The Utilized Energy Electronics Convention (APEC) has all the time and can proceed to be a technical convention and exhibition highlighting the foremost developments in energy electronics know-how. However equally essential, the convention additionally look at associated infrastructure points associated to energy electronics manufacturing and commercialization, as is the case with this 12 months’s various array of plenary and different technical and business periods.
APEC this 12 months strikes to Orlando, FL, happening on the Orange County Conference Middle, March 19 via 23. Schooling seminars begin Sunday, with the plenary periods kicking off Monday afternoon. APEC’s technical and business periods happen Tuesday via Thursday, whereas the displays that includes merchandise and applied sciences are open Tuesday and Wednesday.
Battery Recycling
Indicative of the broader take a look at energy infrastructure points is the kickoff plenary session Monday at 1:30 pm, when Patrick Chapman, Vice President of Electrical Engineering at Redwood Supplies, examines the problem of recycling batteries in a session titled, “Recycling, Refining, and Remanufacturing Battery Supplies.” Chapman will talk about the challenges for energy provide know-how with respect to battery supplies recycling, refining, and remanufacturing.
Following Chapman at 2 pm Monday might be a session titled, “Designing for Manufacturability with Software program-Primarily based Constraints: Shortening the Iterative Design Cycle.” On this session, Grant Pitel, CTO of Magna-Energy Electronics, will look at the corporate’s growth of programmable energy provides and digital load, discussing how {hardware} parameters have been programmed into software program to persistently and repeatedly enhance designs and processes. Pitel will talk about the superior options accessible in business software program packages leveraged by Magna-Energy engineers to attain work effectivity in addition to customized instruments it has developed independently.
Gallium Nitride for EVs
Gallium nitride know-how has been one of many sizzling subjects at APEC lately, and this 12 months isn’t any exception. Within the 3:30 pm plenary session titled, “GaN for EV Energy Prepare: Breakthroughs and Challenges,” Dr. Tamara Baksht, CEO & Co-Founder of VisIC Applied sciences, talks about the profitable growth of a three-phase GaN-based inverter reference design with 400V bus voltage and 400A RMS present. Bakst will clarify the foremost steps on the best way from semiconductor chip design, via module growth and to full present inverter operation.
Silicon Carbide
The next plenary session offers with one of many different sizzling applied sciences at current APEC exhibits, silicon carbide. The 4 PM session titled, “Silicon Carbide Mass Commercialization and Future Developments,” options Dr. Victor Veliadis, Government Director and CTO of PowerAmerica, a member-driven wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductor energy electronics consortium. Dr. Veliadis will discover remaining limitations to SiC commercialization, together with larger than silicon system value, reliability and ruggedness issues, and the necessity for a skilled workforce to skillfully insert SiC into energy electronics methods. The speak will embrace a dialogue of fab fashions and the SiC manufacturing infrastructure.
Energy Electronics Schooling
The ultimate plenary session on Monday seems to be on the all-important situation of energy electronics engineering training. Titled, “Growing the Energy Electronics Workforce By MOOC Diploma Packages and Public Academic Movies,” the session has two audio system.
First, Robert Erickson, Professor within the Division of Electrical, Pc, and Vitality Engineering on the College of Colorado Boulder, talks in regards to the growth of a massively open on-line course (MOOC) diploma program there. This system, which emphasizes Energy Electronics and Embedded Techniques Engineering, is tailor-made to working professionals and makes use of on-line homework assignments. This system makes use of a performance-based admissions coverage.
Within the different a part of this session, Katherine Kim, Affiliate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Nationwide Taiwan College (NTU), Taipei, Taiwan, talks in regards to the influence of public instructional movies on energy electronics training. Kim provides the instance of IEEE PELS, which is increase IEEE Academic Movies on Energy Electronics (PELS Tube), peer-reviewed movies by energy electronics specialists accessible to all.
Don’t Overlook the Displays
As regular, new merchandise and know-how are the highlights at APEC. Listed here are a couple of highlights:
ꟷGaN Techniques (Sales space 822) will preview its GaN-Primarily based 800V Onboard Charger for automotive purposes. Combining a flying capacitor multilevel construction with excessive efficiency GaN switches, the charger reportedy will increase energy density and reduces total BOM value by 15%. It additionally offers as much as 40% larger energy density in comparison with conventional designs.
ꟷOn Semiconductor (Sales space 1032) will spotlight its EliteSiC Silicon Carbide (SiC) household, full with an EV charging station. One other showcase will demo the newest industrial energy provide and charging options: a 6.6/11 kW PFC inverter, an ultra-high density 240 W USB PD 3.1 resolution, and a 600 W battery charger. Sales space guests can even see the crowd-favorite autonomous cellular robotic with a collaborative robotic (cobot) arm.
ꟷAlpha and Omega Semiconductor Ltd (Sales space 810), will present its 650V and 750V SiC MOSFET platform for industrial and automotive purposes and its full line of superior energy administration options.
ꟷTransphorm (853) will showcase the not too long ago introduced WT7162RHUG24A system, the brand new SuperGaN® SiP developed with Weltrend Semiconductor designed to spherical out its FET portfolio. This system provides prospects a chance to simply and rapidly design in Transphorm’s excessive efficiency GaN platform whereas decreasing BOM part rely and total system value.
Extra info on APEC will be discovered on their web site.
Spencer Chin is a Senior Editor for Design Information protecting the electronics beat. He has a few years of expertise protecting developments in parts, semiconductors, subsystems, energy, and different sides of electronics from each a enterprise/supply-chain and know-how perspective. He will be reached at [email protected]
