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APEC 2013 Call For Papers |
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 t's hard to believe that it’s already time to submit your papers for next year’s event in Long Beach, CA, March 17-21. So please don’t miss your opportunity to submit your paper digest before the deadline. This year the submission deadline is Monday, July 9, 2012.APEC 2013 continues the long-standing tradition of addressing issues of immediate and long-term interest to the practicing power electronic engineer. For more information visit the APEC website or view the full Call for Papers. Topics Papers of value to the practicing engineer are solicited in the following topic areas:
Important Dates - Deadline for digest submission is July 9, 2012 Upload your submission online at http://apec2013.e-papers.org no later than Monday, July 9, 2012. We need your expertise to review paper submissions The quality of the APEC Conference is due in large part to the peer-review process we use in selecting the papers for presentation. We need your help to do this. To sign-up to become a technical paper reviewer, please enter you information at http://apec2013.e-papers.org/ESR/reviewer_signup.php by July 13th. Accepted reviewers will be notified by August 5th. All reviews must be completed by September 2nd.
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 Michel Grenon, is the General Manager, North America for Gaia Converter Inc. Gaia Converter has been a PSMA member since 2004. Michel has been on the Board of Directors since 2007, serving as the Secretary/Treasurer from 2009.
Gaia Converter is well entrenched into the DC-DC converter market in North America since 1994. Their customers are most of the major players in the Avionics, Military and Transportation industries. They offer a complete architecture that meets or exceeds the stringent requirements of the Hi/Rel standards. Their R&D department is continuously designing new and improved modules to meet the ever changing needs of their customers. Michel has been in this Industry for 6 years, coming from the Telecom world, working with such companies as Motorola, Siemens, Nortel and Alcatel, directly or with distributors. Michel stated “The new challenges facing our Industry are both huge and very demanding; however the rewards could also be tremendous. I want to help in any way I can, to participate closely with this evolution. Being a Director of PSMA allows me to work with others, facing the same tasks and allowing us to make a small difference… may be.” Provided by Michel Grenon |
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 About Our Members |
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  aton Corporation is a diversified industrial company providing power management solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, with sales of $16 billion, and approximately 73,000 employees. Eaton is a global technology leader in electrical components and systems for power quality, distribution and control, and energy management systems and services; hydraulics components, systems and services for industrial and mobile equipment; aerospace fuel, hydraulics and pneumatic systems for commercial and military use; and truck and automotive drivetrain and powertrain systems for performance, fuel economy and safety.
Eaton’s strategic focus of innovation, growth in emerging markets, and a broad business mix has helped to generate strong financial performance, even as world markets adjust to periods of slower global growth, and 2011 has been a year of record sales and profits. And with a 100-year heritage of innovation, Eaton draws on its global strength in power management, to help its customers control cost and reduce their energy requirements. Eaton’s energy saving technologies span across all sectors of its business and none more so than its electrical business. “We believe that power management is one of the biggest trends over the next 25 years as energy continues to become more costly to find, refine or use, and Eaton will continue to build momentum for a number of our most impactful technologies that help our customers manage the rising cost of energy” says Stefan Buerki, Eaton’s New Zealand General Manager and Global Telecoms Product Line leader for the telecom solutions business. Eaton’s telecom solutions business fits within the Power Quality Division of Eaton’s electrical sector - providing telecom power solutions and associated products and services to the telecommunications and other critical power industries in over 100 countries.
Eaton’s electrical business in New Zealand has traditionally been a telecom power systems design house for its local and global markets and manufacturing was moved to its now proprietary manufacturing facilities in China, several years ago. Recently however, significant growth in its local NZ telecom business has come about through R&D innovation of its roadside cabinet product for broadband expansion projects throughout the country where manufacturing has been done locally. In the largest project of its kind to date in New Zealand - Telecom NZ’s “broadband fiber to the curb” project - Eaton provided 3,500 of its high-tech cabinets and integrated its own compact and high-efficiency telecom power systems and communications, with telecom equipment that connects local neighborhood copper phone lines to the national fiber network – making Eaton a true solutions provider.
