This Week in PowerBites: Spotlight on Packaging, Passives, and Hydrogen Power

Oct. 1, 2025

Can the “sodium gap” be closed between China and America’s efforts to produce lithium-free batteries? Will hydrogen power make EVs obsolete? Read on to find the answers, and check out the latest advanced power devices, in this edition of PowerBites.

Lee Goldberg

Related To:

Electronic Design

What you’ll learn:

A consortium of national labs and leading universities aims to accelerate the commercialization of sodium-ion batteries, which could help North America reduce its dependence on lithium, cobalt, and other imported materials.
Many semiconductor companies are turning to innovative packaging technologies to improve their power devices’ electrical and thermal performance.
A new book provides a clear-eyed analysis of the pros and cons of the hydrogen technologies being promoted as a green solution to transportation and energy storage.
A white paper from the Linux Foundation explains how open-source software architectures and design practices can accelerate the development and optimization of AI-based energy-management systems.

Technology Features

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Consortium Aims to Reduce or Eliminate Critical Materials in Batteries

An industry-government partnership aims to accelerate the commercialization of sodium-ion batteries, which could help North America end its dependence on lithium, cobalt, and ...

Everything You Wanted to Know About Hydrogen Power (But Were Afraid to Ask)

Will hydrogen-powered cars make EVs obsolete, or are H2 advocates ignoring important drawbacks with the tech? If not in EVs, can any other emerging hydrogen technologies help ...

Can Open Source Accelerate AI Innovation for Energy Systems?

A new white paper from the Linux Foundation explains how open-source software architectures and design practices can speed the development and optimization of AI-based energy-...

ProductBites

This edition of ProductBites features a bumper crop of new developments in advanced packaging and dynamic development kits, along with a garnish of “smart passives.”

Dynamic Dev Kits

A pair of newly released development kits make designing wireless-charging applications and displays for solar power systems easier than ever.

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Wireless Magnetic-Resonance Charging Dev Kit Delivers Up to 100 W

Nearly any work surface can turn into a 100-W wireless power delivery zone with Powercast’s magnetic-resonance technology.

HMI Dev Kit for Solar-Management Apps Features High-Res Display

Microchip’s display development platform is optimized for field-deployed solar-management solutions used in utility-grade operator panels, mobile maintenance kiosks, and more....

Powerful Packaging

This month, advanced packaging technologies take the lead in helping power designers achieve more compact, cooler-running applications.

TOLT Package Thermally Enhances MOSFET for E-Scooters and LEVs

Magnachip’s TOLT-packaged 80-V MOSFET helps improve thermal management and power efficiency for motor-control systems in e-scooters and light electric vehicles.

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Rugged BJTs Use Clip-Bonded Packaging to Save Cost, Space

Nexperia’s clip-bonded FlatPower package offers a compact and cost-efficient option for bipolar-junction-transistor devices in industrial and automotive settings.

Thin-Film Power Inductors Aimed at High-Current Automotive Apps

TDK’s latest automotive-grade thin-film inductors offer higher rated current and lower DC resistance than conventional products.

Power MOSFET Packages Reduce Thermal Resistance and On-Resistance

The new SOP Advance(E) package from Toshiba brings lower loss and higher efficiency to industrial equipment, data centers, and communication base stations.

LRCs, Semi-Passives, and All that Jazz

Innovative inductors, smart eFuses. and virtual ideal diodes remind us that power semiconductors aren’t the only stars in the power universe.

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Shielded Power Inductor Features High Heating/Saturation Current

Bourns’ advanced power inductor design provides performance, efficiency, and safety features suited to point-of-load converters and data center environments.

Smart eFuse Protects Mission-Critical Servers and Other High-Rel Apps

Alpha and Omega’s high-performance 60-A eFuse boasts low 0.65-mΩ on-resistance plus features optimized for server power rails.

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Ideal-Diode Controllers Simplify Reverse Battery Polarity, Overvoltage Protection

Diodes Inc.’s 80-V ideal-diode controllers provide robust protection against reverse connections and voltage transients for automotive and consumer apps.

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Photo-Isolated Drivers Enhance Switching Efficiency of MOSFETs and IGBTs

The isolated IGBT/MOSFET drivers offer stable propagation delay in severe thermal environments endured by green-energy and factory-automation applications.

More PowerBites

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PowerBites explores the emergence of energy-efficient solid-state cooling technologies, a radical approach to STEM education, and a new generation of “rad-tolerant” power devices...

About the Author

Lee Goldberg | Contributing Editor

Lee Goldberg is a self-identified “Recovering Engineer,” Maker/Hacker, Green-Tech Maven, Aviator, Gadfly, and Geek Dad. He spent the first 18 years of his career helping design microprocessors, embedded systems, renewable energy applications, and the occasional interplanetary spacecraft. After trading his ‘scope and soldering iron for a keyboard and a second career as a tech journalist, he’s spent the next two decades at several print and online engineering publications.

Lee’s current focus is power electronics, especially the technologies involved with energy efficiency, energy management, and renewable energy. This dovetails with his coverage of sustainable technologies and various environmental and social issues within the engineering community that he began in 1996. Lee also covers 3D printers, open-source hardware, and other Maker/Hacker technologies.

Lee holds a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Thomas Edison College, and participated in a colloquium on technology, society, and the environment at Goddard College’s Institute for Social Ecology. His book, “Green Electronics/Green Bottom Line - A Commonsense Guide To Environmentally Responsible Engineering and Management,” was published by Newnes Press.

Lee, his wife Catherine, and his daughter Anwyn currently reside in the outskirts of Princeton N.J., where they masquerade as a typical suburban family.

Lee also writes the regular PowerBites series.