Power electronics professionals are constantly pushing for designs that are smaller, cheaper and more energy efficient. This year's Power Electronics Technology Exhibition & Conference will provide the tools you need to optimize every element of the design process.
From the large number of technical sessions focused on practical design solutions to the full contingent of suppliers who will be demonstrating their latest innovations and answering questions, organizers of the show have big plans for Dallas, Oct. 28-Nov. 1.
General Session and Keynote Speakers
On Tuesday, Oct. 30, from 9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m., Roger Tipley, senior technologist/engineering strategist with HP and a board member of The Green Grid, will present his keynote address on “Opportunities for Energy-Efficiency Innovation in the Power Electronics Industry.” Tipley will provide an overview of The Green Grid, a global consortium of companies dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and computing ecosystems. Attendees will hear about opportunities to improve efficiency throughout the supply chain of energy.
Immediately following the keynote address, Power Electronics Technology editors will present the magazine's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award to Ed Bloom for his extensive record of innovation in magnetics design and for championing power electronics education (see page 44 for more on Bloom). Editors also will bestow the highly regarded Product of the Year award to one company. This distinction recognizes a single outstanding product that has significantly advanced the state of the power electronics art.
On Wednesday, Oct. 31, from 9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m., Thomas Valliere, vice president and cofounder of Design Chain Associates, will present the General Session, an “Update on China RoHS.” He will compare the European Union's RoHS directives with China's.
Leading-Edge Education
Power Electronics Technology editors Ashok Bindra and David Morrison directed the content for this year's conference, selecting courses, seminars, papers and keynote presentations to bring designers up to speed on the latest developments in the power electronics field. This year's technical paper sessions should entice designers with new session topics and an attendee-friendly schedule. (See pages 52-53 for the schedule of presentations.)
The conference will kick off on Sunday, Oct. 28 with a two-day educational program offering engineers a variety of full-day or half-day professional advancement courses (PACs) focused on specific aspects of power electronics design. These courses will provide intense training in numerous topics such as control techniques for power supplies and motor drives, power device selection, magnetics design and thermal management.
Other PAC topics include modeling/simulation, pc-board layout and design for reliability. Power-supply designers contemplating a move to digital control may want to attend the session on digital power conversion (PAC 06), while those interested in low-power applications may find the new session on energy harvesting (PAC 11) to be beneficial.
On Tuesday, Oct. 30, three days of technical sessions and seminars will begin. The schedule for this year's technical sessions and seminars has been completely reformatted for the convenience of attendees. The schedule is now organized along five tracks: Design Techniques I and II, Components, New Applications and Innovative Applications. This track-based schedule will help attendees to participate in more of the sessions that interest them by avoiding scheduling conflicts for papers in related subject areas.
The New Applications track features first-time sessions on timely topics such as emerging applications, power management for alternative energy, supercapacitors/ultracapacitors and LED lighting. Although only one session bears the title “emerging,” this label truly applies to all of the sessions in this track with its numerous papers discussing power conversion requirements, component technologies and design methods for powering new applications.
Meanwhile, the track on Innovative Applications presents papers in two established but growing application areas: medical power supplies and automotive applications. Because of the highly competitive nature of these applications, power system design information can be difficult to come by, making the papers in these sessions all the more compelling. This track also includes a session on market trends, which presents data on application-related trends that are shaping power component and power system development.
In parallel with the application tracks are the two tracks on Design Techniques and Components that address control techniques, circuits, system architectures, simulation and motor drives, with numerous papers discussing advances in these areas. A highlight of Design Techniques I is the timely session on digital power conversion, while those who attend Design Techniques II get a double dose of magnetics with two paper sessions devoted to magnetics design.
Those looking for compelling advances in component technology may be drawn to the Components track with its papers on power semiconductors and sessions devoted to thermal management design, power modules and portable power management.
Activity-Packed Exhibit Hall
The exhibit hall will offer a wealth of information. With nearly 80 exhibitors signed up, this is a unique opportunity to see and touch products first hand and ask the complex questions you're not going to get answers to from catalogs or advertisements.
In addition to talking face to face with exhibitors, attendees won't want to miss the informative supplier presentations and Ask the Expert sessions that will be held in the Product Solutions Theater inside the exhibit hall. Attendees also can get an up-close look at the new Vibration Energy Harvester by Ferro Solutions and learn about power management solutions in mobile phones from Freescale Semiconductor in these and other exciting product teardowns.
With so much to see and do, plan now to join your colleagues at the Power Electronics Technology Exhibition & Conference for the most idea-filled days of the year. For complete conference information or to register, visit www.powerelectronics.com.