Eaton roadside cabinet innovations included world-beating operating efficiency (e.g. heat management), and environmental features like noise control and low footprint that make it competitive with larger, but less flexible manufacturers globally, and poised for further growth. The business in New Zealand was purchased by Eaton in 2004. Being part of the global Eaton Corporation not only enhances its local capability to produce smarter energy systems for customers, but ensures greater competitiveness through global and local manufacturing flexibility, with highest standards including ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications. And Eaton’s strong heritage also includes doing business right. “Our goal is to achieve great results, guided by fundamental values” says Buerki. Eaton operations around the world adhere to one set of standards for policies such as ethics, human resource and business practices, quality, greenhouse gas emissions, energy and water consumption and waste treatment, and a recognized commitment to corporate responsibility wherever it operates in the world. Provided by Fraser Taylor,
  ower-One is a world leader in the design and manufacture of photovoltaic inverters. Our renewable energy products enable the industry’s highest yielding conversion of power from both solar arrays and wind farms for use by utilities, businesses and residences. We have a forty year history as the leader in high efficiency and high density power supply products for a variety of industries including renewable energy, server, storage and networking, industrials, and network power systems.
Having established a strong presence in Europe while expanding into the rapidly growing Asian and North American markets for renewable energy, we are now the second largest supplier of photovoltaic inverters in the world. To serve new and existing geographies, we recently opened manufacturing and R&D Facilities in Phoenix, Arizona and Shenzhen, China, and are adding sales and service locations throughout the globe. In 2011 we posted revenue of $1.02B and EBITDA of $217M with over 3,000 employees worldwide. The Renewable Energy Business Unit offers the broadest product portfolio for the solar and wind energy markets. With products ranging from 300 Watt micro-inverters to utility scale liquid cooled 1.4 MW inverters, Power-One brings the highest technology including dual Multi-Power Point Tracking and industry leading efficiency to maximize energy harvesting. Many of the Power-One inverters are modular systems allowing shortened mean-time-to- repair through inverter module field replacement. Supporting the uptime of the solar generation sites, is the Power-One global service team that offers training, installation and commissioning, and preventative maintenance, in addition to service repair. The Power Business Unit’s energy-efficient conversion and management solutions power a wide range of applications including: routers, switches, data storage and servers, wireless communication equipment and custom solutions. Power-One is one of only a few companies with the product breadth to support every step in the refinement of utility-grade AC into the various DC voltages required to power high-availability infrastructure systems at the site, system and semiconductor levels. We launched our first renewable energy products in 2006 and continue to bring new products to market. Power-One holds 180 active patents. Our evolution into a tier-one, world class global supplier has been facilitated by a complement of strategies and milestones, including our goals to:
For more information about Power-One and career opportunities, please visit www.power-one.com.
Provided by by Chavonne Yee, Editors Note: We would like to feature your company in a future issue of the Update. |
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Welcome to PSMA | ||||||||||
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Arlon LLC
Electro Technik Industries, Inc.
Gartner
Narveson Innovative Consulting With a focus on analog and power electronics Narveson Innovative Consulting offers many services. They can help companies analyze new product definition and market introduction process with the goal of increasing the new product success rate. They also offer seminars/ courses in basic analog and power electronics for sales and marketing people in the electronics industry. Technical writing services for application notes, sales presentation and product manuals are also available.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Sung-Yeul Park
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Career Opportunities In | ||||||||||
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 he US unemployment rate is more than 8% and it has remained so for more than three years. From the new employment perspective, 2012 is considered as one of the worst seasons for the new graduates. Globally this situation is not better either, or maybe even worst in Europe: eurozone unemployment is hovering above 10% with Spain's unemployment among youth at more than 50%, highest in the zone.
