1. APEC 2016 Smashes Record for Attendance
   
2. PSMA 2016 Annual Meeting
   
3. Committee Chairs Report at PSMA 2016 Annual Meeting
   
4. PSMA Special Call for Papers
   
5. Meet Your Directors
   
6. About Our Members
   
7. Welcome to PSMA
   
8. Eric Persson Elected to Two-Year Term as Chairman of PSMA Board
   
9. PSMA Magnetics Committee Magnetics Workshop
   
10. APEC 2016, Impressions of a Former Publicity Chair
    
11. Registration Now Open! 3D Power Electronics Integration and Manufacturing Symposium
    
12. PwrSoC 2016, the International Workshop on Power Supply On Chip, is Taking Place on October 3-5 in Madrid, Spain
13. WiPDA 2016
14. INTELEC 2016
    
15. Electric Cars: The Next Best Thing for Power Electronics
    
16. The Outlook for Wide-Band-Gap Power Semiconductors in AC-DC and DC-DC Power Supplies
    
17. Solar Energy Stock Index Q1 2016
    
18. Solar Energy DealReader Q1 2016
    
19. EMS Stock Index Q1 2016
    
20. EMS DealReader Q1 2016
    
21. Events of Interest – Mark Your Calendar

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.

Previous issues of update: Q3_2015 | Q4_2015 | Q1_2016

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PSMA UPDATE is published and distributed via e-mail quarterly by the Power Sources Manufacturers Association. Send editorial information and comments to:

Permission to reprint information and articles as published is granted: a courtesy line is appreciated.

Membership in PSMA is open to any organization or corporation involved in the power sources and supplies industry. For membership information, visit our website or contact us by fax, telephone or email.

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.

 

ong Beach has historically been the most popular venue for the Applied Power Electronics Conference and APEC 2016 lived up to and even exceeded our expectations. Over the 10 years since I first became involved as Publicity Chair for APEC, I have seen attendance grow from around 2,000 to this years’ record attendance of over 5,000! A significant part of this phenomenal growth has been movement of power electronics into a position of prominence in electronic systems design. Power was once an after-thought in the design process. Today, power electronics is an enabling technology.

The quality and nature of the papers presented at this year’s conference reinforced the principal considerations in power conversion technology – efficiency and packaging. Our industry is now at the forefront of advances in telecommunications, transportation and consumer electronics.

For APEC 2016, a record number of digests were submitted for consideration. Out of the over 1,200 submissions, 563 papers were accepted. In addition, 119 Industry Session presentations added insights into the latest product developments. The challenge for attendees was in selecting which of the nearly 700 papers to explore.

A record number of Professional Education Seminars (21) were conducted at the start of the week-long event. These seminars were selected form the over 50 submissions!

As always, the APEC exhibit hall was a vibrant and busy venue. A record high of 228 companies had booths at the show. And nearly 30 others were on the wait list and unable to exhibit at the sold-out venue.

Nearly 1800 attendees were present for the open Plenary Session on Monday afternoon. The Tuesday evening Rap sessions were. As always, standing-room only events. And the always-popular Micromouse competition drew entries from Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, China, the United Kingdom and the US.

Thanks to the continued sponsorship of the PSMA-initiated Student Travel Grants program, $40,000 in support helped 43 students from around the globe to attend this year’s event.

So now, we turn our attention to APEC 2017. Planning for the event, to be held in Tampa, March 26-30 is well underway. APEC 2017 will continue the long-standing tradition of addressing issues of immediate and long-term interest to the practicing power electronics engineer. Our conference and exposition fills a critical role in delivering education and information as well as an opportunity to network with our industry peers. Information about presenting a paper at APEC 2017 can be found here - www.apec-conf.org/speakers/

Provided by: Greg Evans (right), APEC 2017 Publicity Chair

ver 60 PSMA members and guests attended the PSMA Annual Meeting, held at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center in Long Beach, CA during APEC 2016.

The buffet breakfast before the meeting start provided attendees an opportunity for networking and meeting colleagues. Outgoing Chairman Ernie Parker officially opened the meeting by welcoming all the attendees and asked each to briefly introduce themselves. Among those present were many of the 43 recipients of the APEC Student Travel Support. This support is provided jointly by IAS, PELS and PSMA and attracted 126 applicants from 58 different schools in 21 countries.

The first item on the agenda was the election of four people to the Board of Directors. The following candidates were elected to the Board of Directors for the three-year term (2016-2019):

Eric Persson, Incoming Chair, acknowledged the leadership provided by Ernie Parker the past two years and his contributions to the Power Technology Roadmap and Packaging Committees and support of the PSMA workshops. He presented Ernie with a Special Recognition award.

Eric also presented Special Recognition Awards to the following individuals for their contributions to the Association in the past year:

• Michel Grenon for his oversight and contributions serving as the Association as Treasurer/ Secretary for the past four years on the Executive Committee.
  
• Matt Wilkowski for his overall leadership and contributions as Chair in organizing the very successful “Power Magnetics@ High Frequency – Solving the Black Magic” workshop.
  
• Kevin Parmenter for his leadership in organizing the new PSMA Safety and Compliance Technical Committee and sponsoring the first APEC Industry Session on Safety and Compliance.
  
• Mike Hayes for his leadership in organizing and attracting people to participate in the PSMA Energy Harvesting Technical Committee which had gone dormant for the past years. The new PSMA Energy Harvesting Technical Committee also presented a Power Technology webinar on energy harvesting technology and trends.

Eric Persson presenting award to Michel Grenon

Eric Persson presenting award to Mike Hayes

Eric then discussed his vision for the Association going forward and encouraged all members to pick one or two of the Technical Committees and to participate in their activities as being the best way for people to increase the benefits of membership. He is focused on expanding PSMA cooperation with CPSS and EPSMA and on encouraging the Technical Committees to sponsor workshops that address emerging technologies and applications. He also acknowledged the many contributions from the PSMA Technical Committees in organizing seven Industry Sessions for APEC 2016.

Following the Chairman’s Report was a financial Report presented by Michel Grenon, Secretary/ Treasurer who reviewed the current financial status of the Association and presented a six quarter forecast. The financial status and outlook for the Association continues to be good with sufficient funds to support a number of Special Projects that can be of benefit of the membership.

Incoming Chair Eric Persson presenting award to Outgoing Chair Ernie Parker

Alireza Khaligh

Each of the PSMA Committees presented a report. You can read more about these on page 3 of this issue.

