ach of the PSMA Technical Committees provided updates on the recent activities of their committees at the Annual Meeting. Each of the Technical Committees also held individual committee meetings during the week of APEC 2015.

John McManus, Alternative Energy Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee has been meeting monthly and has organized a four speaker Industry Session that will be presented during APEC 2015 with the theme of “Solar, Today and Tomorrow”.

The committee also co-sponsored an industry workshop “Engineering Energy Efficient Buildings” held during 2014.

Phil Krein reported that the committee is co-sponsoring a workshop on “Microgrid Systems and Power Electronics for Low Energy Buildings” that will be held later this month. He presented an overview of the workshop and invited all interested individuals to participate.

Joe Horzepa reported that the Capacitor Committee has been meeting monthly via teleconference and has organized a seven presentation industry session with the theme of “Applications Dictate Capacitor Technology”.

Ed Herbert, Energy Efficiency Committee Co-Chair, reported the committee has organized an Industry Session for APEC 2015 titled “Mission Critical Power Systems”. The committee continues to support the effort to update the Energy Efficiency Data Base available on the PSMA web site and plans to organize an Industry session for APEC 2016.

Arnold Alderman presented the annual report on the Energy Efficiency Data Base (EEDB). In the past year, the data base included the activities from 6 regions, covering 37 countries and 41 Agencies. The data base includes 224 regulations from 27 application categories and 90 sub-applications.

Phil Krein reviewed the objectives of the committee which are to promote interaction between power electronics students and industry and to promote power electronics to university and pre-university students. The committee has spearheaded a joint program with PELS and IAS for Travel Support for students to attend APEC. For APEC 2015 a total of $40,000 will be awarded to 43 students from 18 countries as far away as India and New Zealand. An on-going initiative of the PSMA Industry-Education Committee is posting resumes that students submit on the Members Only area of the PSMA website.

Steve Carlsen, Magnetics Committee Co-Chair, remembered the passing this January of Ed Bloom, who was a major contributor and supporter of PSMA, the Magnetics Committee and APEC.

Steve reported that the committee has held monthly meeting this past year and plans to organize an Industry Session for APEC 2016. They are also planning a workshop on high frequency magnetics this next year and Matt Wilkowski has expressed a willingness to be the Technical Chair for the workshop, perhaps with PELS as co-sponsor.

Frank Cirolia, Marketing Committee Co-Chair, provided an overview of the committee and highlighted some of the activities on its current agenda. He also reviewed the activities to increase the membership base and the value of membership.

Kevin Parmenter, Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee has been meeting monthly via teleconference and has organized a 4 presentation industry session: Nanotechnology – State and Federal Activities. Kevin added that the industry now has a growing awareness of the application of nanotechnology in materials, packaging, components, semiconductor design and all aspects of power electronics. Since PSMA already has Technical Committees for each of these areas, the Nanotechnology Committee has decided to limit its attention to encouraging the other PSMA Technical Committees to include at least one presentation in each of their Industry Sessions on the application of nanotechnology. Meanwhile, the committee will focus on Nanotech 300 and other nanotechnology course development and promotion.

Brian Narveson, Power Electronics Packaging Committee Co-Chair, reviewed the activities and results of the committee this past year. It has been an outstanding year with the organizing of a 7-presentaion Industry Sessions for APEC 2015 entitled “Substrate Embedded Components Enabling High Density 3D Power Packaging”. Brian also introduced the PSMA publication of the report of phase 2 of the Special Project on 3D Power Packaging titled “Current Developments in 3D Packaging with Focus on Embedded Substrate Technology”.

Carl Blake, Semiconductor Committee Co-Chair, reported the committee has been very active this past year and has organized a 7 presentation Industry session entitled “Latest Advance in Power Semiconductors – a Less Biased Discussion”. Carl also reported that the committee has agreed to be a co-sponsor of WIPDA (Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications) that will be held at CPES in Blacksburg VA from November 2 – 4. He invited all interested individuals to plan on attending.

Aung Thet Tu, Power Technology Roadmap Committee Co-Chair, reported that the 2015 Power Technology Roadmap was now available as a PSMA publication and a summary will be presented by Dhaval Dalal at the Plenary Session. Aung acknowledged and thanked the individuals who participated and contributed to the 2015 Roadmap effort. There were 13 Webinars held this past year with industry experts discussing Power Architectures, Technology and Market Forces, and Components. Every webinar presentation is included in the publication plus the electronic copy also includes the recording with the Q&A. The 2015 Roadmap addresses the major products to be considered, the applications and the associated technology trends for the next three to five years.

Ralph Taylor, Transportation Power Electronics Committee Co-Chair, reported the committee has been very active this past year and organized a 7-Presentation Industry Session that focuses on new and evolving technologies critical for power electronics in electric drive vehicles. A proposed topic area for the committee in the coming year is Power Electronics for Planes, Trains and Automobiles. The committee is also searching for a new Co-Chair.

Arnold Alderman, Organizing Committee Chair for the 4th International Power Supply on Chip Workshop, reported that the workshop was held in Boston MA October 6 – 8 2014 was jointly sponsored with IEEE PELS.and Northeastern University College of Engineering. Matt Wilkowski was chair of the Technical Program Committee which organized seven technical sessions plus a poster session. The workshop was both a technical and financial success and a future workshop is planned for 2016 in Madrid Spain.

More information about the PSMA committees was made available during the week at the individual committee meetings. PSMA members and guests were encouraged to attend these meetings to learn more about the committees and to help plan activities for the coming year.

All of the PSMA Technical Committee meetings are held via teleconferencing and are open to individuals interested in learning about and participating in the work of the committees. This is an excellent way to network with others and to influence the technical direction of the committees.

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