“High-Frequency Conductor Losses in Switch-Mode Magnetics”
“Advanced Thermal Management Materials”
“Expert Magnetics Design Using Normalized Methods”
“GBT Module Selection for Design Engineers”
“Universal Methods of Analyzing and Designing Feedback Regulated DC-DC Switching Power Converters”
“Digital Power Conversion Simplified”
“Power Inductor Selection for DC-DC Converters”
“Control Design of PWM Converters: From Analog to Digital”
“Switch-Mode Design and Layout Techniques for Low EMI”
“Worst-Case Analysis of Power Conversion Circuits”
“Energy-Harvesting Technologies and Applications for Vibration Energy Harvesters”
“ABC of Transformers”
“New Technologies in Motor Control and Drives”
“Power Conversion Reliability”
“Switch-Mode Power-Supply Simulation with Switcher CAD III/LTspice”
“Synchronous Rectification Technique: Classification, Review, Comparison”
“Test and Measurement Solutions for Power Design and Analysis”
“Increasing Transformer Power Density Through Thermal Management”
“ESBT Technology to Boost Up Solar Converter Efficiency”
“ZigBee Technology for Energy Management and Efficiency”
“Control by Emulation: APF Borderline Controller Example”
“Analysis and Design of High-Frequency DC-DC Converters with Time Delay Considered”
“Multi-Loop Gain Relationships”
“Electronically Controlled Capacitor Fed Three-Phase Induction Motor Operating from Single-Phase Supply”
“New Generation Intermediate Bus Converter”
“The Challenge of Multi-kW DC-DC Converter with Low Input Voltage Design Considerations”
“Current-Sharing / Voltage-Distribution Control for Interconnected DC-DC Converters”
“Integration, Scalability and Digital Interface Reshape Power Electronics Landscape”
“Selecting the MOSFETs for Power Conversion”
“Silicon-Carbide Schottky-like Performance from Silicon”
“World's Smallest 500-V 1-A Three-Phase Motor Drive IC”
“Polymer Film Versus Ceramic Capacitors at Cold Temperature and Under AC-DC Voltage in Mission-Critical Applications”
“Powering the Next Generation of AMD Opteron Processors”
“Current Sharing Approaches to Meet High-Power PoE Requirements”
“Wide VIN Range Power- Supply Design for Power- over-Ethernet plus Auxiliary Inputs”
“Powering Next-Generation CMOS Loads”
“The Trend of Power-Supply Technology and Power-Management IC Solutions”
“Demystifying Global Customer Relationship Management”
“Energy-Efficiency Issues Drive Power-Management IC Growth”
“Design Considerations in Using the Inverter Gate Driver Optocouplers for Variable-Speed Motor Drives”
“Understanding & Applying Current-Mode Control Theory for Practical Design”
“Linear Superposition and the True Meaning of ΘJA”
“Digital Signal Controllers Improve Efficiency for Solar-Power Inverters”
“Rapid Design Kits for Three-Phase Motor Drives”
“Smart-Motor Power Electronics: Choices and Options”
“Novel System Design for Drive, Commutation and Magnetics: Reduces Cost, Size and Weight”
“Closed-Loop Current-Sensing Systems with Magnetic Field Probe Incorporating a New Signal-Conditioning IC”
“400-Vdc Power Solutions for Data Centers”
“Fast External Control Loop Enables sub 10-ms Response for 28 VIN LASER Diode Applications”
“Novel Power-Supply Topology for Very-High-Voltage Flyback Power Supply”
“Combining the ‘Good’ Characteristics of Linear Regulators with High Efficiency of Switching Regulators”
“Expanding the Limits of Air-Cooled Power Converters”
“Advances in Heatsink Design”
“Using Simulation to Estimate MOSFET Junction Temperature in a Circuit Application”
“Meeting the Power-Density Challenge with Advanced Liquid Flow-Thru Cooling”
“Super-Capacitor Power Storage”
“Requirements for a DC-DC Converter Buffered Ultracapacitor in Active Parallel Combination with an Advanced Battery”
“Storing Power with Super Capacitors”
“Parameter Extraction for Ultracapacitor High Modules”
“Novel Power-Supply Topology for Very-High-Voltage Flyback Power Supply”
“Are All Medical Power Supplies the Same?”
“Battery Systems for Medical-Grade Portable Devices”
“Transformer Design for Charging Defibrillator Capacitors”
“The Importance of the Correct Model for the Error Amplifier in Power-Supply Design”
“Using SPICE as a Tool to Analyze, Understand and Reduce SMPS Emissions”
“Efficient Power-Supply Design Using Simplorer/PExprt”
“EMI Filters Improved by Common-Mode Chokes Based on Nanocrystalline Core”
“Novel Method of Reducing Radiated EMI in Half- and Full-Bridge Converters”
“New Power Ferrite for Low Losses and Optimal Performance Over a Wide Temperature Range”
“The New IGBT-PIM with the 6th-Generation Chip and Package Technologies”
“New Re-Configurable IGBT Package Based on Standard Platform”
“Performance, Power and Efficiency: A Comparison of Modular Versus Discrete Approaches for DC-DC Converters”
“Novel Current Sensor for Switched Power Applications”
“An Accurate Maximum Power Point Tracking Scheme for Small Scale PV Systems”
“Modular Battery System for Solar Applications”
“Computational Modeling and Polarization Characteristics of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell with Evaluation of the Interface Systems”
“New Product Developments for Vibration Energy Harvesters”
“State-of-Charge (SoC) and State-of-Health (SoH) Modeling of Automotive Battery”
“Designing 42/14-V Buck Converter for Automotive Bus Architecture”
“Analysis of Automotive Power Inverter Using PSPICE Simulation”
“Comparison Study of DC-DC Solutions for Universal Car Adapter”
“Unique Trades for a Unique Product in Digital Power”
“Coping with Complexity: The Case for Digital Power Management”
“Using Algorithms to Control DC-DC Converter”
“Emerging Challenges in Designing Power Converters with Digital Signal Controllers”
“Selection Criteria of Ferrite Materials for Power Applications”
“Cube Inductor Meets Energy Star Challenges in CPU Applications”
“Practical Testing of Ferrite Cores”
“Specify Saturation Properties of Ferrite Cores to Prevent Field Failures”
“Charging Innovations: The Features of Microcontroller-Based Chargers”
“Safe and Fast Battery-Charging System”
“Small and Thin Micro DC-DC Converter Achieved with Advanced Module Technology”
“Innovative Switching Regulator Modules for Battery-Powered Applications”
“Driving High-Brightness LEDs for Illumination”
“Design Considerations for Powering High-Brightness LEDs”
“Investigation of Alternative Dimming Techniques for High-Current LEDs”
“An Advanced, Compact and Efficient LED Driving Solution for Backlight of Medium-Size LCD Panels”