Jonathan Kimball

Alireza Khaligh, General Chair for APEC 2016, provided an update on the overall conference. APEC2016 will set a number of records for this annual event. These include:
• Number of Digests submitted (1212) and accepted (563)
• Number of Industry Session Presentations (119)
• Number of Registrations (4670 as of Monday morning)
• Number of companies exhibiting (268) and number of Exhibition Booths (408)

APEC 2016 is expected to be a financial success in addition to providing the attendees with an outstanding program of Professional Seminars, Plenary Presentations, Technical and Industry Sessions and provocative Rap Session topics.

Jonathan Kimball, Program Chair for APEC 2016 and General Chair for APEC 2017, reported that planning for APEC 2017 is well underway. The conference will be held at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, FL from March 26 through March 30, 2017. The Call for Papers is included in this issue of the Update and more information will be available in coming weeks.

The invited speaker at this year’s Annual Meeting was Paul Lee, the Vice Chairman and Secretariat of the European Power Sources Manufacturers Association (EPSMA). He reviewed the current membership and focus of the organization. He reported that the organization currently has 26 member companies and work to influence international standards. EPSMA has an active Technical committee that publish technical papers that share best practice and design guides amongst the member companies.

Paul Lee

The minutes from the PSMA Annual Meeting have been posted in the Members Only area of the PSMA web site together with the charts from the presentations.

The Annual Meeting, PSMA Committee meetings, as well as the technical sessions, seminars, Industry Presentations, exhibits and other events kept PSMA members busy all the week. The APEC social event, featuring the music of the Beach Toys, gave everyone a chance to relax and enjoy themselves.

There was a full exhibit hall at APEC 2016. Many of the PSMA member companies exhibiting participated in a “Passport” game in which attendees who visited their booths had their passport booklets stamped. Attendees turned in their completed passports for a chance to win an iPad mini. Traffic to members’ booths was brisk and the lucky winner was very happy with his prize.

The lucky winner of an iPad mini claims his prize

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.

APEC 2017

32nd Annual
IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition

March 26th – 30th, 2017       Tampa Convention Center, Tampa, FL. USA

PEC 2017 continues the long-standing tradition of addressing issues of immediate and long-term interest to the practicing power electronic engineer. Outstanding technical content is provided at one of the lowest registration costs of any IEEE conference. APEC 2017 will provide a) the best power electronics exposition, b) professional development courses taught by world-class experts, c) presentations of peer-reviewed technical papers covering a wide range of topics, and d) venue to network and enjoy the company of fellow power electronics professionals in a beautiful setting. Activities and attractions for guests, spouses, and families are abundant in the Tampa area.

Papers of value to the practicing engineer are solicited in the following topic areas:

(Please see the APEC 2017 website for a more detailed description by subtopic.)

The PSMA Technical Committee Chairs may be contacted to provide guidance to prospective authors in the preparation of their abstracts and papers. In addition most of the PSMA Technical Committees will each be organizing an Industry Special Session at APEC 2017 and anyone interested in participating and contributing in these sessions should attend one of the Technical Committee monthly meetings for more information. The schedule for all of the Technical Committee meetings is available at www.psma.com/news/meeting-schedule.

The Association Office will provide contact information on request.

our members of the Board of Directors are elected at the PSMA 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.

At the PSMA Annual Meeting in March 2016, Dustin Becker and Brian Narveson were reelected to a second term and new board members Michel Grenon and Conor Quinn were elected. In this issue we would like to introduce you to Michel Grenon and Conor Quinn.

Michel Grenon is the General Manager, North America for Gaia Converter Inc.

Gaia Converter has been a PSMA member since 2004. The company is ISO 9001: 2008 certified and fully comply with the REACH requirements. There are offices on a world wide basis covering Europe, Asia and the Americas. Gaia Converter is one of the leading manufacturers of DC-DC converters, PFC, front end modules and related input protection devices since 1994. Their customers are most of the major players in the Avionics, Military and Transportation industries. Gaia offers a complete architecture that meets or exceeds the stringent requirements of the Hi/Rel standards and the avionics industry. Over 3500 off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions are offered for a wide range of applications. The R&D department is continuously designing new and improved modules to meet the ever changing needs of our customers.

I have been in this Industry for 10 years, coming from the Telecom world, working with such companies as Motorola, Siemens, Nortel and Alcatel, directly or with distributors. 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 and to participate closely with this evolution. Being a Director of PSMA allows me to interact with colleagues within the different industries, facing the same challenges and allowing us to make a difference. 

Provided by Michel Grenon,
General Manager, North America,
Gaia Converter Inc.

Conor Quinn’s experience in the power electronics industry spans almost 25 years in design, management and marketing roles. He currently has responsibility for the Industrial and Medical business at Artesyn Embedded Technologies.

Conor holds a BE in Electrical Engineering from University College Cork in Ireland and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. He has been awarded 3 patents in the field of power electronics and control.

Conor has been actively involved in specification and roadmap activities of industry groups including Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA), PMBus™ (Power Management Bus) and PICMG (PCI Industrial Computers Manufacturers Group). He served on the PMBus Board of Directors for 6 years.

As the co-chair of the PSMA Power Technology Roadmap Committee, Conor (together with his other co-chair) is driving the activities leading up to the publication of the 2017 Power Technology Roadmap.

He has also served as the Industry Session co-chair for APEC, organizing this rapidly growing track at both 2015 and 2016 conferences and has been asked to do this again for 2017. This activity involves close co-ordination with other PSMA committees, but also from independent submitters.

Conor believes that what you get out of these organizations is only limited by what you put into them. He looks forward to continuing to build on his PSMA experience by leveraging his years of experience in the power electronics industry and his past involvement with other organizations.

Provided by Conor Quinn, Director,
Technical Marketing,
Artesyn Embedded Technologies

uture Technology Worldwide, LLC – (FTW) is a Manufacturers' Representative company whose executive, Fred Weber, possesses over 30 years of technical sales, account management, and business development experience. FTW has created a well-balanced portfolio of cutting edge power products and services for its customers. We maintain for its principals the highest level of sales representation for business, market development, and growth in the Great Lakes Territory. FTW offers a high level of practical experience, technical know-how, and a solid reputation for opening doors, and building relationships with engineering, purchasing, and management.

Fred Weber has an electrical engineering degree, and actively works to both improve his technical knowledge and place himself in, positions to be aware of technology trends and advancements. Fred is very active in PSMA (Power Sources Manufacturers Association) and also AEC (Automotive Electronics Council). He is co-chair of the Capacitor Technical Committee as well as the Transportation Power Electronics Technical committee at PSMA, and an active member of the Magnetics Technical committee. He is working on the AEC team that is updating the AEC-Q200 specification (passive components) for Automotive products.

