Technical Features
July 2019
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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
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Figure 1 – Illustration of Particle Size on Sintering Temperature and Density
Silver sintering is a proven technology that overcomes many of the thermal dissipation, power cycling and high temperature stability challenges associated with power module interconnects (die attach solder, wire-bonds and heat sink attach). This has become critically important as the automotive industry em
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Date:
07/23/2019
Most of the growth in the rechargeable battery industry is expected to be from their increased use in high voltage energy systems for electric vehicles (EV) as well as in marine and home storage applications. These systems will typically employ series-connected battery packs made up of lithium-ion or nickel me
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Date:
07/23/2019
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Figure 1: USB-C dongle used to demonstrate USB 3.1 filtering and protection
The USB connector and standard are one of the most widely implemented and successful interfaces ever used. The applications are commercial and industrial, and both have been pushing the standard to be faster. The USB standard has been updated to version 3.1. This standard increases data transfer speeds to 5 GB
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Date:
07/23/2019
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Figure 1: Simplified buck schematic (left) and waveforms (right)
Electromagnetic interference (EMI) presents constant challenges in automotive power end equipment. With the rise of mild hybrid electric vehicle (MHEV) solutions, EMI becomes even more challenging, as the battery voltage shifts from 12 V to 48 V in many electronic circuits in the system.
Most engineers designing
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Date:
07/23/2019
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Figure 1: Typical wind turbines
Wind power in the United States is booming and vast farms of turbines are sprouting across large parts of the country. While this trend isn’t representative of every US state, the country’s use of wind power is on the up and it’s showing no signs of anchoring just yet. Indeed, wind power is on track to overtake hydropower as the U.S. grid’s largest source of renewable electricity in 2019, according to dat
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Date:
07/23/2019
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Figure 1: Synchronous rectification in a secondary circuit
The ideal AC-DC power supply will be compact, reliable and cool running. This has been the request from equipment designers in the industrial and medical industries since the dawn of the electronic age. With the advent of switch mode power supplies in the 1970s, the industry took a quantum leap towards this go
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Date:
07/23/2019
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Figure 1: Current sensors are used in a wide range of control, protection, and measurement circuits to measure the power flow within the system
There is a tremendous amount of pressure on the embedded electronics community for higher efficiencies and better system performance. This is due to multiple factors - from thermal management issues, to increased power densities, to battery life, and more. This pressure to improve is driving development in many ar
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Date:
07/23/2019
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Figure 1: IoT with and without Fog Computing
Cloud computing in the IoT is about centralized data processing. In contrast, fog computing focuses on moving computational power, storage capacity, device-control capability, and networking power closer to the devices.
Fog computing is a term created by Cisco that is used to describe computing on devices in
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Date:
07/23/2019
There are various solutions available for timing applications. For simple tasks, a standard 555 circuit can be used. With the 555 circuit and the appropriate external components, numerous different tasks can be performed.
One disadvantage of the popular 555 timer, however, is the inaccuracy of the timer set
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Date:
07/23/2019
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Figure 1: Off the shelf Power Supply
There are three main options, though more complex systems could rely on a combination of all three. The first option that will be most familiar to experienced board-level engineers is the custom power circuit, though this will often involve a combination of off-the-shelf power controllers together with discrete po
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Date:
07/23/2019
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Figure 1: The evolving Smart Grid energy infrastructure
Cybersecurity represents a dark cloud overshadowing the “smart grid” modernization of the existing electrical grid system that enhances customers' and utilities' ability to monitor, control, and predict energy use. The need for a secure enterprise-level architecture in defending against pote
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Date:
07/23/2019
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Figure 1: Example comparison of AEC qualified Si MOSFET and eGaN FET
Recent evolution in automotive powertrain technology has motivated the use of a dual 48 V and 12 V bus in mild hybrid vehicles, which can provide an 8 − 15% fuel consumption reduction. The 48 V Li-ion battery bus furthermore supports higher power loads such as air conditioning, faster heating of the cabin, an
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Date:
07/22/2019
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Figure 1: Basic structure of an embedded drive
It is hard to imagine a world without today’s modern networking and communications. Electronics either enables or powers just about everything in today’s digital world, including automobiles. The automotive electronics market will grow to reach over USD 350 billion by 2024 for passenger cars. Today, most ne
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Date:
07/22/2019
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Figure 1. SiC Schottky diodes and MOSFETs, like these pictured from Littelfuse, lower power switching losses compared to Si devices.
Electric vehicles are poised for meteoric growth, rising from an estimated 6 million vehicles in 2019 to 16 million vehicles in 2023. New technologies are enabling this dramatic change, including more efficient power conversion and higher power density. New circuit protection strategies are also required to pr
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Date:
07/22/2019
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Figure 1. EV/HEV Major Electrical Assembly Locations
Electric and hybrid vehicles promise greater efficiency, reduced emissions, and eventual price and performance parity with gas-powered vehicles. To be competitive with existing vehicles, the batteries used in EV/HEVs must possess very high energy storage density, near zero self-leakage current, and the ability to
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Date:
07/22/2019
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Figure 1 – Main components of an electric powertrain
As the automotive industry moves towards zero-emissions transportation, auto manufacturers are swiftly ramping up their electrification programmes. Most OEMs plan to be ready to supply large volumes of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as well as hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) worldwide by 2025.
To meet buye
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Date:
07/22/2019
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Figure 1: A TVS is designed to operate differently to a Zener diode, and for a shorter period
Anyone who has worked with integrated electronic devices in a design, production or repair environment will be familiar with the anti-static or electrostatic discharge (ESD) wrist strap, and knows their purpose is to protect ICs before they are inserted into or onto a PCB. Manufacturers fully understand the da
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Date:
07/22/2019
Anup Bhalla, Vice President Engineering, UnitedSiC
How to Build Better EV Traction Inverters with SiC
In this article, we examine the benefits of applying SiC technology to EV traction inverters. We show how the efficiency of the inverter is boosted under all loading conditions, from light to full load. Using higher operating voltages with efficient 1200V SiC
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Date:
07/08/2019
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