Technical Features

April 2015

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Figure 1: MOSFET channel punch-through showing outputs from previous SPICE simulators vs. QSPICE

QSPICE: A Mission to Get SPICE Right

Siddharth Mohan, design engineer, Qorvo

Qorvo’s QSPICE™ simulator for analog and mixed-signal simulation provides power designers with the tools to confidently evaluate their designs. Free to use, QSPICE improves SPICE basics, supports large amounts of digital logic without performance penalties, and delivers the speed and accuracy needed for rel

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Date:

11/29/2024

Serving high power & high reliability applications

M.Weaver, J. Petrzilek, and M. Biler, AVX

Tantalum surface mount capacitors with a solid electrolyte have been the favorite capacitor technology choice in many electronic devices for more than five decades, thanks to their stability, high reliability, and superior volumetric efficiency. The traditional manganese dioxide (MnO2) cathode material provides go

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Date:

04/30/2015

FPGAs rev-up motor control

Jason Chiang and Ted Marena, Microsemi

Electric motors collectively consume a substantial portion of global electricity. According to the research firm IHS Technology, 96% of a motor’s lifetime costs are represented by pure electricity costs. Regulators have imposed more stringent energy standards for them, and manufacturers are scrutinizing th

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Date:

04/30/2015

Implementing a high-performance power-conditioning solution

Zhen Yu & Shamim Choudhury, Texas Instruments

The use of power diodes and Thyristors in applications such as small and large appliances, such as UPS systems, AC/DC rectifiers, and variable speed motor drives is the primary source of harmonic distortion in AC grid or mains current. Due to the source impedance of the mains power, the harmonic load current cau

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Date:

04/30/2015

Improved motion control increases production

Marcelo Lara and Katsuhiko Fukuma, TMEIC

Like many steel mills throughout the world, a recent TMEIC customer in Tuscaloosa was searching for a solution to increase production at its facility. An aging steel rolling Steckel mill, powered by large DC motors and controlled by variable speed DC drives was limiting the full production potential of the mill. Fi

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Date:

04/30/2015

Saving energy in a software-controlled world

Patrick Le Fèvre, Ericsson Power Modules

Software is playing an increasingly prominent role in networking at a system architecture level, but it also has growing importance in the future in the delivery of power. Digital control, the use of power-optimization software algorithms and the concept of the Software Defined Power Architecture are all being se

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Date:

04/29/2015

Replacing electrolytics with MLCCs in power applications

Jun Nakajima, TAIYO YUDEN

Advances in multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) technology now offer designers a high-capacitance alternative to traditional electrolytic capacitors. New high-value MLCCs provide the advantages of lower equivalent series resistance (ESR) and inductance (ESL) than electrolytics, and demonstrated mean time to fa

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Date:

04/29/2015

Optimizing power by phase positioning

Dr. Zaki Moussaoui, Exar

The technique of paralleling power converters and phase shifting their outputs is not new, and “interleaving” (as it is known) has been used in a number of applications to reduce the size of input and output capacitors. These include the 42V/14V DC-DC converters found in dual-voltage vehicle electrical systems and

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Date:

04/29/2015

An HV battery charger with frequency sync input

Don Corey and Syed Abidi, Maxim Integrated

Battery-powered equipment with high-sensitivity analog front-end (AFE) circuits must often operate in the presence of active battery charging. Equipment examples are mobile software-defined radios, portable ultrasound medical imaging systems, and wearable patient-monitoring devices. Depending on the application, an

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Date:

04/29/2015

Efficient Energy Management in industrial systems

Tony Armstrong, Linear Technology

To better understand why Industrial automation is so important, a few trends need to be discussed and reviewed. First up is sustainability. Sustainability, in terms of energy and resource efficiency, is a key ingredient for the success of the global manufacturing industry. The growing focus on the implement

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Date:

04/29/2015