FTW’s portfolio is separated into three primary groups, Components, Products, and Services. All of the principals have a fundamental technical edge over their competition. Their broad spectrum of capabilities allows FTW to work in virtually every industry. By offering services in addition to hardware, FTW is able to provide customers’ often needed capabilities to complete their projects.

FTW Component Principals are as follows:

Payton Group – the world leader in Planar Magnetics. Payton designs and manufactures transformers and inductors that will optimize circuits. With 99+% efficiency, low profile, and industry leading power density, Payton’s planar designs are a necessary component in power applications. Payton Planar is also the recommended technology for all high frequency GaN or SiC applications.

Electronic Concepts (ECI) – an industry leading Film Capacitor supplier. ECI specializes in High Voltage and High Frequency applications. In addition to the standard Polypropylene dielectric, ECI offers Polycarbonate, and several other proprietary dielectrics that are ideal for higher ambient temperature applications of up to 175°C.

Power Integrations (PI) – the leading supplier of high-voltage analog integrated circuits used in energy-efficient power conversion. They also offer the Qspeed family of advanced diodes whose high-performance, and low Qrr reduces wasted energy in power factor correction and output rectification applications. Finally PI now offers the Concept line of IGBT drivers and a family of power products to help your switching requirements in your power applications.

United Silicon Carbide – delivers the only standard gate drive Silicon Carbide Switch in the industry (0V to 12V). Their 1200V and 650V Cascode products can use the same drivers and controllers as silicon MOSFETs and IGBTs. This allows one to generate the efficiency and power density that Silicon Carbide provides without having to redesign an entire system. USCi's Cascode utilizes an optimized low Voltage MOSFET for EMI control, as well as to deliver 1/3 the QRR of the equivalent SiC MOSFET. The standard gate drive and superior QRR of USCi's SiC cascodes simplify the evaluation of wide bandgap in current systems.

FTW Product Principals are:

Fedco Batteries – the nation's largest value added battery distributor serving the information technology industry. Fedco also is the leading expert in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of custom, high quality battery packs. Those packs are coupled with AC/DC power adapters or chargers and electronics, to provide a total power solution.

Core Technology – a provider of high performance custom and standard AC/DC and DC/DC power conversion products and a broad range of highly efficient and reliable power solutions. They use a Discrete Modular Integration (DMI) technology to quickly and reliably engineer custom products to customer requirements. DMI provides numerous benefits to their customers including low NRE, quick turn-around times, and having low-risk development through field-proven technology.

Global ET - creates and produces compact, smart, networked, configurable, and modular power control electronics. Global ET products are configured for applications such as advanced voltage regulators, intelligent power distributions units, DC/DC converters, and motor controllers.

ZES ZIMMER - offers AC power analyzers that are extremely reliable, with best-in-class accuracy and maximum frequency range. Their meters offer more capability, including the ability to measure up to 7 power channels in two bandwidths at the same time (PWM), custom filters, and versatile sync options, than any other product on the market today.

FTW Service Principals are:

Elite Testing – the premiere EMC & environmental stress test laboratory for all industries. Elite has highly trained technicians which will handle your testing needs efficiently and with a minimal amount of oversight. They have an industry leading reporting format that will give you the confidence that your testing was completed properly and completely. They also have the capacity that will allow you to get your testing scheduled quickly and without any delay.

Tecnova – an Engineering Design, and Contract Manufacturing firm. Tecnova provides design services for any phase of product development as well as full turnkey solutions. They use innovative design skills and cover everything from specification creation, electrical, mechanical and software development. In addition, Tecnova also specializes in automated test development. Tecnova’s contract manufacturing is a quality focused assembly house that offers PCB level assembly to full box assembly.

Lunar Industries – specializes in complex tooling and fixturing with the ability to maintain very tight tolerances. Lunar Industries, is a certified women-owned business. Lunar is known for its excellent quality and customer service.

Made-Right Precision Manufacturing – offers fast, competitive and highly precise CNC work. The experienced, highly trained and talented machinists are the corner stone to their success. Utilization of the latest technology is key to producing parts right the first time.

Detroit Delta – offers 3-D Printing with award winning technicians. Detroit Delta offers full service solutions from industrial design, 3-D scanning to 3-D printing. Detroit Delta Specializes in product prototyping with quick turnaround and creative design support.

FUTURE TECHNOLOGY WORLDWIDE is the product of its principals, and the sales acumen and technical experience of its executive. The portfolio is designed and focused, with Cutting Edge Power Products and Services, to develop synergy and opportunities for the entire Line Card. By working to completely understand the needs of our customers and potential customers, FTW recommends the products or services that provide the best possible solution for any given application. This leads to satisfied customers receiving beneficial solutions for their development in a concise and direct manner. We look forward to hearing from you with your thoughts, or questions.

Provided by Fred Weber, President, Future Technology Worldwide

Editors Note: We would like to feature your company in a future issue of the Update. Please contact the Association Office for information about how to submit an article for consideration.

Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc.
Peter Resca
89-27 Access Road
Norwood, MA 02062
Telephone: 781-949-2534
E-mail: presca@qats.com
Website: www.qats.com

Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc. (ATS) is a leading-edge engineering/manufacturing company focused on the thermal management of electronics. Founded in 1989 as a consulting company, ATS has evolved to a complete thermal solutions provider and is world renown for its portfolio of more than 450 high- and ultra-performance heat sinks, research-quality test equipment, and leading-edge R&D. As ATS has significantly increased its customer base, its product offerings have also expanded to include Advanced Fan Trays, Liquid Cooling Systems, Advanced Cooling Systems and Next-Generation Thermal Test Instruments.

ATS is committed to providing the electronics industry with innovative, high-quality and cost-effective thermal management and packaging solutions. Our goal is to be our customers’ value-added supplier and success partner for all thermal and packaging needs - analysis, testing and final product.

CBK Consulting
Carl Blake
17139 San Alfredo Circle
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
Telephone: 714-608-6206
E-mail: Carl@cbk.net
Website: cbk.net

CBK Kinetic Market Consulting was created from the demand for the unique knowledge gained from Carl’s experience leading Engineering, Manufacturing, Marketing and Sales in both the Power Supply and Power Semiconductor markets. Carl has been focused upon the power conversion industry since it became an industry back in the early 1970s. While history is not an indicator of future events (so say all the company annual reports), it is a valuable source of the intelligence needed to make sense out of the chaos of the present. Carl has been predicting the future for more than 30 years as a requirement for his role in defining new products in the power supply and power semiconductor markets. It was this need to predict the future that attracted him to PSMA and the PTRM (Power Technology Roadmap) committee in which he became involved and eventually lead for the 2011 PSMA PTRM.

