Test & Measurement

March 2020
GaN and 48 V – Where are We and Where are We Going?

Figure 1: Si MOSFET-based architecture for providing AC power to the CPU or GPU

Three years ago, the cost of making medium voltage eGaN FETs fell below the cost of equivalently rated power MOSFETs.  At that time EPC decided to use the performance and cost advantages of eGaN FETs to aggressively pursue applications with input, or output, voltage around 48 V. Specifically, automotive an
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Date:
03/31/2020
The APEC That Could've Been
The worst collateral damage of COVID-19 is the decimation of global commerce, and trade shows have been hit especially hard – tough to practice “social distancing” with a few thousand people (or more) clustered together. And one of the most unfortunate victims of this new, quarantined reality was the 2020 Ap
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Date:
03/30/2020
Mahr Adds New Depth Gages to Its Wireless Gage Offerings
Mahr Inc. announced an expanded line of digital depth gages. The pocket-sized 30 EWRi is easy to take along for fast depth measurements and the new universal depth gage 30 EWR-U/40 EWRi-U includes interchangeable anvils. The 30 EWRi is a compact depth gage with a 0.06inch (1.5mm) contact and 1 inch (25mm) gag
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Date:
03/25/2020
UnitedSiC Announces New Global Partnership with Digi-Key
The new partnership willprovide Digi-Key customers with worldwide, 24-hour availability of UnitedSiC’s Silicon Carbide product portfolio - including the only standard gate drive SiC devices currently in the market.   Yalcin Bulut, VP of Global Sales and Marketing at UnitedSiC, said: “This partnership focuses
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Date:
03/19/2020
OptiMOS™ IPOL voltage regulators with COT engine
      This product family is designed for today’s server, base station and telecom (operating at 85˚C ambient temperature) and storage applications requiring both high efficiency and high density. The IR3887M is the smallest 30 A device on the market. Fusing Infineon’s latest FET gene
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Date:
03/19/2020
KEMET Introduces Automotive Metal Composite Power Inductors
The MPXV product offering enhances the company’s METCOM range and is AEC-Q200 qualified for use in the automotive sector.   The new power inductors provide efficient power conversion while minimizing Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and are ideal for use in DC to DC switching power supplies for t
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Date:
03/19/2020
Strain Gage Sensors Offer Improved Humidity Protection
The Micro-Measurements brand of Vishay Precision Group, Inc.  introduced the CHA Series – humidity resistant strain gage sensors. Micro Measurements is a worldwide industry leader in the field of stress analysis using resistive-foil sensors for high-precision strain, high-stress and force mechanism
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Date:
03/17/2020
Linear AC Power Sources for a Wide Range of Applications
Pacific Power Source has introduced a new range of precision programmable linear AC power sources for a wide range of AC power test applications.  This new LMX Series consists of over 20 different models ranging in power from 500VA to 30,000VA.  Compared to more commonplace PWM switching AC power sources, th
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Date:
03/16/2020
PCIM Europe 2020 Postponed till July
COVID-19 has claimed another victim – on Friday, PCIM Europe 2020 was officially postponed. The good news is that PCIM will be delayed (until July 28-30) instead of cancelled. And the decision was almost entirely out of the show organizers’ hands. German Health Minister Jens Spahn recently called for
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Date:
03/13/2020
RS Components adds STMicroelectronics’ surge suppression range
Designed to handle 8/20µs and 10/1000µs voltage transients and protect circuits and equipment from power surges, the ST portfolio of Electrical Over-Stress (EOS) TVS Flat devices includes industrial and automotive grade devices. Delivering a lower cost per watt ratio, the portfolio of TVS Flat package variants ar
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Date:
03/12/2020
XP Power launches 20W & 40W PCB mount AC-DC power supplies
Complementing the previously released 3W, 5W and 10W models, the VCE20 and VCE40 series provide 20 and 40 Watts of power respectively and offer an encapsulated version as well as a lower cost open frame version, both of which are suited to PCB mounting. The compact (VCE20 – 63.5mm x 30.5mm x 21.8mm / VCE40 - 85.0mm
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Date:
03/12/2020
IEEE 802.11ax compliant WLAN signaling test solution
Access points and WLAN stations can now be tested in single input single output (SISO) and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) mode as well as in single-user or multi-user (OFDMA) operation, even under fading conditions and during IP data application. The greatest innovation in IEEE 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) compliant WLAN tr
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Date:
03/12/2020
RS Components adds Isabellenhütte precision power resistors
Produced using two different proprietary manufacturing technologies known as ISA-Plan and ISA-Weld, Isabellenhütte’s current-sense resistors meet stringent criteria with regard to thermoelectric voltage, long-term stability and inductance that allow electronics designers to optimise power use on PCBs more e
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Date:
03/12/2020
The Highest-Performance Wideband mmWave Synthesizer
Renesas Electronics Corporation introduced a next-generation wideband mmWave synthesizer with the industry’s highest performance and unique set of features optimized for 5G and broadband wireless applications. The flagship 8V97003 device is ideal as a local oscillator (LO) for mmWave and beamforming, or a pr
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Date:
03/11/2020
APEC 2020 Cancelled over Coronavirus Concerns
For the first time in 35 years, the show won’t go on for the Applied Power Electronics Conference. On Tuesday, show organizers and sponsors decided to cancel APEC 2020. We all know why – the COVID-19 coronavirus has already claimed South by Southwest (SXSW),
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Date:
03/10/2020
Ultra-Precision Thin-Film Resistors Available in 0402 Case
Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. announced that the company has extended its TNPU e3 series of Automotive Grade ultra precision thin film flat chip resistors with a new space-saving component in the compact 0402 case size. Offering excellent long term stability — for example, permitted maximum resistance change
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Date:
03/03/2020
Data Acquisition System Offers High Flexibility, Accuracy
Micro-Measurements announced that it has introduced a new high performance data acquisition system featuring a scanner with up to 128 software-configurable input channels. The System 7100 offers high-accuracy, greater flexibility and ease-of-use for a broad range of applications including design verificati
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Date:
03/03/2020
Testing GaN Devices to Failure

Click image to enlarge

Figure 1: Weibull plots of gate-to-source failures of EPC2212. Note that very few failures occur even at 8 VGS , yet the device has a maximum VGS rating of 6 V. The data on the left is at 25oC and the data on the right is at 120oC

Standard qualification testing for semiconductors typically involves stressing devices at-or-near the limits specified in their data sheets for a prolonged period of time, or for a certain number of cycles.  The goal of qualification testing is to have zero failures out of a relatively large group of parts te
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Date:
03/02/2020
Half Bridge, Gate Driver Measurements for Wide Bandgap

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Figure 1. The half-bridge circuit is widely used to convert electrical energy efficiently in modern designs

The faster switching transitions on modern wide bandgap power devices (SiC, GaN) have made measuring and characterizing a considerable challenge, and in some cases, nearly impossible. That is changing with new isolated probing technologies that are allowing designers to at long last confidently measure half br
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Date:
03/02/2020
Gearing Up for APEC
Across the Atlantic this month, all the talk is about APEC, the first real show of the year to focus on the power industry. This year, the event will take place in New Orleans, which should bring a touch of French Quarter sparkle to the event. However, in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center the focus will be
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Date:
03/02/2020
Wide Band-Gap Semiconductors in the Big Easy
It’s that time of year again – no, not the one where weird relatives stink up the joint and some fat guy zips around the world with magical caribou. I’m talking about APEC. The big one. The crown jewel. The World Series of power. And with it comes arguably the hottest topic in our fair industry – wide ba
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Date:
03/02/2020
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