Technical Features

May 2013
New Rad Hard MOSFET Technology Drives Higher Power Efficiency and Reliability in Space

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Figure 1: Half-cell diagrams of the N-Channel SJMOSFET (a) and N-Channel VDMOSFET (b)

­When designing a robust and high-density power architecture for space systems like satellites, engineers must grapple with a variety of design complexities, including limited board space, power dissipation requirements, and damaging radiation effects. To address these challenges and reach peak operational per
Date:
02/28/2025
Automotive Forward Lighting Applications Demand  High Performance LED Drivers

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Figure 1. 2013 Honda Accord Touring/Hybrid LED DRL & Headlamp

The market size for high brightness (HB) LEDs is expected to reach $12 billion in 2012 and grow to $20.2 billion by 2015 with a 30.6% CAGR ramp (source: Strategies Unlimited). One of the key application
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Date:
05/21/2013
The no-load power crunch: 30 mW and beyond

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Figure 1. DOE proposed regulations vs. Level V performance for a 5V output EPS.

The need to reduce active-mode power consumption is somewhat obvious. What has not been so obvious is the need to minimize power drain in standby and no-load when products are essentially doing nothing.
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Date:
05/20/2013
USB power sensors in RF power measurement
In many of today's RF power measurement applications there is a need to make multiple power measurements simultaneously. Added complexities occur when the measurements need to be obtained from places
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Date:
05/20/2013
Advanced LED Drivers for Automotive Instrument Clusters
The usage of LEDs in automotive applications continues to grow due to their longer service life and lower power consumption. Simultaneously, the diversity and size of integrated state-of-the-art instrument
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Date:
05/17/2013
Integrated power management enables smaller machine vision systems
As the form factor of machine vision systems continues to get smaller while the processing power in these systems continues to increase rapidly. Power management is becoming a more important design
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Date:
05/17/2013
Wireless systems for Internet control of smart lighting
Electric lighting has been around since the first commercial incandescent lamps were sold in 1880. Since then, we have seen little widely adopted innovation - the introduction of the fluorescent in
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Date:
05/17/2013
Migrating from power-centric to space-sensing daylighting systems

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Figure 1: Daylight harvesting energy savings

Incumbent lighting installations today fail to address the most important energy saving "feature" a lighting system can implement, namely maintaining a user-defined amount of light that considers
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Date:
05/17/2013
Improving the reliability of MR16 LED lamps

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Figure 1. Forward operating mode of SBR structure

With their attractive low forward voltage drop and significant cost advantage, it's no surprise that Schottky diodes have become a defacto standard for AC bridge rectification in a myriad of different
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Date:
05/17/2013
Automobile lighting in the face of things to come
Going from lanterns to LEDs, in a nutshell, describes the course of development in automotive lighting since cars first came on the scene 100 years ago. What originally served only a functional purpose
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Date:
05/16/2013
Lighting Control - How much do you need?
Lighting controls are becoming ever more sophisticated with the capability to provide real-time data on system status, settings, light levels, energy consumption, etc. For some applications this level
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Date:
05/16/2013
Improving Appliance Safety: Designing for Protection
When it comes to home appliances, the overwhelming focus tends to be on advanced features and functionality. Nevertheless, design choices that enhance user safety and overcome possible malfunctions
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Date:
05/14/2013
What's shrinking AC-DC power supplies?
Power supply design trends are clear and dramatic: additional features, improved efficiency, and smaller size for the same power ratings, for both battery-powered portable units as well as larger,
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Date:
05/08/2013
Elegant step-down conversion for 24V industrial applications
Industrial power supplies need to have very high efficiency today and often times need to be highly compact. In combination with the typical 24V rail available, many solutions utilize a switching
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Date:
05/07/2013
Power interface module selection
A comparison of alternative on-board power solutions is rarely at the top of the agenda for a board designer. Often designers will use a previous solution because all available resources and time
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Date:
04/30/2013
Considering that almost 60 percent of total electric energy produced worldwide is used to run motors of every size, shape and efficiency, the adoption of variable speed drives can save as much as 70 percent of energy costs by controlling the speed of the load. New energy efficiency standards for compressors an
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Date:
04/15/2013
Many high power systems require the use of a hot-swap device to safely control of the inrush currents at powerup and provide fault protection. These circuits are commonly found in systems such as servers, network switches, redundant-array-of-independent-disk (RAID) storage, and other forms of communications infrastru
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Date:
04/15/2013
Using Uninterruptible Power Supplies in harsh environments