Kinetic marketing is a recognition that in the present time, with so many new unexpected market drivers for both good and bad it is more important than ever before to be hyper-vigilant. It is critical that market data be gathered as often as possible, and never rely on market reports that are more than a year old. The process of gathering information regularly and creating the intelligence needed to use this data to predict the future is Kinetic Marketing.

Efficient Power Technology LLC
Randhir S Malik
100 Gentlewoods Drive
Cary, NC 27518
Telephone: 919-534-5266
E-mail: randhirmalik@icloud.com

Indium Corporation
Andy C Mackie
34 Robinson Road
Clinton, NY 13323
Telephone: 315-853-4900 x7549
E-mail: amackie@indium.com
Website: www.indium.com

Indium Corporation is a premier materials supplier to the global electronics, semiconductor, thin film, thermal management, and solar markets. Products include solders, and fluxes; brazes; thermal interface materials; sputtering targets; indium, gallium, germanium, and tin metals and inorganic compounds; and NanoFoil®. Founded in 1934, Indium has global technical support and factories located in China, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the USA.

Ziwei Ouyang
Technical University of Denmark
224, Building 325, Elektrovej
2800 Kgs. Lyngby
Denmark
Telephone: 289-695-1013
E-mail: zo@elektro.dtu.dk

Ziwei Ouyang, received a Ph.D. degree from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in 2011. He worked as postdoctoral researcher and assistant professor at DTU Elektro from 2011 to 2016 and is currently working as associate professor in the same department. His research work is focussed on high frequency magnetics design, modeling and integration for switched mode power supplies, dc/dc converters, and digital control in high-power converters. He was a recipient of Young Engineer Award at PCIM-Asia 2014, and received Best PhD Dissertation of the Year Award 2012 in Technical University of Denmark (DTU). He has over 40 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications and currently he is the holder of five PCT patents. He received the Best Paper Awards in ECCE-Asia conferences in 2010 and 2012 respectively. He is member of the IEEE PELS, IES and Magnetics societies.

Sumida Technologies Inc.
Doug Malcolm
945 Princess St.
Kingston, ON K7L3N6
Telephone: 613-985-3940
E-mail: doug_malcolm@us.sumida.com
Website: www.sumida.com

Sumida Technologies Inc. is a global leader in the design and manufacture of coil-related components and modules. Specialising in custom design solutions, Sumida’s products are used in a wide range of applications from consumer electronic devices through to home appliances, automotive electronics, green energy solutions, industrial electronics and medical healthcare devices and equipment. Their core product scope includes components and modules such as power inductors & transformers, automotive keyless antennas, xenon ignitor modules, mobile communications equipment, radio frequency identification tags (RFID), power inverters for solar power generators and components for industrial lighting solutions.

With over 60 years history in Asia and 80 years in Europe, Sumida’s expertise in coil-related manufacturing, as well as technical design, allows them to offer customers both customised design solutions as well as off-the-shelf products. With R&D centers in Ontario, Canada and Chicago, quick turn of custom Power Modules, Transformers or Inductors can be delivered with the confidence of a Tier 1 supplier. Sales offices throughout North America can guide your idea to the appropriate Sumida engineering team for direct consultation.

UTAC Holdings, Ltd.
Lee Smith
2030 E Cedar PL
Chandler, AZ 85249
Telephone: 480-375-8684
E-mail: lee_smith@utacgroup.com
Website: www.utacgroup.com

United Test and Assembly Center Ltd ("UTAC") is a leading independent provider of semiconductor assembly and testing services for a broad range of integrated circuits including memory, mixed-signal, logic and analog ICs. The company offers a full range of package and test development, engineering and manufacturing services and solutions to a worldwide customer base, comprising leading integrated device manufacturers ("IDMs"), fabless companies and wafer foundries. UTAC operates manufacturing facilities in Singapore, Taiwan, China and Thailand, in addition to its global network of sales offices in Singapore, China, the United States, Italy and Japan.

UTAC was ranked by Gartner Dataquest as the 5th largest semiconductor assembly and test company in 2006. UTAC is also top 3 globally in independent memory assembly and test services.

Twelve-member Board of Directors brings together industry leadership and expertise covering the gamut of technological advances impacting the power sources industry

he Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA) is pleased to announce that a new slate of officers has been elected to lead its Board of Directors for the 2016-2018 term. The new officers are Eric Persson (Infineon), Chairman; Stephen Oliver (Navitas Semiconductor), President; Michael Hayes (Tyndall National Laboratories), Vice President; and Michel Grenon, Secretary/Treasurer (Gaia Converter Inc.).

“Power conversion has emerged as an enabling technology in the electronics industry,” said Eric Persson, PSMA’s new Chairman. “Our Association’s critical work in producing its Technology Roadmap plus the influential work being carried out by PSMA committees including Packaging, Alternative Energy, Energy Harvesting and many others relies on the active participation of our members. We welcome and encourage all companies in our industry to become part of the organization.”

The twelve members of the Board are elected by the member company representatives to serve three-year terms, with four members rotating off each year. The full board of directors for 2016-17 are:

• Eric Persson,Infineon – Chairman
• Steven Oliver, Navitas Semiconductor – President
• Michael Hayes, Tyndall National Laboratories – Vice President
• Michel Grenon, Gaia Converter, Inc. – Secretary/Treasurer
• Dusty Becker, Emerson Energy Systems
• Alain Chapius, Bel Power Solutions
• Ed Herbert, Independent Inventor
• Brian Narveson, Narveson Innovative Consulting
• Ernie Parker, Crane Electronics
• Kevin Parmenter, Excelsys Technologies
• Conor Quinn, Artesyn Embedded Technologies
• Donald Woodard, Venable Corporation

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

ince APEC 2016 was being held in virtually our back yard, Cherokee International founder and president Ganpat Patel and I drove to Long Beach to attend the 30th annual Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC).

This year's event was held inside the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center (located adjacent to the Hyatt Regency Hotel). Having served as the APEC Publicity Chairman (1991-96 & 1998-2004) I wanted to meet some former committee colleagues and to see what new products are being developed and introduced. APEC, sponsored by the IEEE PELS and IEEE IAS Societies and the Power Sources Manufacturers Association, PSMA, is "recognized by many as the leading conference for practicing electronics professionals."
In addition to 21 3-1/2 half hour educational Seminars that commenced on Sunday, APEC 2016 offered over 500 technical papers in 45 different Sessions which started on Monday afternoon and concluded on Thursday March 24.