Then there is the other side of the unemployment: among engineers it is less than 2%, virtually zero considering mobility and other factors. Microsoft, Apple, Intel and other tech-heavy companies lament about lack of qualified engineers to fill their requirements. They argue for higher H-1B visa quota for professional engineers (H-1B visa allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations-Source: Wikipedia) or open design centers in India, China, Singapore or Taiwan. When it comes to the power electronics, the situation to find qualified engineers is more dire. Enphase Energy based in Petaluma, California, that makes microinverters for solar market lists more than fifty engineering positions for a wide variety of functions including design, manufacturing, quality in a variety of disciplines, including power electronics. For a relatively small, but fast growing renewable energy company this is a significant demand requirement. Similarly, Power-One, the 2nd largest solar inverter company has a list of opening in its renewable energy business. The list of unfulfilled power electronics engineering jobs goes on. For almost thirty five years, since the beginning of power supply revolution when switching power supplies made entry into mass market, there has been a shortage of power electronics engineers. There are not just enough students graduating in this exotic or esoteric field. Granted, power electronics may not be the most exciting engineering field compared to its digital counterpart or writing software code that can get you a "status job" in Facebook, Google or Apple, but it offers a challenging engineering carrier, lifetime work guarantee and in today's environment, a progressive forward-looking opportunity. There are many new emerging energy challenges appearing on the horizon, from the digital power management in mobile devices and data centers to new forms of energy generation in the renewable energy sector. There are emerging new energy paradigms in the form of smart grid, smart energy harvesting and smart devices. Career opportunities for power electronics engineers are vast and varied, almost endless. Moreover a wide variety of power electronics subjects are available from many universities. A survey of colleges and universities suggest that in the US alone there are significant number of colleges/universities that teach power electronics in many different forms. Sensing its importance even National Science Foundation (NSF) has gotten into the act and has funded many advanced programs: Virginia Tech's CPES (Center for Power Electronics Systems) is a public/private partnership program initially/partially (1998-2008) funded by the NSF. In addition to Virginia Tech, there are five other universities participating in this program. It is supported by a wide variety of blue-chip companies, some of which are not even in the power electronics business but sense its strategic importance. For further information, visit www.cpes.edu. North Carolina State University has FREEDM Systems Center. FREEDM, partially funded by the NSF stands for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery. The goal, as stated on the web site, is to create a culture of innovation in engineering research and education that links scientific discovery to technological innovation through transformational engineered systems research. Similar to CPES, there are five other universities participating in this program. For further information, visit: www.freedm.ncsu.edu. This power electronics education is not confined to the US only but available globally through many premier institutions. For example, Tyndall National Institute located in County Cork, Ireland, has an extensive power electronics program. National Cheng Kung University in Taipei, Taiwan, has an extensive power electronics program. It is alma mater of Bruce Cheng: founder/CEO of Delta Electronics, one of the largest power electronics companies in the world. Taiwan may be the most important country from the power supply standpoint, because it hosts largest number of companies in the large companies category. There are more than twenty five universities that are member of the PSMA: Power Sources manufacturers Association. There is no dearth of colleges/universities that teach power electronics, but may be a shortage of students of power electronics. While many high school students are familiar with digital electronics, computer science, software engineering and social networking, very few may have heard about the power electronics. But with new emphasis on power and energy, that may be changing. This is especially true for the new emerging field of renewable energy, energy harvesting and energy efficiency. With the global climate change issues on the rise, energy usage and power electronics have started to pervade the social consciousness giving some visibility to this field of power engineering. TV news is inundated with sad stories of unemployment, with some college graduates moving back to their parents homes and some trying to find alternative careers in medicine and other emerging fields. How about an alternative career in the power electronics?
The views expressed in this article are solely of Mohan Mankikar. They do not represent the views of PSMA. Mohan Mankikar has been a part of the power supply industry for over twenty five years. An active member of the PSMA since its founding, he had been a board member of the PSMA and currently serves on the Advisory Council.
