ach of the PSMA Technical Committees provided updates on the recent activities of their committees at the Annual Meeting and each Technical Committee also held individual committee meetings during the week of APEC 2016.

Michael Harrison, 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 2016 with the theme of “Alternate Energy in High Penetration Areas”.

Fred Weber, Capacitor Committee Co-Chair, reported that the Committee has been meeting monthly via teleconference is planning to organize an Industry Session at APEC 2017.

Ed Herbert, Energy Efficiency Committee Co-Chair, reported the committee has organized an Industry Session for APEC 2016 titled “Smart Products for the Smart Grid”. The committee continues to support the effort to update the Energy Efficiency Data Base available on the PSMA web site. He briefly reviewed the annual report on the Energy Efficiency Data Base which in the past year, the data base summarized the activities from 5 regions, covering 30 countries and 48 Agencies. The data base includes 236 regulations from 35 application categories and 99 sub-applications.

Mike Hayes, Energy Harvesting Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee has been reactivated and meeting monthly via teleconference since October 2015 and now has 11 enthusiastic members. The committee is supporting the 2017 PSMA Power Technology Roadmap effort and presented a webinar entitled “Synergies Between Power Electronics and Energy Harvesting” in February. The committee has also expanded and updated the Energy Harvesting forum on the PSMA web site and plans to organize an Industry Session for APEC2017.

Brian Cheng

Brian Cheng, Industry-Education Committee Co-Chair 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 2016, a total of 128 applications from 21 countries were received and 43 students will share a total of $40,000. 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, reported that the committee has held monthly meeting this past year and organized an Industry Session for APEC 2016 “High Frequency Magnetics; Black Magic, Art or Science?”. Under the leadership of Matt Wilkowski and Ed Herbert, the committee with technical support from IEEE PELS organized and ran a very successful one-day workshop the day prior to APEC2016.

Matt Wilkowski, Workshop Co-Chair, presented a summary report on the “Power Magnetics@ High Frequency – Solving the Black Magic” workshop held on March 19. The workshop was very well received with an overflow of registrants. A follow-up workshop is being considered for 2017.

Frank Cirolia

Frank Cirolia, Marketing Committee Co-Chair, provided an overview of the committee and highlighted some of the activities on its current agenda. The committee developed and printed a new Membership Brochure which is being included in the package provided with all APEC conference registrations. He also reviewed the ongoing activities to increase the membership base and the value of membership

Brian Narveson

Brian Narveson, 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 2016 entitled “3D Power Packaging”. The committee is organizing a “3D Power Electronics Integration and Manufacturing (PEIM) Symposium” that will be held at North Carolina State University June 13 – 15, 2016 to bring together circuit, packaging and manufacturing engineers. The committee is also co-sponsoring with IEEE PELS the 5th workshop on PwrSoC 2016 that will be held in Madrid Spain October 3-6, 2016. A full report on the PwrSoC 2016 workshop was presented during the PSMA Board of Directors meeting following the Annual Meeting.

Kevin Parmenter, Safety and Compliance Committee Co-Chair, reported that the Board of Directors approved the Safety and Compliance Technical Committee in 2015 and the committee is actively seeking members from the industry. In spite of being a new PSMA Technical Committee, they have organized a six presentation Industry Session at APEC 2016. In addition, the committee will support the 2017 PSMA Power Technology project and prepare a webinar on the trends and impact of Safety and Compliance issues.

Carl Blake

Carl Blake, member of the Semiconductor Committee, reported the committee has been very active this past year and has organized a 6-presentation Industry session entitled “Power Semiconductor Enabling Next Generation Applications”. The committee is also supporting the 2017 PSMA Power Technology Roadmap and will prepare a webinar for the project. The committee will also participate and sponsor the 2016 WIPDA (Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications) workshop that will be held at the University of Arkansas November 7 – 9, 2016.

Conor Quinn, Power Technology Roadmap Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee has been very active in working on the 2017 Power Technology Roadmap. The committee held their organizing meeting at the PSMA Annual Planning Meeting in September and is holding additional meetings via teleconference. The committee have already started their webinar series in support of the 2017 roadmap in February and have webinars scheduled every 2 weeks. The webinar series are presented by recognized industry experts discussing Power Architectures, Technology and Market Forces, and Components. Every webinar presentation will be included in the 2017 Power Technology Roadmap publication and the electronic copy will include a recording of each webinar together with the Q&A. The committee continues to seek volunteers to join the committee and contribute to the 2017 PSMA Power Technology Roadmap effort.

Fred Weber

Fred Weber, 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 planes, material handling and electric drive vehicles.

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, to increase the benefits of membership and to influence the technical direction of the committees.

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