APEC is truly an International Conference. 1212 Technical Session abstracts, received from 45 different nations, were peer reviewed last fall. Abstracts from 30 of these countries were selected for inclusion in this year’s record setting event. Case in point, engineers traveled from as far away as Australia and New Zealand to share their latest design concepts. Speakers from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan represented Asia. Representing South and Central America, speakers travel from Brazil and Columbia. From the Middle East there were presentations from Egypt, Israel, and Qatar. Representing Europe were speakers from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, German, India, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and the Ukraine. Let me not overlook the speakers from Canada, Ireland and the U.K.

Complementing the technical presentations, the APEC exhibit hall contained 370 booths with a wide array of products. “Feed them and they will come” always works. APEC set up multiple serving stations with great entrees and beverages as well as ice cream stations for the 5,100 plus attendees to keep them from leaving the exhibit hall at the Convention Center.

And what was happening with the PSMA you might ask? A lot. There were 24 two to three hour technical committee meetings scheduled, ranging from a workshop on High Frequency Magnetics that started at 7:30 on Saturday morning to a three-hour session addressing Safety and Compliance issues and another three-hour session on Semiconductors advances that were held on Thursday. I would be remiss not to point out that the very popular Power Technology Roadmap Committee met for two hours on Tuesday. We did look into the Packaging Technical Committee meeting on Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday evening attendees could select from three desirable Rap sessions including: Future of Semiconductor Technology Development, Power Electronics for Internet of Things: Will it Happen and Advanced Refueling Technologies for EVs.

In quizzing some of the attendees we were told that the new hot item is Gallium Nitride semiconductors. Another area to be aware of is IoT. "Internet of things" where you will be told when you are running low on milk, your coffee is ready and other smart power alerts. "The Internet of Things” is the network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange data."

Larry Gilbert, Mohan Mankikar, and Pat Patel

Where is everyone from my past? We did find representatives from firms dating back to the 70s and 80s. Many of the others have merged, sold outright or folded in a very competitive environment.

The APEC 2017 conference will be held in Tampa from March 26-30. If you wish to submit a paper for consideration in the Technical Sessions or be a Trade Show exhibitor simply check the PSMA website for details.

Provided by Larry Gilbert, former APEC Publicity Chair (1991-96 & 1998-2004)

Inaugural 3D Power Electronics Integration and Manufacturing Symposium, June 13-15, 2016, Raleigh, NC, will address the future of power electronics design

he first International Symposium on 3D Power Electronics Integration and Manufacturing (www.3D-PEIM.org), to be held June 13-15, 2016, in Raleigh, North Carolina, is now open for registration. The event brings together designers and manufacturers to address the future of integrated power electronics and advance the 3D power electronics systems designs of the future.

The 3D-PEIM Symposium kicks off on Monday morning, June 13th, with a series of tutorials dealing with “The World of Packaging Technologies and Critical Issues”. Sessions will then continue over three days covering manufacturing techniques, modelling and simulation, materials, passive components, and quality and reliability. The 2+ hour evening receptions on Monday and Tuesday provide opportunities for networking and discussions with the Dialogue Presenters and Exhibitors displaying their latest technologies.

Are you interested in presenting? The Dialogue Session Paper submission is open through June 6, 2016 since we have flexible arrangements and can accommodate additional technical talks. Besides the 2+ hours of discussion time, each Dialogue Speaker gets a full table to display their hardware and resulting products.

Are you interested in Exhibiting or Sponsorship. Each Exhibitor and Sponsor receives a full 8 foot table for their Table-Top Display and a place for their promotions. Exhibits begin Monday noon and continue through Wednesday noon. For more information go to www.3d-peim.org/sponsors.

The 3D-PEIM symposium is underwritten by the Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA) and is supported by: the International Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging Society (IMAPS); the IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Society (CPMT); North Carolina State University; the University of Maryland; and Virginia Tech.

“This symposium is all about electrical-physical design and the manufacturing of power sources,” said Doug Hopkins, PhD., Professor of Electrical Engineering at NC State and Chairman of 3D-PEIM. “Since we expect nearly everyone will have an interest in ‘physical’ circuits, we’re offering both dialogue and lecture speakers the opportunity to display their hardware during the breaks and receptions.” According to Hopkins, the symposium also offers tutorials to provide “background and insight into many of the traditional physical design approaches and technologies.”

Prof. Douglas Hopkins, General Chair
Prof. Patrick McCluskey, Technical Program Co-Chair
Prof. G.Q. Lu, Technical Program Co-Chair

Provided by Prof. Douglas Hopkins, General Chair

he workshop focuses on the integration of both modular and granular electronic power converters for multiple applications, by accessing a broad range of leading-edge technologies. PwrSoC was hosted in Ireland (2008, 2010), San Francisco (2012) and Boston (2014). After Madrid (2016), it will be held Taiwan (2018). This rotation -Europe, America, Asia- reflects the ambition of PwrSoC to remain a global workshop.

• Location: Escuela Technica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales de Madrid, located on the “Paseo de la Castellana”, the main north to south street and financial district of the city
  
• Registration: opens in June !
  

E-poster submission
Please consider sharing your recent research on PwrSoC by presenting an E-poster during the workshop. This is a great opportunity to discuss your recent innovations and solutions, in a lively format, where you can show slides, photos, videos and simulations describing your research and directly respond to questions and receive feedback.
Call for E-Poster is open until June 15th!!

The Program…
…is a selection of 30 excellent invited speakers, from industry and academia, from Europe, Asia and America, to cover a broad range of technologies and innovations, structured around the topics shown below:

• Systems & Applications
  
• Topologies and Control
  
• Power Semiconductor Technology
  
• Magnetics
  
• Capacitors
  
• System Integration, Packaging and Manufacturing
  
• Granular Power
  
• E-Poster session
  

Complete on-die integration and integration within package are of prime interest. System performance required by current and emerging applications are demanding ever-greater current density, voltage regulation and optimized control, form factor reduction, high efficiency, and cost reduction.

Do not miss the opportunity for networking with a broad diversity of companies and universities. The attendee statistics from the past workshop in Boston show a great balance of over 200 attendees with expertise in fundamentals & basic research, technology development, IC manufacturing and system integration. Discussion and interaction is guaranteed in the single track workshop during three complete days!!