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When used in a controlled temperature environment ranging from 0?C to 40?C (32?F to 104?F) any domestically available on-line UPS should meet the requirement, as most have been tested and approved
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Date:
03/12/2013
eGaN FETs improve performance in industrial POL converters

Figure 1: Conventional vertical power loop PCB layout (a) Side view (b) MOSFET top view (c) eGaN FET top view

Designers of point of load (POL) converters used in 24 VDC systems traditionally have had to decide between the high cost of an isolated converter and the low frequency and efficiency of a buck
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Date:
03/12/2013
Manufacturers are increasingly focusing their efforts on energy conservation. This trend is reflected in the growing emphasis on both renewable energy and energy efficiency measures to reduce the
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Date:
03/12/2013
Measuring and sourcing DC transients and other DC test conditions

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1. Biasing with a static DC voltage and measuring current: This is the most basic application of DC power related bench instruments. Any power supply, so long as it has the right voltage and current
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Date:
03/09/2013
The power-semiconductor switches used in power supplies and inverters are based on two technologies, namely MOSFETs and IGBTs. MOSFETs can operate at relatively high switching frequencies significantly above 30 kHz but, unlike IGBTs, they have a very large chip surface area. A new generation of IGBT modules f
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Date:
02/15/2013
Measuring wireless-power charging systems for portable electronics

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Figure 1: Qi wireless-charging system simplified block diagram

Mobile electronics can be found everywhere—homes, hospitals, schools, purses, and pockets. With the explosion in portability, consumers have come to expect and demand long battery life. Energy-efficient
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Date:
02/13/2013
Hall-effect sensors deliver higher efficiency in brushless-DC motors

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Figure 1: Hall-effect sensors can mount in three locations: inside the motor, at the end of the motor's shaft, and around the rotor shaft's ring magnet.

As energy efficiency and cost savings become the biggest drivers in the design of electronic equipment, BLDC (brushless-DC) motor manufacturers must adapt to these new requirements, and deliver motors
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Date:
02/13/2013
Increasing efficiency in LED streetlight power supplies

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Figure 1: Shoot through due to drive-signal timing mismatch

Solid-state exterior lighting requires a regulated AC to DC power supply to drive LED loads which can vary in size from 1 W to over 500 W. To ensure a good return on investment, these power converters
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Date:
02/13/2013
Extend battery life with auxiliary charge-pump circuits

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Figure 1: Low-cost power supply providing a regulated 1.8 V and 2.5 V using a step-down converter and auxiliary charge pump

In many low-power battery-powered applications, cost is king. If the cost to produce a device is above a certain threshold, determined by the device's functionality and the market, that device simply
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Date:
02/13/2013
Two methods for increasing AC-distribution efficiency

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Figure 1: Transformers that utilize the auto-zigzag construction can perform the delta to wye transformation without the efficiency loss of an isolation transformer.

The most common options for increasing data-center energy efficiency, including elimination of the PDU (power-distribution unit) and converting to DC power, require disruptive, expensive, and time-consuming
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Date:
02/13/2013
Smart and efficient cities

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Figure 1: The SignalGuru application from MIT and Princeton, saves drivers an average of 20% fuel costs compared to those that had to stop at traffic lights.

A city by its very nature tends towards chaos. As the population of the world continues to grow, so does the population living in urban areas. The need to maintain all of the essential services
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Date:
02/13/2013
Flash corruption: software bug or supply-voltage fault?

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Figure 1: Typical CPU section and firmware memory map

Embedded systems commonly use Flash memory to store firmware. Occasionally, the firmware stored in the Flash memory in some systems is accidentally corrupted, preventing the system from booting up
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Date:
01/27/2013
Convert a buck regulator into a high-current LED driver

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Figure 1: Projected relative cost of LED Luminaire and percentage due to the cost of LEDs (Source: DOE SSL 2011 Manufacturing Roadmap)

LEDs promise to change the world, and few doubt that they will. However, a key limiter to more rapid adoption is the cost of the LEDs themselves. The cost breakdown of LED luminaires varies, but it
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Date:
01/26/2013
90-W plug-n-play Power over Ethernet over 100-m CAT-5e cable

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Figure 1: A typical PoE system

PoE (Power over Ethernet) has been increasing in popularity due to its flexible and cost-effective method of delivering both power and data over a single Ethernet cable. This allows equipment to be
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Date:
01/21/2013
Five considerations for deploying Ethernet in wind farms

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Figure 1: A network topology for wind-farm applications makes use of redundant devices and cabling to maximize system uptime and minimize the operational consequences of single points of failure.