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Twenty Heartbeats—Engineering Is Art |
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The story is based on a very old Chinese legend about a wealthy man who dreamed of having a painting made of his favorite horse. The wealthy man commissioned an artist renowned as a great painter of horses. His paintings were so realistic that horses whinnied when they saw them. After engaging the artist to paint his horse, the wealthy man eagerly awaited the finished artwork. But to the wealthy man’s displeasure, the wait for his painting stretched on and on. After many years, the artist summoned the wealthy man with the news his painting was ready. Then, in his presence, the artist dashed off a painting of the horse in a mere “twenty heartbeats.” Initially, the wealthy man was so angry about his long wait and the seemingly careless way the painting was produced that he failed to see its perfection. But in the end, the man discovered why the artist kept him waiting and recognized the painting’s true worth. Though it had appeared that the artist painted the final picture with little effort, he had previously produced hundreds of paintings of the horse in preparation for his final masterpiece. What can we learn from this simple lesson and how does it relate to what we see today in the corporate world? One of the lessons here is clearly the value of patience, something we know is lacking in the field of business. Our companies are run for immediate gratification to keep Wall Street numbers ever increasing with short-term gains. Perhaps this short-term focus reflects the make-up of our management workforce. Typically, engineering is not a path to the corner office. A recent study in Fortune magazine[3] says that C-level executives (CEOs, CTOs, CFOs, etc.) come from the following backgrounds—30.6% finance, 21.6% sales and marketing, 10.6% operations, 10.2% engineering, 6.2% legal, 3.6% consulting, and 8.6% other. Another 8.6% is identified as not available. In the technology arena, how can someone who has no appreciation for what it takes to innovate in technology have any patience for the engineering process? Perhaps more than any other discipline, engineering is akin to art. And like art, good engineering often takes time. However, many managers fail to grasp this concept, which may lead to a lack of appreciation not only for engineering but also for its practitioners. Too often engineers have been the Rodney Dangerfield of the organization, disrespected and misunderstood. The attitude among some managers is both apathy and ignorance as they think of the engineers as simply “doing whatever those guys do down there.” In my experience, engineers make the magic work in spite of the business environment not because of it. We can see many examples of engineering management disasters usually caused by management not understanding the art of engineering. For example, 3M was legendary for its innovation—much like the artist in the Twenty Heartbeats story working in his studio. But then the company was invaded by the “six sigma” methodology, which they tried to apply to innovation. Fortunately, someone noticed the mistake and called off the attack before the innovation culture of 3M was permanently damaged. A recent article in Time magazine[4] stated “Over the last several decades, American business, especially outside Silicon Valley, has been dominated by whiz-kid style financial engineering rather than real product-based innovation. But as experts like Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria have told me, efficiency gains in corporate America are largely tapped out. The real challenge of the next decade will be which countries can churn out entrepreneurs who can harness technology to drive down unemployment.” Just innovation and good engineering management. The latter balances knowledge of technology with sound business principles. These ingredients—together with a dose of common sense—are what tech businesses need to thrive. Not too long ago we had managers who were engineers with years of experience. But business schools changed the philosophy, teaching us that a professional manager can manage anything with enough Excel templates. So as the professional managers took over, the engineering experience was gone. Unfortunately, time has shown that management by spreadsheet will not give you excellent results. If you can make decisions simply based on numbers, a computer can make the decisions for you and you can save those big C-level salaries! What is missing among the professional managers is a gut feel for the business. And this was something that was commonly found in managers of the past, the ones who had come up through the engineering ranks. Of course, those managers would collect and analyze data, but it was not a crutch, an obsession or a “hide behind” if end results did not meet expectations. These managers mixed the data with their instincts