Schedule your trip
There is a wide variety of hotels and restaurants near the university. The venue is very well connected with the rest of the city of Madrid by metro and bus, and there is a very good connection to the airport and the high speed train station to visit other cities in Spain.
October is a very popular and pleasant time to visit Madrid and the country. Weather is mild, and you can expect an average daytime temperature of around 20°C (68ºF), still very pleasant indeed.

Further info
Information regarding the workshop can be found at http://www.pwrsoc2016.org where the past presentations and posters from earlier workshops are now available to the public.

Provided by José A. Cobos, General Chair PwrSoC 2016

he 4th IEEE Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications (WiPDA) will be held on Nov. 7–9, 2016, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA. WiPDA is a fast-growing yearly event with its focus on wide bandgap devices development, application and related topics. This workshop provides a forum for device scientists, circuit designers, and application engineers from the Power Electronics and Electron Devices Societies to share technology updates, research findings, development experience and potential applications. The number of WIPDA attendees grew from 130 to more than 200 within the last three years, and the attendees are from multiple disciplines including materials science, device fabrication and device application. Topics of interests of WiPDA include:

• Heteroepitaxial & Bulk Materials Growth
  
• Gate Dielectrics & Surface Passivation
  
• Device Structures & Fabrication Techniques
  
• Device Characterization & Modeling
  
• Very-High Efficiency Or Compact Converters
  
• Safe Operating Areas Of Wide Bandgap Devices, Including Short Circuit, Spike, &Transient Tolerance
  
• Harsh Environment (High Temperature) Operation & Reliability
  
• Packaging Power Modules & ICs
  
• Hard-Switched & Soft-Switched Application Analysis
  
• Gate Drive & Other Auxiliary Circuits
  
• High-Performance Passive Components
  
• Applications in Renewable Energy & Energy Storage, Transportation, Industrial Drives, & Grid Power Systems
  
• Wide Band Gap System Design Philosophies & Strategies

WiPDA has gained strong support from government agencies, prestigious academic institutions, and industry leading companies, nationally and internationally. Previously, attendees from the Office of Naval Research and Department of Energy shared their opinions in the development of wide bandgap devices in both keynote speeches and panel sessions. There are attendees from more than 20 companies that have participated in this workshop in technical sessions, tutorial sessions, panel sessions, keynote sessions, as well as in exhibitions. The participated companies include, but are not limited to: ABB, APEI, Avogy, Booz Allen Hamilton, Clinch, Cree, Caterpillar, Dow Corning Corporation, Epiluvac, EPRI, Exide Technologies, Ford, GE, International Rectifier, Monolith Semiconductor, Nippon Chemi-Con Corporation, NREL, ON Semiconductor, NRL, ORNL, PowerRox LLC, ROHM, Sandia National Laboratory, Texas Instruments, Toyota North America, Transphorm, United Silicon Carbide and UTRC.

WiPDA 2016 will maintain a similar workshop arrangement including tutorials, keynote sessions, university lab tours, a panel discussion, a series of technical sessions, an exhibition, and, of course, a nice social dinner at the football stadium (Razorback stadium)! We will have keynote speakers from Texas Instruments, GaN Systems, Wolfspeed, PowerAmerica, ARL, Ford, Lockheed Martin, and the Electric Power Research Institute. They will share their views with different perspectives as the device manufacturer, the equipment designer, and the system integrator. There will be two tracks for tutorial sessions this year with four topics: SiC devices, GaN devices, device characterization, and applications of WBG devices. The university lab tours will include the UA’s High Density Electronics Center, their wide bandgap power packaging facilities, and the National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission, their 6 MVA/15 kV test facility. Further, the Power Electronics Society’s working group on the International Technology Roadmap for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (ITRW) will meet on Sunday, November 6, prior to the workshop.

WiPDA 2016 plans to provide student travel grants this year to further support student participation. All presented papers will be included in the conference proceedings and submitted to the databases of IEEExplore. Important dates of this event include:

− Two Page Abstract: July 10, 2016
− Notification of Acceptance: August 21, 2016
− Final Paper Submission: September 25, 2016
− Technical Oral & Dialogue Sessions: November 8th-9th, 2016.

More details can be found on the workshop website www.wipda2016.org. We are looking forward to meeting you in Fayetteville, Arkansas in November!

Provided by Dr. Fang Luo, Publicity Chair WiPDA 2016

t is with great pleasure that I welcome you to Austin, Texas, the site of the 38th annual INTELEC Conference

Telecommunications and Data Services are converging at an accelerating rate. The traditional approaches to providing mission critical survivability are expanding beyond robust power and are starting to take advantage of virtualization. The challenges facing the network have not changed. Natural disasters, grid issues, equipment failure, and human error still pose risks in providing uninterrupted Data and Communications. Our mission in the power community is to understand these threats, and how to mitigate them. This includes the management of energy distribution, conversion and storage in the new environment of an increasingly virtualized network.

In keeping with the selected theme for INTELEC 2016 - Powering the Software Defined Network. – The program committee has developed a technical conference scope that will explore a broad range of topics critical to our industry. At INTELEC 2016 you will have an opportunity to engage with global leaders and experts in topics like advanced energy storage and management, DC at various voltages (not just 48 VDC) and AC in datacenters and telecommunications centers, alternative power systems, high conversion efficiency, and interfacing with advanced software controlled networks.

We will also include informative tutorials aimed at advances in power management. We will have a student program that will provide a dedicated opportunity for new professionals to share the latest research from academia. Our exhibitor seminar track will provide conference delegates an opportunity for “hands on” preview of key solutions being introduced, offered, or presented at the conference exhibition. Visit www.intelec2016.org for the latest conference information.

Provided by Dustin J Becker, Intelec 2016 General Chairman

Moving from Computers to Transportation

hree events took place in the first quarter of 2016 that will change the dynamics of power electronics:

First, Tesla Motors, Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) announced that it will take online orders for its next generation of electric cars, Model 3, over the Internet with a $1,000 deposit. This car is not yet available in show rooms and its pictures barely appears in the advertisement - but as of this writing about 400,000 people have registered their intent to purchase this car. (Disclaimer: I am one of them). In the history of automobiles, such an event has never before taken place; demand for this car, priced at $35,000, has outstripped all expectations. It seems that the future of automobiles will be electric. And the credit goes to Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors. Mr. Musk, the celebrity CEO of Silicon Valley, is the person with many normal and exotic products and ideas, including SolarCity, Home Battery System, Space X Rocket and the Hyperloop, a high-speed transportation system. Elon Musk is viewed as next "Steve Jobs"; he plans to revolutionize transportation systems with electric cars, space rockets and Hyperloop transportation, the way Steve Jobs revolutionized computers, telephones and consumer electronics. So the next big thing for electronics will be electric cars.