Data is a key element to the successful operation of a wind farm. Real-time data access allows operators to monitor wind turbine uptime, performance, and power output—even from remote locations. This
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Date:
01/21/2013
Modeling and simulation for wind and solar energy

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Figure 1: Shading and current distribution inside the solar module

The market for green and renewable energy is growing, but also presents numerous new challenges when it comes to technology, environment, and acceptance. Concerning technology, these challenges require
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Date:
01/20/2013
Such a dense power grid however may not be as vulnerable to power outages as some experts fear. One might assume that it is much harder to synchronize the many generators and machines of consumers,
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Date:
01/20/2013
The smart grid surrounds us these days. In the U.S., approximately 36 million smart electricity meters have deployed since 2007 (reference 1). In Europe, both Italy and Sweden have each achieved complete
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Date:
01/19/2013
Renewable energy prices; weather driven and volatile

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Figure 1: Wholesale energy prices will be increasingly driven by the weather.

Pöyry Management Consulting has conducted a series of studies over the last two years to investigate how European energy markets would need to evolve in the face of the radical changes expected from
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Date:
01/19/2013
Optimizing output noise through low-noise power design

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Figure 1: Micrel's MIC94300 integrated design reduces the combined footprint of filter and load switch by as much as 65%.

The proliferation of portable connectivity devices over the last decade has seen most of us become more reliant on technology than ever before. At home and at work, as we embrace technology, we demand
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Date:
01/09/2013
Active network management offered as grid panacea

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Figure 1: Active Network Management creates a new layer of grid management.

The power industry faces some significant future challenges: to create a more visible and controllable electricity grid to deliver power more reliably, efficiently, and cost effectively and find smarter
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Date:
01/09/2013
Properly implemented, galvanic isolation is an effective defense against disturbances in the ground plane often referred to as ground loops, which occur as a result of varying electrical potentials. Physical limitations require that electrical components on a PCB connect to the ground plane at different physical
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Date:
01/03/2013
Power inductors and peak-current handling capability

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Figure 1: Inductor-current waveform

As high-tech electronic products and their power supplies continue to shrink in size, design engineers should look closely at the peak-current handling capability of power inductors. Design engineers
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Date:
12/23/2012
Thermal design considerations for thin power MOSFETs

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Figure 1: SOA (a) and ZthJC (b) charts for the BSC014N04LS

Thermal challenges accompany almost all advances in power-electronic designs. Load cases not covered under a datasheet's parameters are often particularly problematic. Each new MOSFET generation
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Date:
12/19/2012
String central inverter system

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Planners of photovoltaic power plants are no longer bound to string inverter concepts if multiple MMP(maximum power point)-trackers are required. Central inverter systems are, today, standard for
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Date:
12/18/2012
Designers of solar power—photo-voltaic or PV—generating systems face some of the same problems as their counterparts in any other power-related technology: the need to constantly improve performance, reliability, longevity, and—above all—efficiency. As with any engineering endeavour, improved performance re
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Date:
12/12/2012
Designing a DiSEqC-antenna phantom power-supply

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Figure 1: The DiSEqC application circuit

The DiSEqC (digital satellite equipment control) standard is a communication protocol developed by Eutelsat used between a satellite receiver (decoder), defined as the master, and satellite peripheral
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Date:
12/04/2012
New technology and acquisitions benefit wireless sensing

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Figure 1: Emerson Rosemount's 3051S series wireless instrumentation exemplifies the benefits WSN brings to industrial applications: It can reduce total installation costs by 45% and total deployment time by as much as 75%, eliminating design and installation time and cost associated with wiring, conduit, cable trays, and junction boxes.

