"How Materials and Environmental Effects Influence Capacitor Performance"
Saturday March 19 2022, Prior to APEC 2022
George R Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas

ow is the time to get prepared! There are only a few more weeks, before we gather for the 2022 PSMA/PELS Capacitor Workshop "How Materials and Environmental Effects Influence Capacitor Performance." The virtual workshops held in 2020 and 2021, showed our commitment to deliver high-value content even under extremely challenging conditions. We look forward to the return to an in-person workshop with in-depth personal discussion for all attendees who join our workshop in Houston, TX.

The 2022 PSMA and PELS Capacitor Workshop will take place on Saturday March 19th at the George R Brown Houston Convention Center in Houston, Texas. The Capacitor Workshop Organizing Committee is proud to present an extraordinary line-up of speakers for the 2022 workshop.

The 2022 capacitor workshop will be the fifth in the series as a pre-event to the annual APEC conference. Each year we have seen a growing interest in the topics and we receive valuable feedback from Workshop attendees which we consider when planning the next event. The first workshop, held in 2018, focused on the basics and now, in 2022, the Workshop will focus on the inner materials used, the construction of capacitors, and how the materials and environmental effects influence its performance in applications.

The PSMA Capacitor Workshop Organizing Committee has a clear mission:

The PSMA Capacitor Committee Annual Workshop aligned with APEC has a mission to educate the attendees on capacitor trends, technologies, and innovations. Wherever and whenever applications need energy, Capacitors are at the spotlight, and as energy moves the world, it is incumbent for everyone to have a good understanding of capacitor issues. The PSMA Capacitor Committee is committed to educate and share the most recent information available to meet the industry's needs.

In 2022, the Workshop will deliver value to attendees in the industry, whether they be newbies or advanced designers of DC-DC converters, frequency drives, inverters, and other power conversation applications. The 2022 Capacitor Workshop agenda includes a mix of presentations including outstanding updates from universities around the world, and presentations by established experts from a manufacturers, designers, testing and supporting companies in the industry with a broad range of experiences and knowledge to share.

The 2022 Capacitor Workshop will open with a keynote presentation by Tomas Zednicek, President, EPCI European Passive Components Institute, "Capacitors for the Next Decade - materials, reliability and sustainability/life assessment." The first technical session, Materials & Technologies, will include an update on academic research on Capacitor Materials from Dr William Greenbank, Centre for Industrial Electronics (CIE) at the University of Southern Denmark, and presentations by speakers from CapXon Technologies, Würth Elektronik, KYOCERA - AVX, KEMET a YAGEO Group, and the University of Waikato, New Zealand.

In the afternoon, the first session will focus on Environmental Influences on Capacitors. The speakers include a presentation by Phillip Lessner, CTO of KEMET, one of the most experienced people in the capacitor world. Prof Douglas C Hopkins from NC State University will discuss Packaging MLCCs for Higher AC Voltage Applications and Future Developments. Insights on how capacitors behave under extreme temperatures will be offered by Würth Elektronik and KEMET will discuss MLCCs for AC applications.

The final technical session will focus on Measurements. There will be three presentations on topics that will ensure this workshop as practical and relevant as possible for engineers. Presenters from Zurich Instruments, Rohde & Scharz, and Würth Elektronik will present on the Characterization of the ESR and ESL of a DC Link capacitor, the aging and in circuit characterization of an aluminum electrolytic capacitor, and how capacitors are being qualified and how to interpret the datasheet values.

The seventh "Power Magnetics @ High Frequency" Workshop will be held concurrently with the 2022 Capacitor Workshop. Continuing the tradition from previous years, the two workshops will share the same demonstration area. During breakfast, lunch and the end-of-day networking period there will be demonstrations of products, technologies, equipment, and measurements that highlight many of the key concepts discussed during the presentations at each workshop. The Capacitor demonstrations will highlight the reliability and practical performance of various capacitors in various applications. Nearly all Capacitor technologies from Aluminum to Polymer, from Ceramics to Tantalum, from Film to EDLC will be included.

New this year, a joint Capacitors and Magnetics Rap Session moderated by Alexander Gerfer, CTO of Würth Elektronik, will address the trade-offs between choices of magnetic components and capacitors. This Rap Session will be held during the networking reception after the technical presentation sessions have been completed. All Workshop attendees are encouraged to submit questions to the panel of capacitor and magnetics experts during the Rap Session.

Registration for the workshop is open at: https://www.psma.com/capacitor-workshop-2022-registration

If you are interested to financially support the workshop as a partner, please visit the Workshop Partnership page or contact the organizing committee through PSMA via e-mail to power@psma.com.

The latest information on the agenda as well as registration information for the workshop is available on the PSMA website at: http://www.psma.com/technical-forums/capacitor/workshop

The PSMA Capacitor Committee is pleased to once again be a strong supporter of APEC events. In addition to the 2022 PSMA/PELS Capacitor Workshop, they areorganizing an Industry Session at APEC 2022 that focuses on the latest capacitor technologies. The Industry Session, "The Latest and Greatest Capacitor Technology Improvements for Wide Bandgap Applications" will be presented on Thursday March 24 from 1:45 – 3:25 PM.  The goal of the Industry Session is to allow capacitor manufacturers and researchers a platform to present their developments on addressing the increased demands and adoption of wide bandgap applications in power applications. We thank all our contributors for their willingness to participate and look forward to their presentations. We hope to see some of our fellow committee members at this session and at APEC!

Also, the PSMA Capacitor Technical Committee will be holding our annual     in-person committee meeting on Tuesday March 22 at 10:00 in room 332B at the George R Brown Convention Center. Please plan to join us so that you can have a voice in how we plan our activities for the upcoming year including APEC 2023, educational and technical webinars, and support for the PSMA Power Technology Roadmap.

Provided by members of the Capacitor Workshop Organizing Committee:

Pierre Lohrber, Wurth Electronics
Fred Weber, Future Technology Worldwide

If you or anyone in your company is interested in getting on the distribution list for future issues of PSMA UPDATE, please send e-mail to: power@psma.com. Be sure to include your name and the name of your company.