Second, Intel Corporation (Santa Clara, CA), in its first quarter 2016 earnings report mentioned that its Client Computing Group revenue declined by 14% sequentially and up 2% year-over-year. In addition, it was reported that Intel will lay off about 11% of its global workforce - up to 12,000 employees- a painful downsizing aimed at accelerating its shift away from the waning personal computer (PC) market to one more focused on cloud computing and connected devices. In short, the PC market that has propelled switching power supplies into high-volume commodity products and became the mainstay of the industry will be declining significantly in future.

Third, Apple Inc. (Cupertino, CA) released its 2nd quarter fiscal 2016 (1st quarter calendar year 2016) financial statement. It showed a significant decline in its iPhone sales. According to Bloomberg News: "Apple Inc.’s streak of 51 consecutive quarters of uninterrupted sales growth is over -- and its expansion may not resume until late this year..." This was first-ever decline in its thirteen-year history, suggesting high growth for mobile phones may be coming to an end as markets for such products become saturated.

So the ever-growing market of personal computers is declining and the mobile phone market may be slowing down; so what is next? Or in Silicon Valley parlance, what will be the next best thing? It seems electric vehicles (EVs).

The early eighties provided a true revolution for power supplies when personal computers became the driver for high volume products for power supplies. Later, the revolution in communications brought ubiquitous mobile phones and their associated adapters to the market. Now is the time of electric vehicles. With Tesla Motors bringing a $35,000 car to market, it has breached a critical barrier; it has moved from its super expensive Model S, priced at $100,000+ to the Model 3, priced at $35,000. This is still an expensive car for the masses, but it will not be long before an electric car breaks the price barrier to about $25,000 and its driving range extended beyond 300 miles. It is expected that within the next few years, electric cars may become very affordable for "the masses". With additional heavy emphasis on climate change from the governments around the world and the associated social consciousness, electric cars are expected to join the mainstream automobile markets. Declining growth in personal computers, modest growth in mobile phones and high growth of EVs will be a paradigm shift for the overall electronic industry and especially for power electronics.

With high use of electric vehicles, battery chargers are expected to be installed not only in designated charging stations, but in many more locations, such as shopping malls, office buildings, apartment buildings and private homes. Delta Products in Fremont, California has installed 19 charging stations in its parking lot of which 18 are Level 2 AC 7.2kW and the other is a 50kW DC fast charging station. During my visit to Delta last month, I saw a variety of cars including Tesla, Nissan Leaf and others being charged while their owners worked at the facility. My local shopping mall in Santa Rosa has three charging stations. Charging stations are being installed all over the country and will be popping up around the globe in next few years as electric cars become common.

Though Tesla has garnered the most attention in EV due to its advanced high performance product, clever marketing and celebrity CEO, it is not the only company in the EV business. There is Nissan with the Leaf and Chevy with the Volt, to be replaced by the new Bolt by 2017. All major automobile companies including BMW, Daimler (Mercedes Benz), Ford and Toyota are planning to introduce all electric vehicles in the next few years. A Chinese company, Le Holding Ltd. just showed its first driverless all electric car, LeEco, at the Los Angeles Auto Show and Google just announced its partnership with Fiat/Chrysler to develop driverless cars. Replacing the driver requires a significant amount of electronics, including sensors, processors, motors and many other devices. All of these electronics also will need some form of power conversion.

EVs offer the next great opportunities for power electronics, more than personal computers and mobile phones, because the products are not "cheap". The price of a typical personal computer power supply is less than $10 and a mobile phone adapter is priced at less than $2 depending on volume. So despite large market opportunities, PC power supplies and adapters are not offering significant profit potential. On the other hand, EV chargers are higher wattage products, more sophisticated and higher priced, from $600 to $1000 for a Level 2 AC to about $35,000 for a 50kW DC unit. So EVs may not reach the high volume of PCs or mobile phones in units, but the dollar sales associated with power electronics may be higher together with the profit margins.

The next best thing for power electronics will be all electric transportation.

Provided by Mohan Mankikar, President, Micro-Tech Consultants

he total market for power semiconductors based on wide-band-gap materials, such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN), is forecast to pass the $1 billion mark in the next five years. Energized by demand from hybrid and electric vehicles, power supplies, and photovoltaic (PV) inverters, global revenue from SiC and GaN power semiconductors is projected to rise to $3.7 billion in 2025, up from just $210 million in 2015, according to IHS Inc., the leading global source of critical information and insight. Revenue is projected to grow with a double-digit annual growth for the next decade.

All AC-DC power supplies rated at 75 watts (W) and above, and power supplies used in lighting applications rated at 25W and above, are required to include power factor correction (PFC), according to the latest IHS SiC & GaN Power Semiconductors Report. SiC devices, starting with SiC Schottky diodes, have generally only been used in the power factor correction circuit for AC-DC power supplies. The use of SiC Schottky barrier diodes in power supplies, particularly in the power factor correction (PFC) stage of AC-DC power supplies, has been increasing rapidly. The main benefits of using SiC diodes is that faster switching can be achieved, resulting in lower power conversion losses and increased power density.

In contrast to SiC, GaN power semiconductors may offer a viable competitor to silicon diodes and transistors across a full range of high and low voltages; and they could be used in all areas of power-supply design. Although GaN devices could potentially be used in more power supplies eventually, they will not account for the majority of SiC and GaN revenue in the power supply application, over the next 10 years. In fact, revenue from GaN sales comprise less than a third of total revenue in 2025.

Most single-phase electricity mains power supplies in consumer and office equipment typically use 600V–650V devices, making them an ideal target for GaN power transistors. However, apart from telecommunications and server supplies with special requirements, these power supplies will most likely continue to rely on Si semiconductors. Industrial three-phase mains power supplies requiring 1200V-rated devices are better suited to SiC technology.

Since IHS began studying the SiC and GaN power market in 2009, GaN Schottky diode development has almost completely stopped, because GaN diodes do not offer very compelling benefits over Si Schottky diodes below 600V. It has proved too costly to develop GaN diodes to the point where they could be made price competitive with silicon diodes. Furthermore, SiC Schottky diodes are considered to have adequate performance and a competitive pricing roadmap. The first GaN Schottky diodes are not expected to be commercially available before 2020, at the earliest.