Wireless sensing is the most important new technology in process measurement to appear in decades. For this reason alone, it has attracted the sustained attention of ARC Advisory Group and other industry
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Date:
11/27/2012
Making the switch to silicon carbide

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Table 1: SiC MOSFET and Si IGBT comparative specifications

To demonstrate the advantages of silicon-carbide MOSFETs versus silicon IGBTs (insulated-gate bipolar transistors) when used in high-power, high-frequency circuits, it is necessary to employ a test
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Date:
11/19/2012
Medical applications demand mixed-signal ICs for high reliability

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Table 1: The LTC2376 through 2380 pin-compatible family of differential, no-latency SAR ADCs are available in 16- and 18-bit versions.

Advances in medicine and medical treatment bring the promise of more-accurate diagnoses, new treatment methods, and more patient-friendly medical care. From high-resolution imaging systems to drug-delivery
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Date:
11/08/2012
Measure VSWR to quantify transmission-line imperfections

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Figure 1: Transmission line circuit illustrating the impedance mismatch boundary between the transmission line and the load. Reflections occur at the boundary designated by ?. The incident wave is V+ and the reflective wave is V-.

Impedance mismatches in an RF transmission line causes power loss and reflected energy. The VSWR (voltage standing-wave ratio) is a way to measure transmission line imperfections. In an RF electrical
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Date:
11/07/2012
Designing with digital power for optimum system performance

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Figure 1: Optimising transient response parameters via a digital-power GUI.

Digital power has emerged to satisfy the need for power supplies capable of handling the complex and rapidly changing power demands of high-performance computing subsystems. These include equipment
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Date:
11/01/2012
Enhancing medical-product usability with IEC 62366

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Figure 1: General usability-engineering design cycle

Manufacturers are required by the 3rd edition of IEC 60601-1 to avert the poor usability risks involved in identification, marking, and documents, which can be achieved by an "application of usability
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Date:
10/30/2012
Power management of an artificial hand

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Figure 1: Southampton hands. Across each palm can be seen a dc motor with a worm and wheel to rotate the thumb. Five other motors flex and extend the fingers and thumb. The fingertips have touch (force), slip/texture, and temperature sensors.

For an upper extremity amputee, mass is a main factor when choosing an artificial hand. A hand should be lightweight so that high pressure points do not develop inside the plastic socket that attaches
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Date:
10/25/2012
Optimize data rates in isolated SPI buses

Figure 1: The 8-bit data registers in the SPI Master and Slave devices link through the MISO and MOSI signals to form a 16-bit control register. (Click image to enlarge.)

The simple SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) bus is a popular serial interface commonly employed in automotive, industrial-control, and communication applications. To provide isolation and minimize
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Date:
10/21/2012
Reliability of copper wire bonding for power devices

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Table 1: Process-control measures

Though copper wire bonding developed nearly 30 years ago, it has only recently gained in popularity due to the rapid increase in the price of gold, which is now about 7,000 times that of copper (Reference
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Date:
10/19/2012
The 60-W TV

Figure 1: The local-dimming function saves 10 to 20% of power on edge-lit systems (left) and 20 to 30% of power on direct back-lit TVs (right).

TVs in households are regular companions for many people around the world. It is common that people have the TV on in a living room while preparing a meal in the kitchen. In many cases, the TV is
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Date:
10/18/2012
Reducing standby power consumption for LED Lighting
LEDs provide high-efficiency, environment-friendly characteristics, and a long life compared to conventional lighting sources. Therefore, they are becoming a primary light-source choice to reduce
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Date:
10/16/2012
Integrated Current Sensing
Competitive markets put pressure on OEMs to improve energy efficiency in their product designs. Accordingly, it is important to be able to monitor accurately currents through critical paths
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Date:
09/21/2012
Performance vs power in off-chip DDR SDRAM

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Figure 1: Relative active power

To deliver new features and higher performance in consumer-electronic products, SoC developers constantly look to integrate more functionality into their designs. SoCs with more features
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Date:
09/12/2012
How high-TJ TRIACs benefit your applications

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Figure 1a: Two TRIACs operating near their Tj(max): The BTB16-600CW standard TRIAC (a) and the T1635H-6T high-temperature TRIAC (b).

High-temperature TRIACs present several benefits particularly useful in applications demanding high current density or imposing high-temperature environments. These applications include
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Date:
09/12/2012
IEC 61850 increases grid reliability

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Figure 1: Redundant 8.46 kV lines power an industrial customer's facility.

A power industry consultant recently asked for assistance solving a reliability problem for a municipal utility. The utility had recently experienced disturbances on its system, negatively
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Date:
09/10/2012
Test today your PV inverter for tomorrow

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Figure 1: Micro-inverters convert direct current from individual solar panels into alternating current for the electric grid.