while also calling on customers and field staff for advice. Then, taking all this information in hand, these managers made the best decision they could with imperfect data. In other words, they earned their pay! In contrast, too many of the professional managers working in tech companies today are the finance types who look at spreadsheets in a vacuum and make decisions without much input from customers or the front lines. Later, when their decisions lead to bad results, these managers will hide behind the data or simply find someone else to blame. This is a poor excuse for leadership. It’s interesting that in the Twenty Heartbeats story the wealthy man did not visit the artist during the time he was preparing himself to paint his masterpiece of the horse. During the long wait, the wealthy man only sent a single letter to the artist inquiring about the status of his painting. Today, the wealthy man would have sent him nasty emails demanding hourly status updates. Or more likely, the emails would have instructed the artist to stop practicing and update a project management worksheet PERT chart. But consider an alternate storyline for the wealthy man and the artist. The wealthy man could have visited in person, observing the process, asking how he could help—learning what it takes to make a great painting. Or perhaps the man could have made a tradeoff, asking for something less than perfection so that he could get it much sooner. Good leadership is good communications. References
Further Reading
Provided by Kevin Parmenter, About The Author
Kevin Parmenter has over 20 years of experience in the electronics and semiconductor industry. Kevin was formerly the director of Advanced Technical Marketing for Digital Power Products at Exar and previously led global product applications engineering and new product definition for Freescale Semiconductors AMPD - Analog, Mixed Signal and Power Division based in Tempe, AZ. Prior to this, he worked for Fairchild Semiconductor in the Americas as senior director of field applications engineering. In this role, Kevin led the FAE team in the Americas region plus three regional design centers. Previously Kevin held various technical and management positions with increasing responsibility at ON Semiconductor and in the Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector. Kevin also led an applications engineering team for the start-up Primarion where he worked on high-speed electro-optical communications and digital power supply semiconductors. Kevin served on the board of directors of the PSMA (Power Sources Manufacturers Association) and was the general chair of APEC 2009 (the IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference.) Kevin has also had design engineering experience in the medical electronics and military electronics fields. He holds a BSEE and BS in Business Administration, is a member of the IEEE, and holds an Amateur Extra class FCC license (call sign KG5Q) as well as an FCC Commercial Radiotelephone License. Editor’s Note: This article was first published in the March 2012 issue of |
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PSMA Celebrates Nanotechnology |
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t all began in 2007 at the Power Sources Manufacture’s Association (PSMA) Annual Meeting. A presentation was given entitled The Nano Frontier by Dr. Anthony F. Laviano which introduced the notion of designing power sources using nanotechnology, that is, the nano scale, ten to the minus ninth (10-9). As a result, the PSMA Board authorized a Special Project to develop nanotechnology e-learning tutorial material introducing the fundamentals of the technology to technical and marketing people involved in the power sources industry. The Nanotechnology Forum and Committee were then established as a PSMA resource to keep members abreast of nanotechnology topics and to discover ways to apply it to power source products.
The Nanotechnology Committee during the past five years has held monthly meetings. As a result, the dedication of all committee members has brought about significant results for the benefit of PSMA members. In 2008, in cooperation with J. Michael Rice, President of Aerolearn, Nano 100 was brought on-line as a free e-tutorial for PSMA members. Nano 100 focused on nanotechnology root notions to provide a basic appreciation and understanding of concepts and current applications. In 2009, the committee activities included expanding and adding resources to the Nanotechnology Technical Forum and proposing a Plenary Presentation and organizing a six presentation program for a Special Industry Presentation session at APEC 2010. The APEC 2009 Committee approved the Special Presentation Session and invited Dr. Laviano to be a Plenary Speaker to present Nanotechnology the Reality and the Promise at the conference. This officially introduced nanotechnology into the APEC 2010 program and the PSMA Nanotechnology Initiative went public.
