Power Magnetics @ High Frequency- Solving the Black Magic!
Date: Saturday March 19 2016
APEC 2016 Long Beach California

he inaugural “Power Magnetics @ High Frequency – Solving the Black Magic!” workshop sponsored by the PSMA Magnetics Committee and IEEE PELS was held on the day before APEC 2016, Saturday March 19, 2016 from 7:00 AM thru 5:00 PM in Long Beach California.

The workshop has been described by a number of attendees as an unprecedented number of magnetics expertise in a single meeting. The number of workshop attendees was 130+ with about 85% of the attendees from industry and 15% of the attendees from academia/research. The agenda of the workshop included panel discussions and technology demonstrations to supplement traditional lecture type presentations which led to high energy dialogue between the attendees and the invited experts throughout the workshop.

The purpose and the focus of the inaugural workshop was to:

• identify the latest improvements in areas of magnetic materials, coil (winding) design, construction and fabrication,
• identify, discuss and demonstrate evaluation and characterization techniques as well as modelling and simulation tools needed to meet the technical expectations and requirements for power magnetics operating at higher frequencies
• identify and discuss the technical expectations and requirements of higher application frequencies and emerging topologies that are being driven by continuous advances in circuits topologies, semi-conductor devices driven by new market applications.

Many thanks to the invited presenters and panelists which included Dr. Charles Sullivan (Dartmouth), Dr. David Perreault (MIT), Dr. Ray Ridley (Ridley Engineering), Bruce Carsten, Dr. Khurram Afridi (University of Colorado, Boulder), Jenna Pollack, James Lau (CWS), Mark Christini, (Ansys), Len Crane (Coilcraft), Ruska Patton (EMSCAN), Colin Warwick (Keysight Technologies), Mike Wens (MinDCet), Tom Wilson (Simplis Technologies), Jason Cuadra (Transphorm), Rodney Rogers (Vac Magnetics), J. C. Sun (Bs&T Technologies), Cem Som (Wurth Elektronik), Chuck Wild (Dexter Magnetics), Joel Salas (Ferroxcube), Anuj Sharma (Hitachi), Chris Oliver (Micrometals), Brian Hatley (Miles Platts), Kyle Jensen (Rubadue Wire).

Based on post workshop survey results, the High Frequency Magnetics workshop series will continue, and plans are for a second workshop in conjunction with APEC 2017 in Tampa Florida. In an effort to increase the interaction during the second workshop, an increased emphasis on the technology demonstration sessions will be pursued so as to increase the “hands on” and “how to” dialogue. The second workshop will also continue to drive efforts to improve the characterization and specification of magnetic materials and magnetic core to support the power electronics industry and identify efforts to move the industry forward in terms of magnetic material and magnetic structure development.

Anyone interested in participating as a presenter or as part of the technology demonstration session during the workshop in Tampa Florida should contact Matt Wilkowski (mwilkows@altera.com). We are looking forward to the second workshop and driving the industry forward to meet the expectations of the workshop attendees.

Organizing Committee:
Steve Carlsen Raytheon
Ed Herbert Independent Inventor
Rodney Rogers VAC Magnetics LLC
Matt Wilkowski Altera

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