An increasing number of DERs (distributed energy resources), which include storage systems, are connecting to the grid by means of inverters. This is already evident in countries with dedicated
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Date:
09/10/2012
Securing the life cycle in the smart grid

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Figure 1: A conscientious life-cycle design will consider threats at every step of product development and manufacturing.

Investment in smart meters and smart-grid end equipment continues to grow worldwide as countries try to make their electric delivery systems more efficient. As critical as the electric delivery
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Date:
09/07/2012
Improving electric-motor testing techniques

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Figure 1: Each stage of embedded-software validation for electric-motor simulation introduces new challenges for test engineers such as high-speed processing and high-power signals.

The growing adoption of electric motors in the automotive industry creates new challenges for embedded-control-system developers and test engineers. Control algorithms for electric-drive
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Date:
09/05/2012
New power electronics based on GaN MISHEMPTs

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Figure 1: EpiGaN deposits a unique in-situ SiN capping layer, grown by MOCVD on top of HEMT epi wafers.

GaN appears to be a highly suitable material for power switching devices operating at high frequencies without suffering major losses. The Promise of GaN This is due to the drastically
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Date:
09/04/2012
Estimating bond wire current-carrying capacity
Semiconductor manufacturers use wire bonds extensively to connect a chip's I/O pads, including power, to its package's external pins. Wire bonding processes typically use gold wire because
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Date:
08/28/2012
High-side automotive battery monitoring

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Figure 1: Functional blocks for amsï½s two-chip sensor interface for high-side automotive battery current sensing.

Manufacturers are electrifying more functions within a car, reducing the mechanical load on the internal-combustion engine. These functions include water, oil, and fuel pumps; valve actuation;
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Date:
08/28/2012
Current sensing in an automotive environment

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Figure 1: An example of a shielded air-core open-loop current sensor from Raztec provides a strong combination of high performance in a small package and at low cost.

The Automotive industry has long been the ultimate test ground for electronic components. Few terrestrial environments present such a combination of demands as does the under-hood locale
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Date:
08/28/2012
Improving engine stop-start system design

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Figure 1: Integrated gate driver with external passive components.

Automatic engine stop-start is effective in helping reduce CO2 emissions from private cars. When integrated in an otherwise conventional combustion-engine power train, engine stop-start
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Date:
08/24/2012
Non-contact driver�s ECG monitoring system

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Figure 1: Block diagram of a typical EPIC sensor

EPIC (Electric Potential Integrated Circuit) is a very-high-impedance electric-field sensor that measures the ambient electric field with minimal disturbance. EPIC sensors are suitable for
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Date:
08/19/2012
Hall effect current sensing in HEVs and EVs

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Figure 1: Typical HEV system block diagram

Consumers are embracing environmentally friendly green cars due to the rising cost of fossil fuels and a growing concern for the health of the environment. Sales forecasts predict that green
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Date:
08/19/2012
Sleeping Conserves Energy

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Figure 1: CAN network with partial-networking controllers during the transmission of a message to ECU7 (without partial-networking support)

Minimizing energy consumption has become a major factor for any new product design in recent years. Hardly any industry can afford to disregard this issue in the definition, development,
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Date:
08/19/2012
Flexible power management for complex PCBs

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Figure 1: Communication line card primary ICs and power supply requirements

The number of power supplies on a board depends on the VLSI chip complement, the communication speed between them, and the number of other devices that require unique supplies. This
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Date:
08/18/2012
Designing with low-leakage tantalum and niobium oxide capacitors
DCL (direct current leakage) is an effect common to all capacitors. DCL values and behavior under varying electrical and environmental conditions relate to the capacitor's dielectric. The leakage
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Date:
08/13/2012
Battery-charger trends in portable power products
The first trend requires increased battery capacities. Unfortunately, users are often impatient and charge systems must recharge these increased capacities in a reasonable time, which leads to
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Date:
08/09/2012
Safety and reliability in home alternative-energy systems

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Figure 1: A typical AES design includes power sources sharing a common high-voltage DC Link, an inverter for generating AC, and a system controller ensuring coordinated operation.

