooling systems is estimated to be equal to the amount of power that is consumed by servers, storage and networking. The
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Date:
03/06/2012
Industrial Control

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Figure 1: Example PLD, with 12 inputs, 8 product terms and 4 macrocells
PLDs can have hundreds of macrocells with up to 16 product terms driving each macrocell. The AND and OR gates within the product terms can be interconnected to form highly flexible custom logic functions. The macrocells are typically clocked, and their outputs can be fed back into the product term array. This allows state machines to be created.

In most microcontroller architectures, there is a ‘smart' CPU surrounded by a set of relatively ‘dumb' peripherals. Peripherals have limited functions; converting data from one form to
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Date:
03/05/2012
Industrial Applications Control

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Figure 1: With the new XMC4000 family - starting with the XMC4500 series - Infineon addresses three high-level trends for microcontrollers in industrial applications: higher energy efficiency, enhanced connectivity and reduced software complexity

Infineon has taken their wealth of know-how in microcontroller design for real-time critical control applications to combine it with all benefits of an industry standard core. The unique
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Date:
03/05/2012
The Power Output Stage

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Figure 1

Power electronics subsystems are often divided in a control and a power circuit, where the power output stage components strongly determine the characteristics of the whole application, like efficiency,
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Date:
03/05/2012
Safe System Operation

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Figure 1: Optocoupler Construction

Isolation components such as optocouplers that are used in applications that have user safety issues as a key aspect must not fail under continuous high-working-voltage bias conditions. Safety
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Date:
03/03/2012
Simplified POL Design

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Figure 1: Five steps of working with the SupIRBuck® Online Design Tool

Fast and reliable design and evaluation of Point of Load (POL) circuits is a major factor to reduce the product development cost and time for electronics industry. Switching power supply
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Date:
03/03/2012
Challenge of Automotive Audio

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Fig. 1 - The ON Semiconductor NCV47701 Current Sense Regulator Implementation

In the age of connectivity, increasingly demanding consumer expectations are driving the evolution of in-vehicle infotainment, resulting in greater demands on the infotainment system power supply.
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Date:
03/02/2012
Powerful Ideas

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Figure 1. How intellectual property, intellectual assets and intellectual capital work together

An inventor caught up in the thrill of developing a new product, or an engineer trying to source parts from other companies to complete his new design, may understandably not have legal matters
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Date:
03/02/2012
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