Technical Features

May 2015

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Figure 1: Power stage of the flyback converter (simplified)

Eleazar Falco, FAE, Würth Elektronik eiSos / Editor, Gerhard Stelzer

Isolated flyback converters often use optocouplers in the feedback loop to regulate the output voltage. As part of the compensation circuit, its parameters such as CTR influence the control loop and must be taken into account in the flyback converter design. The flyback converter is an isolated switching power

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Date:

04/01/2024

Improving efficiency and reducing costs in solar inverters

Jon Firth & James Kerr, Microsemi

A niche market only a few years ago, the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry is now becoming a mainstream electricity provider, and changing the way the world is powered. Following a difficult period of industry consolidation and economic crisis, PV installations saw another record year in 2013, with more than 38

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Date:

05/29/2015

Advances in energy-harvesting power conversion

Frederik Dostal, Analog Devices

Energy harvesting has been around for a very long time. I still remember my 1980s pocket calculator with a solar cell powering the computing unit as well as the LCD display. But even much before that, usable energy was harvested in the early days of the electrical revolution with putting generators on river mi

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Date:

05/29/2015

Grid collaboratives enhance power utilization

Jack Shandle, Mouser Electronics

The distributed intelligence that has been the defining characteristic of the Smart Grid can do more than enable smart homes and help utilities distribute power more efficiently. These two well-known advantages will be enhanced by two revolutionary changes at the edge of the power grid. The first change is

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Date:

05/29/2015

The advantages of batteryless power

Frank Schmidt, CTO and co-founder, EnOcean

Many fields of research focus on achieving a combination of more powerful batteries and devices that consume less and less energy. However, Moore's law does not apply to batteries. The performance and component density of processors and memory chips double approximately every 18 months. Gordon E. Moore pred

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Date:

05/29/2015

Designing for optimum power conversion

Tobias Gerber, Infineon Technologies

Today’s power conversion and power management applications demand compact yet robust power switching circuitry that supports high-voltage, high-frequency operation with the minimum of losses from the smallest possible PCB area. By definition, the choice of MOSFET technology has a significant impact on how su

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Date:

05/29/2015

Western Power Distribution case study

Ben Godfrey, WPD

New carbon emission targets are driving significant changes around how electricity is generated, transported and consumed in the United Kingdom. With the increase in small-scale generation technology onto the network, DNO's are met with great challenges to facilitate a future low carbon network. As one of sev

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Date:

05/28/2015

Designing efficient energy systems

Tom Colella, Electrocube

We thought it would be helpful to assemble a top five list of the most common mistakes or “don’ts” that occur during the design of efficient power systems – and how to avoid them. This information comes from our observations and yes, some of our own experiences during Electrocube’s 50-plus years in th

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Date:

05/28/2015

Boost system performance with the right DC/DC converter

Meng He, Maxim Integrated

Did you know that every 10°C rise in ambient temperature reduces every component’s lifetime by 50%? That power supplies with drop-offs or variances can lead to premature failures and even completely fried parts in your system? Indeed, most agree that power-intensive applications need, and really must have, lo

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Date:

05/28/2015

Digital power system management

Tony Armstrong, Linear Technology

System architects of embedded systems, networking, and datacom equipment are constantly being pushed to increase the data throughput and performance of their systems as well as add functionality and features. At the same time, pressure is being applied to decrease the system’s overall power consumption. For ex

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Date:

05/28/2015

Energy management smartens up

Mike Ballard, Oracle EMEA

There is near-consensus in the UK that smart grids and smart meters will substantially advance the way energy networks operate in the coming years. According to a recent report, more than two-thirds of utilities executives expect the benefits of the smart grid to actually be greater than the industry’s original ex

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Date:

05/28/2015