Solar- and wind-power-based home AESs (alternative energy systems) are becoming more popular among consumers. To achieve the product lifetime that consumers demand and ensure user safety,
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Date:
07/25/2012
Consumer-Friendly Power Design

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Figure 1: Step-down converter efficiency used to power the main processor in a set top box

The intricacies of power design are not conversation pieces for electronic-product consumers. Nor should they be. Consumers care about visible signs of power design in the product, including the
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Date:
07/24/2012
Improving battery-fuel-gauge accuracy

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Figure 1: The principle of fuel gauging based on coulomb counting: The stored energy represents state of charge. A circuit measures the in- and out-flowing current.

For simplicity, you can imagine the battery as an energy storage device analogous to a fuel tank. However, measuring stored energy from an electrochemical device is far more complex than that comparison
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Date:
07/20/2012
Input-line-current synthesis in PFC control

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Figure 1: Converter input power vs. line current with a symmetric conduction angle, constant current peak and resistive load.

Traditionally, PFC (power-factor-correction) controls present a purely resistive behavior with respect to the power line. By means of multiplier or equivalent blocks, front-end converters draw
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Date:
07/13/2012
Smart Activation circuit protection in li-ion battery applications

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Figure 1: The activation steps of the MHP device

Li-ion technology with smaller, lighter-weight, and higher-power batteries is now replacing nickel-cadmium or lead-acid batteries in high-discharge-rate battery applications. Meanwhile,
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Date:
07/09/2012
Reduce stand-by power loss in ACDC supplies
Over the past decade, controller-IC manufacturers have worked to reduce so-called vampire or stand-by power consumption. Organizations such as Energy Star in the US, Blue Angel in Germany, and CNIS
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Date:
07/01/2012
Next-generation commercial building network-connected lighting systems

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Figure 1: Lighting controls for next generation lighting.

A significant percentage of a building's energy consumption is due to its lighting. Historically, lighting was a coarsely controlled power load, managed manually with a simple on-off switch. With
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Date:
05/21/2012
What to expect from your LED driver

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Figure 1: Incandescent light bulbs (blue curves) are purely resistive, LEDs (red curves) are not.

LEDs are gaining significant traction in the lighting market due to their long operating lifetime, low running cost, and ease of control for specific applications. However, in order to realize
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Date:
05/20/2012
LED-driver ICs lead to a broad spectrum of lighting

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Figure 1: The LT3791 Driving a 3 A LED Array at up to 100 W

Incandescent light bulbs waste 90% of the energy they consume in the form of heat. The light outputs from HB (high-brightness) LEDs have already exceeded the critical milestone of 100 lm/W. In fact,
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Date:
05/20/2012
Smart and simple sensor interfaces

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Figure 1: Modern robotic systems featuring sophisticated multi-axis arms are adding to factory productivity and safety. Simply picking up an object can require several sensors.

Automation is providing improvements in safety, accuracy, and convenience for many everyday applications. Consider the precision and advantages of computer-assisted surgery or the array of automation
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Date:
05/20/2012
High-power LED-lighting drivers

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Figure 1: Resonant driver for high-power LED-lighting applications.

Solid-state lighting applications such as streetlights and industrial lighting demand drivers that offer better efficiency than the traditional flyback topology in the 50—250 W power range. As
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Date:
05/19/2012
Flicker and dimmer challenges in LED-lamp design

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Figure 1: One-Stage Approach: The driver converts an AC-rectified line voltage to the necessary DC current through a flyback transformer and filter. Unfortunately, the rectified voltage contains ripple at twice the line frequency (100 or 120 Hz).

The SSL (solid-state lighting) industry is in a state of excitement mixed with trepidation. With the obvious need for lighting more efficient than traditional incandescents, key market drivers
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Date:
05/19/2012
Closed-loop voltage scaling

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Figure 1: Development of CNA ASICs

For some designs, reducing circuit-board power dissipation by 25% to 30% would just be a nice outcome. For other designs, it's an absolute necessity. Designers of products using the latest high-performance
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Date:
05/19/2012
MCU with FPU allows advanced Motor Control Solutions

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Table 1: Test comparison for PI Loops

Motor control algorithms for efficient motors often employ vector and sensorless vector control involving complex transformations and control loops for speed and position. Industrial applications
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Date:
04/24/2012
The Status of GaN based Power Device Development at International Rectifier

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Figure 1 : Measured efficiency of a high frequency 12 Vin to POL buck converter, including output filter losses, using low voltage GaN based power devices.

