Technical Features

    September 2020
    Transformer Design Comparisons for Mitigating EMI in Gate Driver Circuits

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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
    Date:
    03/29/2026
    Extremely Compact Isolated Auxiliary Supply for SiC-MOSFET Gate Driver

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    Figure 1: Topology of a SiC-MOSFET half-bridge with highlighted parasitic inductances

    With the increasing spread of high-voltage power semiconductor components build with silicon carbide (SiC) technology, which operate at switching frequencies above 100 kHz, the requirements for their gate control are becoming more and more demanding. Besides the bipolar, positive and negative driving voltages fo
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    Date:
    09/30/2020
    Wireless Charging Without the Need for Digital Control

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    Figure 1. AutoResonant LC tank voltage and current waveforms with square wave input at less than 50% duty cycle

    Wireless charging is increasingly utilized for small size wearable devices, as it eliminates the need for cables or any exposed connectors on the device. For applications with charge current less than 10 mA, closed-loop control between the wireless charger receiver and the transmitter is not required as the po
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    Date:
    09/28/2020
    Designing Power Supplies for Uncontrolled Medical Settings

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    Figure 1: Equipment designed for clinical settings may not be suitable for home healthcare applications. Certification to the 60601-1 general standard may be acceptable,but it is critical to consider the new requirements of the collateral standard as well as the constraints of a 60601-1-1 general standard certified power converter

    The recent pandemic has driven medical facilities around the world to the brink; hospital beds have been earmarked, and ultimately filled, to treat and care for Covid-19 patients while others with “less life-threatening” conditions have either been asked to wait it out or risk their own health at those same fa
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    Date:
    09/28/2020
    Force Sensing Provides Flexibility and Reliability

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    Figure 1. Early generation smartphones featured a force-sensing home button

    Force sensing can be employed so that a false positive can be avoided, as well as expanding on input possibilities, such as coupling this with menu selections.  The most common use of force sensing can be found on previous generations of smartphones that required touch to wake-up and perform other functions.  Sm
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    Date:
    09/28/2020
    Power Consumption in Lithium-ion Battery Packs

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    Figure 1: Storage life comparison for two battery packs with different power consumption

    Batteries play an important role in our day-to-day lives in powering devices that range from TV remotes to heart pumps. Conventional batteries included only the cells, but high energy capacity Li-ion batteries also include electronics that are required to keep the battery safe and often includes a user interface to
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    Date:
    09/28/2020
    Keeping Up to Date with the Latest IoT Trends

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    The IoT, the IIoT, AI, smart buildings and smart cities are technologies that we are told will dominate our lives for the foreseeable future and make them markedly better. That may or may not be, but one of the real issues for the end-user (and even the system designer) is how rapidly these technologies are devel
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    Date:
    09/28/2020
    Solving Key Power Challenges for AI and Supercomputing
    Numerous forums have allowed us to connect with customers and industry innovators in the computing domain, featuring events including the inaugural AI Hardware Summit and Supercomputing 2019 (SC19), alongside datacenter-focused events like the Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit and the Open Data Center Co
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    Date:
    09/28/2020
    Everything You Need to Know About Wi-Fi HaLow

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    Figure 1: Wi-Fi spans several frequency bands and meets a variety of connectivity challenges (Source: Wi-Fi HaLow: Expanding Wi-Fi for IoT applications, Whitepaper by Wi-Fi Alliance)

    Wi-Fi HaLow is not only the next generation of Wi-Fi to extend distances and increase battery life for Wi-Fi-connected devices, but it also represents an exciting future of wirelessly connected people and devices across the IoT.  Applications are endless, from sensors, actuators and security cameras to ho
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    Date:
    09/28/2020
    Boosting Power Conversion in the Internet of Things

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    Figure 1: The functional block diagram of the AL17x50, integrating a MOSFET to reduce the BOM and improve the efficiency at low loads

    The explosion in demand around the world for smart devices in the Internet of Things and the smart home means designers have to accommodate a wide range of power sources. These power sources have to cope with an even wider range of regulations. At the same time, the end systems have to be as energy efficient
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    Date:
    09/28/2020
    How to Secure Tomorrow's Connected Industrial Systems

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    Figure 1. IoT devices manage power distribution, transportation systems, logistics, manufacturing, and smart homes. Ensuring the security of these devices is critical.

    From a recent explosion at an Iranian nuclear facility that experts suggest may have been caused by a cyberattack to a Las Vegas hotel that was hacked through a smart thermometer used to monitor the water temperature in an aquarium, attacks against IoT devices are on the rise. Malware attacks targeting IoT devic
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    Date:
    09/28/2020
    The Essential Technologies That Make a Building Smart

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    Figure 1. BMS Smart Building/City IoT Architecture

    Building automation systems are projects of the internet of things (IoT) combined with automation and control. Edge devices and sensors track a local condition, transfer the data to a local or remote gateway requiring a low-speed network. There, the data is collected, correlated, and processed for further action. Ed
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    Date:
    09/28/2020
    What are the advantages of SiC-based designs and how can you implement them?

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    Figure 1 Technology positioning – Si, SiC and GaN

    The global trends - such as digitalization and energy efficiency - that have emerged and accelerated in the past few years pose new challenges to the manufacturers as well as the semiconductor market. Developing power semiconductor devices that contribute to highly efficient power management systems is on the ag
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    Date:
    09/03/2020

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