Notable & Newsworthy
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Jason Lomberg, North America Editor, PSD
Welcome to the July issue!
This month, we celebrate the semiquincentennial of a very special little experiment that most of us call home. She may not be perfect (who is?), but she’s afforded me and countless others a wealth of opportunities over 2 ½ centuries, and I consider myself extraordinarily fortunate
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Date:
07/01/2026
Ally Winning, European Editor, PSD
Welcome to the July edition of Power Systems Design Europe. Having just returned from the PCIM exhibition in Nuremberg, it’s hard not to feel positive about the industry. I talked to well over 20 companies at the show, and almost everyone was introducing new products that gave power solutions higher performance, be
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Date:
07/01/2026
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Figure 1: A PIID acts as a permanent technical address that survives ownership transitions and software migrations, preventing the 'institutional amnesia' typical of multi-decade asset lifecycles
Picture the commissioning closeout of a new substation or combined-cycle generation facility. Thousands of engineering hours have produced relay coordination studies, protection settings files, equipment FAT reports, arc-flash analyses, and as-built one-line diagrams. That documentation is the most complete te
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Date:
07/01/2026
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Figure 1: Basic Buck Converter Circuit (SWA Is On)
This article will discuss how to optimize input filter design for application boards that contain single or multiple DC/DC converters on the same voltage bus. An optimized input filter minimizes the cost and component count while ensuring circuit stability, provides EMI compliance, and improves input voltage tra
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Date:
07/01/2026
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Figure 1: Data Center Power Distribution Architecture Evolution
The exponential growth of AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and cloud services is driving an unprecedented surge in data center power demands. Traditional 50V DC power distribution architectures, once sufficient for kilowatt-scale IT racks, are rapidly approaching physical and economic limits as AI workloads pu
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Date:
07/01/2026
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Figure 1: Unlike previous solutions, MotionMate can also be actively opened
This case study looks at how Würth Elektronik helped Powered Orthotics develop a new product to help people with limited hand function.
Through a collaboration with Mannheim-based startup Powered Orthotics, Würth Elektronik is helping to drive innovation in the health tech sector: the smart MotionMate orthosis
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Date:
07/01/2026
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Figure 1: a demonstration of how electrohydrodynamic (EHD) airflow is achieved
From smartphones and laptops to automotive infotainment and smart IoT devices, the direction of travel is consistent: more functionality, more performance, and more intelligence, delivered in smaller and thinner form factors. For design engineers, this creates a familiar but intensifying challenge, and with ea
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Date:
07/01/2026
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The pressure on industrial and medical equipment manufacturers has never been more intense. Customers demand higher uptime, leaner operating costs, and power systems that adapt to the job rather than dictating its terms. Traditional fixed-battery architectures — solid and predictable as they may be — are in
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Date:
07/01/2026
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Figure 1: Simplified three-phase flying-capacitor inverter topology
The global transition toward a decentralized renewable energy infrastructure has fundamentally changed the voltage and density requirements of utility-scale Energy Storage Systems (ESS). To reduce conduction losses, minimize cable cross-sections, and optimize structural balance-of-system (BOS) costs, modern ES
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Date:
07/01/2026
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Figure 1: Simplified BMS topology showing charge and discharge MOSFETs
While higher-voltage battery platforms improve efficiency and reduce current, they also introduce a more demanding challenge: safely managing fault energy during abnormal conditions.
External short circuits in high-voltage systems can generate extreme currents within microseconds, placing the battery managemen
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Date:
07/01/2026
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Figure 1: Simplified block diagram for the L99BM114 BMS
Humanoid robots are redefining power-density constraints. To preserve agility and reduce structural inertia, designers typically place the battery pack deep within the torso or pelvis. This compact architecture means the energy-storage system must operate inside a sealed enclosure, often alongside high-perfo
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Date:
07/01/2026
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Figure 1: Impact of capacity-mismatched cells during battery pack charging and discharging
In a BMS, multiple individual cells are typically connected in seriestoformahighvoltagebatterypack.Thishighvoltagebattery pack is the supply for various systems, including electric vehicles, high-voltage energy storage systems, and uninterruptible power supplies. In these series-connected cells, the ideal op
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Date:
07/01/2026
Kevin Parmenter, Pins Out Engineering, for TSC America, Inc.
The global batteries and energy storage device market is expanding rapidly, driven by electrification, renewable energy adoption and the proliferation of portable and connected technologies. There are roughly 360 global battery-related events each year—a volume reflecting the scale of industry attention an
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Date:
07/01/2026
Jason Lomberg, North America Editor, PSD
Singaporean-based commodities company Trafigura just signed a massive $1.1 billion, 10-year offtake agreement with US-based refiner Nth Cycle. The goal – to recover 2,000 metric tons of nickel in mixed hydroxide precipitate and 1,500 metric tons of lithium carbonate from mostly lithium-ion batteries and so
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Date:
07/01/2026
Ally Winning, European Editor, PSD
Anyone who has a Facebook account has likely come across at least one post that describes how electric vehicles are unsustainable, usually followed by a bullet list of points that are supposed to prove the argument. It has previously been difficult to find actual data to either support or counter this claim. Mo
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Date:
07/01/2026
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Figure 1: The board of an LT8640S switching regulator with closely spaced components and thus a compact board layout
This article explains the basis for achieving an optimized board layout, a critical aspect in the design of switch-mode power supplies. A good layout ensures stable functioning of the switching regulator and minimizes radiated interference as well as conducted interference (EMI). This is widely known by electronics de
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Date:
07/01/2026
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