There are relatively few opportunities in one's career to participate in the development of a truly revolutionary technology in a chosen field. The past 8 years have been such an opportunity
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Date:
04/15/2012
Setting New Efficiency Benchmarks for Next Generation Motor Control Applications

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Figure 1: AMIS-30522 Functional Block Diagram

Electric motors are continuing to evolve, as market requirements grow for more compact, higher performance solutions which exhibit greater resilience to the often harsh environmental settings in
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Date:
04/15/2012
Sensors, Smart Sensors and Sensor Control Electronics

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Figure 1. Block Diagram of the ISL29028A ambient light and proximity sensor

For safety, accuracy and convenience, automation is providing improvements in everyday applications. Consider the precision and advantages of computer-assisted surgery or the array of automation
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Date:
04/15/2012
Easy to use Digital PFC

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Figure 1: Different PFC circuits

Many AC powered systems above a certain power consumption level require power factor correction (PFC). This is demanded by either utility companies or by governments. PFC sits right at the
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Date:
04/15/2012
Industrial Control

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Figure 1: Example PLD, with 12 inputs, 8 product terms and 4 macrocells
PLDs can have hundreds of macrocells with up to 16 product terms driving each macrocell. The AND and OR gates within the product terms can be interconnected to form highly flexible custom logic functions. The macrocells are typically clocked, and their outputs can be fed back into the product term array. This allows state machines to be created.

In most microcontroller architectures, there is a ‘smart' CPU surrounded by a set of relatively ‘dumb' peripherals. Peripherals have limited functions; converting data from one form to
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Date:
04/15/2012
Saving Power Using Closed Loop Voltage Scaling Control

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Figure 1 - Development of Converged Network Adapter ASICs

Wouldn't it be nice to save 25% to 30%, or even more, in circuit board power dissipation in your next design? While for some designs such a savings would just be nice to have, for others it's
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Date:
04/10/2012
Enabling More Effective Battery Charging Over USB Interconnects

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Figure 1: Difference between a DCP and SDP

Developed in the mid 1990s, USB has gone on to become the most widely used data interface on the planet. Its huge popularity has certain additional upshots which are also now being realised. Market
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Date:
04/06/2012
Efficient Boost Conversion

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Figure 1: Typical application circuit, using 2 AA batteries and a regulator IC, the AS1337, to produce a 3.3V output

Small, battery-powered medical analysis equipment presents a challenge to the power circuit designer. In meeting this challenge an understanding of the way boost conversion is implemented
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Date:
04/04/2012
Flyback Controller Incorporates Active PFC into a Single Stage Converter

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Table 1. IEC 61000-3-2 Classifications

Any power system operating from the AC mains has an associated power factor defined as the way it draws current from the source. The power factor of an AC electric power system is defined as the ratio
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Date:
03/26/2012
Understanding Common-Mode Noise in Low-Power Offline Supplies

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Figure 1. A flyback converter's main common-mode noise sources and transfer paths.

Yet the ruggedness of the underlying technology makes the core designs attractive to a much wider audience, such as industrial users who need low-power supplies for DIN-rail and similar equipment.
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Date:
03/16/2012
Inverter Efficiency

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At least two power reactors are needed for solar inverters: one in the boost converter (step-up chopper) and one at the ouput of the inverter for EMC filtering. Besides the IGBTs, the losses in the reactors are a major determining factor of the overall efficiency of the inverter

Low-loss and high saturation flux density core materials in reactors and transformers are a key determining factor for the efficiency of inverters. The new TDK PE90 ferrite is a cutting-edge
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Date:
03/06/2012
Efficient Power Protection

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Figure 1: NetRiver desired a solution capable of easily scaling to match its unpredictable future growth.

NetRiver, the leading provider of collocation and interconnection services in the state of Washington, has been making data center managers green with envy — racking up hefty utility rebates, generating
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Date:
03/06/2012
Wiring for Safety and Efficiency
This article describes a unique spacer cable system designed to power an industrial renewable energy plant pipeline. When the L'Anse Warden Electric Company in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
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Date:
03/06/2012
Multiphase DC/DC Converters

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Figure 1: High output current 1.5V/50A application schematic

The data centers' incremental overhead power consumption, due to inefficiencies and cooling systems is estimated to be equal to the amount of power that is consumed by servers, storage and networking. The
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Date:
03/06/2012
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