The PSMA Nanotechnology Committee continued with its commitment to APEC in 2011 and 2012. The committee organized an Industry Sessions each year that featured industry and research experts who presented the latest advancements in nanotechnology. For the first time the APEC 2011 Call for Papers for included a request for submissions of abstracts on nanotechnology topics. In 2011 the committee continued to focus on e-learning and Nano 100 - Introduction to Nanotechnology was updated and plans were formulated to launch Nano 200. By early 2012, Nano 200-Nanotechnology Science, Research and Industry e-learning tutorial was placed on-line for PSMA members. The content of Nano 200 raised the learning bar by including succinct nanotechnology aspects of the physical sciences, chemistry, material science and quantum physics. In addition, safety, ethical and societal issues concerns were addressed, along with information on current nanotechnology research and a listing of companies that have moved nanotechnology into the market place. Both Nano 100 and Nano 200 e-learning tutorial courses offer a “Certificate of Completion” for three Continuing Education Credits after successful completion. The committee has very ambitious plans for APEC 2013. The APEC 2013 Call for Papers again includes a request for Abstracts and the committee is hoping for enough accepted papers to hold a Technical Session on nanotechnology topics. The committee is also organizing another Industry Presentation Session featuring leading experts from industry and academia speaking on the latest advances in nanotechnology. In addition, the committee will propose an education seminar on nanotechnology and proposing a Plenary Speaker to discuss some recent commercial advances in the application of nanotechnology. Finally, the committee is planning another PSMA Special Project to develop Nano 300, an on-line nanotechnology college level module. Since its founding five years ago, the PSMA Nanotechnology Committee has held monthly meetings via teleconference and an annual committee meeting during APEC. As a result of the dedication of the committee members, the Nanotechnology Committee has brought about significant results that have benefited the PSMA membership. We encourage you to visit the PSMA Nanotechnology Forum - www.psma.com/technical-forums/nanotechnology - and take advantage of the resources which are available to all members. If you have not done so, and are from a PSMA member company, take the Nano 100 and Nano 200 e- tutorials. They will provide an insight into the nano scale and will enrich your power design options. If you are excited about nanotechnology and wish to get involved, you are invited to join the Nanotechnology Committee.
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Energy Harvesting Powers |
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New Requirements for Powering Sensor Networks
To date almost all sensor networks have used wired connections for data communications and power. The cost of installing a sensor network using copper wire, conduit, along with the support infrastructure has become extremely cost-prohibitive. There are new emerging solutions using various wireless protocols such as ZigBee Green Power, Bluetooth LE and 6LowPAN to network sensor devices and eliminate the data communications wiring. However, the wireless sensors still need to be powered. Using batteries such as AA cells has been used as a solution. But these batteries wear out and changing them out is often an expensive proposition. OnWorld Research has estimated that this battery change-out cost will approach $1 Billion in 2013. What is needed is a solution that harvests the ambient energy around the wireless sensor device in the power range shown in Figure 1 and we can cut the power cord forever.
Energy Harvesting for Wireless Sensors is the Solution Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is the term that is used for wireless sensor and control networks that use batteries or Energy Harvesting techniques to power the device. With the availability of low cost integrated circuits to perform the sensing, signal processing, communication, and data collection functions, coupled with the versatility that wireless networks afford, we can move away from fixed, hard-wired network installations in both new construction as well as retrofits of existing installations. One drawback to moving toward a wireless network installation has been the poor reliability and limited useful life of batteries needed to supply the energy to the sensor, radio, processor, and other electronic elements of the system. This limitation has to some extent curtailed the proliferation of wireless networks. The legacy batteries can be eliminated through the use of Energy Harvesting techniques which use an energy conversion transducer tied to an integrated rechargeable power storage device. This mini “power plant” lasts the life of the wireless sensor. A Zero Power Wireless Sensor as shown in Figure 2 typically consists of five basic elements:
Energy Harvesting Transducers Traditional power sources for wireless sensors have typically been a primary (i.e., non-rechargeable) battery such as AA or AAA alkaline cells, lithium thionyl chloride, lithium coin cells, or a host of other chemistries. But there is another way of providing the power source – harvesting the ambient energy surrounding the sensor device. Energy Harvesting delivers the necessary power and energy to operate the sensor node and, further, does not require battery maintenance during the operational life of the sensor node. In effect, Energy Harvesting enables perpetual sensors. Energy Harvesting transducers are a source of power that is regularly or constantly available. This power source could come in the form of a temperature differential, a vibrational source such as an AC motor, a radiating or propagating electromagnetic wave, or a light source, as examples. Any of these power sources can be converted to useful electrical energy using transducers designed to convert one of those forms of power to electrical power. The following transducers are the most common as shown in Figure 3:
The efficiency and power output of each transducer varies according to transducer design, construction, material, operating temperature, as well as the input power available and the impedance matching at the transducer output. New Energy Harvesting Powering Technologies Zero Power Wireless Sensors require energy processing low power management circuitry to condition the transducer output power, store energy and deliver power to the rest of the wireless sensor. In most environments, any of transducers producing power cannot be relied on under all circumstances to continuously supply power to the load. While each transducer delivers power at some amplitude and with some regularity, they do not store energy. Consequently, when that source of power is not present, there would be no power to supply the load in the absence of an energy storage device. Moreover, the transducers typically do not deliver power at the proper voltage to operate the electronic system; therefore, conditioning of transducer power is essential to making the power useful in operating the sensor, processor, and transmitter. In particular, without an energy storage device, it would be difficult or impossible to deliver the pulse current necessary to drive the wireless transmitter. Traditional rechargeable energy storage devices such as supercaps and coin cell batteries have severe limitations with respect to charge/discharge cycle life, self-discharge, and charge current and voltage requirements. New Energy Harvesting Power Management (EH PMIC) devices such as the TI BQ25504, Maxim 17710 or the Cymbet CBC915 provides all of the energy conversion, energy storage, and load power management for the Zero Power Wireless Sensor. In order to produce high efficiency transducer energy conversion an Energy Harvesting PMIC performs maximum peak power tracking by emulating the impedance of the transducer. The EH PMIC also coordinates all the power-up sequencing even from a dead start with no charge in the system. EH PMICs such as the Cymbet CBC915 Energy Processor also provides power and energy status information to the Microcontroller so the system can be made “Energy Aware”. Microcontrollers, Sensors and Wireless Radios The output of the sensor is typically connected to a microcontroller that processes the signal created from measuring the parameter of interest (e.g., temperature, pressure, acceleration, etc.) and converts it to a form that is useful for data transmission, collection, and analysis. Additionally, the microcontroller usually feeds this information to the radio and controls its activation at some prescribed time interval or based on the occurrence of a particular event. It is important that the microcontroller and radio are operating in low power modes whenever possible in order to maximize the power source lifetime. Depending on the quiescent current of the radio and microcontroller, the transmitter power and duty cycle, and the complexity and duration of any signal processing required, the drain on the power source can be dominated by steady state or active power consumption. Power consumption can also be reduced through microcontroller firmware algorithms that efficiently manage power up and power down sequences, analog-to-digital conversions, and event-driven interrupts. Zero Power Wireless Sensor Evaluation Kits All of the elements described in the previous sections have been combined into autonomous perpetual wireless sensor evaluation kits. Many companies including Texas Instruments, Microchip, Cymbet, Infinite Power Solutions, Maxim, Silicon Labs, and others have Energy Harvesting evaluation kits for design engineers to come up to speed on the technology. These kits are readily available from Arrow, Avnet, DigiKey, Farnell, Mouser and others. PSMA Energy Harvesting Forum In response to the interest in Energy Harvesting power technologies, the PSMA recently approved the creation of the Energy Harvesting Forum. This Forum is comprised of Industry and Academic technologists working the various aspects of Energy Harvesting. Anyone interested in this area is encouraged to become a part of the forum by contacting any of the Forum members listed on the Forum website: http://www.psma.com/technical-forums/energy-harvesting.  Energy Harvesting Emerging as an Important Powering Technology Wireless sensor systems are becoming more prevalent due to the rising installation costs of hard-wired sensor systems, availability of low cost sensor nodes, and advances in sensor technology. Energy Harvesting-based autonomous wireless sensor nodes are a cost-effective and convenient solution. The use of Energy Harvesting removes one of the key factors limiting the proliferation of wireless nodes - the scarcity of power sources having the characteristics necessary to deliver the energy and power to the sensor node for years without battery replacement. Significant economic advantages are realized when Zero Power Wireless Sensors are deployed vs. hard-wired solutions. Additional savings are realized by removing the significant costs of battery replacement. Combining Energy Harvesting transducers, an Energy Processing Power Module, low power sensor, an energy aware Microcontroller, and an optimized RF Radio link delivers the reality of long life, maintenance-free Zero Power Wireless Sensor Networks. Provided by Steven C. Grady, |