The forecast shown in the figure below summarizes specific power supply applications: computing, telecommunication, consumer devices, and all other power supplies. For the sake of consistency, device prices and their declines are assumed to be the same for each power supply application.

Computing Power Supplies
Power supplies used in computing include a mix of commodity and non-commodity AC-DC power supplies and DC-DC converters used in computing and server applications. Examples of non-commodity AC-DC power supplies in this sector include enterprise and high-end servers, and computer storage. Commodity AC-DC power supplies include those for computing (i.e., all desktop PCs, low-end servers, notebooks, tablet PCs, and the chargers or power adapters used with them) and office equipment (i.e., any other computer and office equipment, including monitors, printers, copiers, DSL modems, LAN hardware, hardware firewalls, cordless phones, IP phones, and fax machines). Among this list of products, over 99 percent of non-commodity AC-DC power supplies employ power factor correction (PFC), compared to less than 1 percent of commodity AC-DC power supplies.

An average of over 15 percent of all computing power supplies contained PFC circuitry in 2015, but this proportion is expected to decline – falling to less than 7 percent in 2025. As equipment power efficiency improves over time, shipments of commodity power supplies for computing applications without PFC circuits are expected to grow faster than non-commodity power supplies with PFC circuitry.
GaN transistors will not be generally used in the commodity AC-DC power supplies in desktop PCs, low-end servers, notebook PCs and power adapters. They will be used only in the types of high-end computing equipment that use non-commodity AC-DC power supplies requiring PFC.

Computing and server power supplies will be the most valuable sector for wide bandgap semiconductors, because the efficiency benefits will provide the best energy cost savings in this application sector.

Telecommunication Power Supplies
Power supplies used for telecommunication applications are non-commodity AC-DC power supplies and DC-DC converters used for the telecommunications application sector. This sector includes the following areas: access (infrastructure in the last one to three kilometers from the end-user), backbone (the underlying network communications conduit, including central offices and infrastructure), networking equipment (including service-provider routers, edge routers, core routers, high-end enterprise routers and network switches), mobile phone infrastructure (including all wireless network base stations), and other telecommunication applications (any fixed communications equipment not included in any other category).

Of these areas, backbone, networking equipment and cellular phone infrastructure employ PFC in most power supplies used. Base-station power supplies usually have 48Vdc outputs and are commonly known in the market as “48V rectifiers.”

Many power supply vendors have already been using SiC Schottky diodes in the PFC circuits for years. There is interest in wider adoption of SiC and GaN devices in the future, as increased switching frequency and efficiency improvements appear possible. However, this increase in adoption is not predicted to happen until reliability is proven and prices fall to roughly double those of the silicon discretes they replace.

In contrast, the adoption of GaN power transistors is only just beginning. GaN power devices offer many of the same advantages over silicon as SiC devices; but they should, in theory, cost less than SiC power devices. However, GaN is a much newer technology, with far less life-test data to prove reliability. The first high-end switch-mode power supplies for telecom and data center applications using GaN transistors will start mass production in 2016.

Consumer Electronics Power Supplies
Power supplies used for consumer electronics are commodity AC-DC power supplies and DC-DC converters used for the consumer electronics and home appliance sectors. Examples include both internal power supplies and power adapters/chargers for gaming consoles, televisions, set-top boxes, CD and DVD players and recorders, digital cameras and camcorders and home appliances (including dishwashers, washing machines and dryers).

Of these products, approximately 13 percent employed power factor correction (PFC) in 2015. Again, this proportion is expected to decline slowly, falling to under 10 percent in 2023, as equipment becomes more power efficient and fewer power supplies exceed the 75W threshold above which PFC is required. Only 1 percent of power supplies in consumer electronics use DC-DC converters.
Although the market for power supplies in consumer electronics is large, manufacturers predominantly use commodity AC-DC power supplies that do not require PFC. Adoption of SiC and GaN power semiconductors will remain very low until device prices fall close to parity with Si MOSFETs and IGBTs.

Other Power Supplies
The remaining market includes a mix of commodity and non-commodity AC-DC power supplies and DC-DC converters used in all other remaining applications. Examples of non-commodity AC-DC power supplies are those used in industrial applications, lighting, medical equipment, and military and aerospace equipment. Examples of commodity AC-DC power supplies are those used for mobile communications (power adapters for cellular phone handsets, including replacement chargers), LED lighting, and any other applications not covered in the preceding categories.

Less than 3 percent of power supplies for products, other than those listed above, used PFC in 2015, but the proportion of “other” power supplies requiring PFC is expected to increase to 6 percent in 2025. Shipments of power supplies for lighting applications, which require PFC above 25W output, are forecast to grow faster than other applications in this group. Fewer than 2 percent of power supplies in “other” applications use DC-DC converters.

Although the market for power supplies for “other” applications is very large, only a small proportion require PFC. Like consumer electronics, adoption of SiC and GaN power semiconductors will remain very low until device prices fall close to parity with Si MOSFETs and IGBTs.

Provided by Richard Eden, Senior Analyst, Power Semiconductors, IHS Technology

incoln International’s Renewable Energy Group is pleased to present the latest Q1 2016 Solar Energy Stock Index Report, which tracks relevant solar company metrics in this growing industry.

The Solar Energy Stock Index Report, published by our Renewable Energy Group each quarter, provides you with information on the following:

• Quarterly performance of the Solar Energy Stock Index versus the S&P Index
• Relative market valuations of each Solar Energy sector
• Current financial data for each company in the index

solar_stock_index_q1_2016.pdf (345k pdf)

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.

incoln International is pleased to present you with the latest DealReader from our global Renewable Energy Industry group. This will provide you with:

• Q1 2016 deal volume comparison by total transactions, deal type, geography, and target company sector
• Recent Solar Energy transaction announcements
• Global Solar Energy ratio analysis

solar_dealreader_q1_2016.pdf (438k pdf)

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.

incoln International is pleased to present you with the Q1 2016 EMS Stock Index from our Global Electronics Industry Group. This report will provide you with:

• Quarterly performance of the EMS Stock Index versus the S&P Index
• Relative market valuations of each EMS Tier
• Current financial data for each company in the index

ems_stock_index_q1_2016.pdf (382k pdf)

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.

incoln International is pleased to present you with the latest EMS DealReader from our Global Electronics Industry Group. This will provide you with:

• Q1 2016 deal volume comparison by total transactions, deal type, geography and size
• Recent EMS transaction announcements
• Terms & Turns: Revisiting the Cash Cycle

ems_dealreader_q1_2016.pdf (594k pdf)

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.

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.