Author:
Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD
Date
02/05/2022
PDF
If there’s any issue theme that comes closest to matching our mission statement, it’s this one. After all, our entire raison d'être is power systems, so “Power Supplies + Magnetics” fits us like a glove.
So while we all hunker down and try to avoid Omicron, let’s take a look at the visual representation of our reason for being.
Of course, since nearly everything requires a power source – underscoring our publication’s charge – there’s just about limitless directions to take this conversation, so let’s take a look at three very unique perspectives.
To start, Shane O’Connor and Kyle Moldenhauer, over at Bourns, discuss “Increasing Multi-Output Flyback Transformer Efficiencies in Power Supply Applications.”
Their piece delves into flyback transformer basics and their utility since the coupled inductor (or “flyback transformer”) is critical to meet new and updated design requirements.
The flyback topology with low circuit component count relies on the flyback transformer, and “since the magnetics are typically the largest component of the circuit, the goal is reduced size at higher operating frequency and efficiency.”
Ultimately, the authors conclude that incorporating Litz wire produced the desired results, but the sticking points are “how” and “why.”
We’ve often talked about the overwhelming amount of data in the IoT and more localized digital and analog repositories, and indeed, according to Trey Roessig with Empower Semiconductor, by 2025 the annual size of real-time data in the global ‘datasphere’ will reach a total of 51 zettabytes.
Some of this is for reasons you might imagine – 2020 and the global pandemic caused a global internet traffic uptick of 35% because of the increased consumption of video streaming, video conferencing, online gaming, and social networking. That plus the normal march of technological progress.
Supporting those increased data demands creates a need for increasingly powerful semiconductor technologies, and as Trey mentions, the challenge is “meeting both the power needs of these processor technologies and system efficiency targets that result not only from commercial pressure to keep energy costs down but from environmental targets that mandate better use of energy.”
Finally, John Quinlan BSc with Murata Power Solutions covers some nuts and bolts with “DC-DC Converter Design Basics.”
Just as nearly every device and system has power requirements, almost every electronic application incorporates DC-DC conversion in some form. It’s that universal.
While DC-DC conversion used to rely on a series pass element (transistor) with linear circuitry, tanking efficiency levels, the “practical solution to efficient DC-DC conversion is the ‘switched-mode’ technique,” says John.
The electrical, environmental, safety and physical requirements dictate the most efficient and optimized type of DC-DC converter.
Best Regards,
Jason Lomberg
North American Editor, PSD