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INTELEC® 2012 |
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INTELEC©, the International Telecommunications Energy Conference, is the annual world-class technical forum which presents the latest developments in communications energy systems and related power-processing devices and circuits. This Conference, which serves the broad community of researchers, suppliers and operators, explores new technologies of power conversion, energy storage and systems for telecom applications and environment. For more information on INTELEC please see www.intelec.org
The INTELEC 2012 conference program will feature a key note speech by General Russel Honoré, leader of Task Force Katrina, about his experiences and the importance of communications infrastructure in a disaster recovery situation. The technical program will also include workshops and poster sessions. Manuscripts of presented papers will be included in the conference proceedings. The technical exhibition will consist of displays of products and services in the areas of advanced energy storage systems, DC systems for central office and outside plant, green power solutions, energy efficiency, powering through disasters and many others that are critical to operational success. The tutorial program will include sessions on zone de-powering, distributed generation, batteries, failure analysis, renewable energy and communications power systems. An extensive social program will include two exhibit receptions, afternoon tour, banquet, post conference tours to the Grand Canyon and a comprehensive partner program.
Provided by Donovan Davidson, |
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Solar Energy Stock Index: |
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 incoln International’s™ Renewable Energy Group is pleased to present the latest 2012 Solar Energy Stock Index Report, which tracks relevant solar company metrics in this growing industry.The Solar Energy Stock Index Report, published by their Renewable Energy team each quarter, provides you with information on the following:
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Lincoln International's Solar Energy DealReader: |
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incoln International™ is pleased to present you with the latest DealReader from their Global Renewable Energy Industry Group. This will provide you with:
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EMS Stock Index: |
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incoln International™ is pleased to present you with the Q1 2012 EMS Stock Index from their global Electronics industry group. This report will provide you with:
This data is included with the permission of Lincoln International. For more information, you may contact John McManus (jmcman@optonline.net) or the Association Office.
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Lincoln International's EMS DealReader: |
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incoln International™ is pleased to present you with the latest DealReader from their Global Electronics Industry Group. This will provide you with:
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Events of Interest - Mark Your Calendar |
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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
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our members of the PSMA Board of Directors are elected at the Annual Meeting held every year during the APEC conference. Each Director serves a three year term and is eligible to be reelected for one additional term.
n article I found online[1] led me to a wonderful book titled, “Twenty Heartbeats.”[2] I recommend you read it, read it to your children and become inspired by this tale with its parallel to modern technology and management of our organizations.
ensors networks are gaining widespread use in factories, industrial complexes, commercial and residential buildings, agricultural settings, and urban areas, serving to improve manufacturing efficiency, safety, reliability, automation, and security. These networks perform a variety of useful functions including factory automation, measurement, and control; control of lighting, heating, and cooling in residential and commercial buildings; structural health monitoring of bridges, commercial buildings, aircraft, and machinery; tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS); tank level monitoring; and patient monitoring in hospitals and nursing homes. 
egistration is now open on our website for INTELEC 2012, which will be held between September 30 and October 4, 2012 at the Talking Stick Resort and Conference Center in Sunny Scottsdale, Arizona. The conference theme is “Star gazing in the desert: What keeps power people up at night?” Please go to 
