Technical Features
October 2016
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Figure 1: Gate driver circuit diagram with a Bourns transformer
While gate driver-based converters deliver improved efficiency, speed and signal integrity, their high frequency switching features can produce elevated levels of conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI), posing challenges to electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and overall system reliability. To solve this
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Date:
03/29/2026
To read the November issue of PSDE, simply click here
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Date:
10/31/2016
The quest for energy efficiency has focused attention on those components of the power electronics that can connect hundreds of volts and amps in inverters with exceptional efficiency. We are talking about modern power switches – IGBTs and SIC-FETs – and how the voltage supplied to the respective gate drivers is
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Date:
10/30/2016
Recently there have been efforts to lower below 1V the core voltage of various chipsets used for wearable devices and GPS/communication modules. This is due to the fact that holding down the core operating voltage enables a significant reduction of power consumption. Here we’ll go over a new ultra-low power DC-
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Date:
10/30/2016
Oftentimes, designers of mobile medical devices, digital cameras, and portable consumer electronics choose to power their device from two, series-stacked, Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries, yet still desire the capability to charge from a 5-V universal serial bus (USB) port. Boosting a 5-V USB input to charge two se
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Date:
10/30/2016
The trend in consumer electronics has always been to make them faster, smarter, and with ever-expanding capabilities. But waterproofing has become the new focus of global electronics manufacturers and most brands are rushing to include this benefit to ensure they are not left behind in this ultra-competitive ma
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Date:
10/30/2016
When designing portable battery powered systems, size and battery life constraints are often the most severe challenges to overcome. One traditional way to pack a lot of functionality into a small size and power budget is to use a low power microcontroller such as TI’s popular MSP430. These types of ultra-low po
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Date:
10/30/2016
With fuel economy regulations tightening and autonomous-driving capability with connectivity proliferating, the old-fashioned 12-volt automotive electrical system has reached its usable power limit. Furthermore, a vast increase in automotive electronic systems, coupled with related demands on power, has created an
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Date:
10/30/2016
Multi-Layer Ceramic Capacitors (MLCC) in chipscale surface-mount packages are widely used in electronics for consumer, medical, industrial, automotive, and other applications. Their combination of affordability, compatibility with high-volume assembly, high capacitance values within small dimensions, and high re
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Date:
10/29/2016
High-voltage IGBT-modules usually consist of two types of IC, an IGBT for the transistor and a diode for the freewheeling functionality. A device that combines both functions in a single die is known as a reverse conducting IGBT (RC-IGBT). These modules exhibit a lower thermal resistance when compared to an IG
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Date:
10/29/2016
Equipment designs increasingly utilize advanced MCU, DSP and FPGA devices to deliver the functionality and performance demanded of them. With this sophistication comes the challenge of providing the multiple power rails these devices require. The use of carefully chosen power modules can significantly ease this ta
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Date:
10/28/2016
Oftentimes, designers of digital cameras, mobile devices and other consumer electronics choose to power their device from two, series-stacked, Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries, yet still desire the capability to charge from a 5-V universal serial bus (USB) port. Boosting a 5-V USB input to charge two series-stacked Li
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Date:
10/12/2016
A key consideration for wireless sensor nodes that will populate the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is battery lifetime. The sensor nodes, in many applications, will need to be installed in locations that are difficult to reach and, consequently, service. Because it is too costly and difficult to run power li
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Date:
10/12/2016
LGA package technology can deliver important advantages for the high-performance Point-Of-Load converters needed to feed power-hungry, fast-reacting data centers and network infrastructure. As the power demands of high-performance Cloud and telecom computing systems continue to increase, converter modules that of
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Date:
10/11/2016
Having a good grasp of how measurement tools actually operate can provide valuable insight into how test methods can be improved. Setups can subsequently be made simpler and more effective, plus test performance parameters can be significantly raised. This is true for any sphere of technology that requires the ca
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Date:
10/11/2016
To read the October issue of PSDNA, simply click here
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Date:
10/08/2016
The problem
Critical to the manufacturing of semiconductor wafers is the meticulous, precision deposition of many layers of chemical materials to form the thousands, to millions, and in some cases, billions of transistors that make up a wide variety of complex integrated circuits (ICs). During the fabricat
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Date:
10/07/2016
Automated factories employ sensors and I/O modules to control their industrial processes. As they increase in sophistication and shrink in size, they are enabling the fourth industrial revolution, dubbed Industry 4.0. A single module (see Figure 1) can have up to 64 channels, and a typical factory floor may uti
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Date:
10/07/2016
EMC problems in frequency converters occur not only at the input, but also at the output. To ensure reliable elimination of any kind of interference at the output as well, companies like TDK, for example, offer a wide range of EPCOS filters and reactors.
Frequency converters are used for regulating the speed
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Date:
10/07/2016
The role of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is simple in concept: provide a temporary power bridge to support the load between the loss of the utility and the transfer to diesel generators. Even though the task is easy to define, the best way to achieve the goal is often clouded in obscurity as the benefits be
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Date:
10/07/2016
Industry 4.0, the latest industrial revolution, is changing the way manufacturing organizations think about production. The aim of Industry 4.0 is to make manufacturing more flexible and responsive to customer needs, providing the ability to make small batches that are tailored to individual customers.
The quantity
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Date:
10/04/2016
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