Power Magnetics @ High Frequency
Eliminating the Smoke and Mirrors
Date: Saturday March 3, 2018
San Antonio, Texas

he "Power Magnetics @ High Frequency – Eliminating the Smoke and Mirrors" workshop sponsored by the PSMA Magnetics Committee and IEEE PELS was held on the day before APEC 2018, Saturday March 3, 2018 from 7:00 AM thru 6:00 PM in San Antonio Texas.

This third workshop continued the traditional of the first two magnetics workshops in 2016 and 2017 by bringing together experts from all aspects of the magnetics industry research and academic organizations, world renowned consultants and the everyday heroes of magnetics design who are responsible for commercializing magnetic products on a regular basis. The number of workshop attendees increased to 160 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 workshop was:

• 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 who included Dr. Charles Sullivan (Dartmouth), Stefan Ehrlich (Fraunhofer Institute), Marek Rylko (SMA Magnetics), Ed Herbert (PSMA), Byron Beddingfield (North Carolina State University), Dr Ray Ridley (Ridley Engineering), Dominik Neumayr ( ETH), Michael Baumann (Sumida), Michael Seeman (Eta One Power), George Slama (Wurth Elektronik), Bruce Carsten (PEAK), Jenna Pollock, J. C. Sun (Bs&T Technologies), Martin Gruebl (Sumida), Doug Malcolm (Sumida), Ryu Nagahama (IWATSU), Marcin Kacki (SMA Magnetics), Chris Oliver (Micrometals), Chuck Wild (Dexter Magnetics), John Lynch (Fair Rite), Kyle Jensen (Rubadue), Dr. Sadhab Ganda (EPCOS), Philip Laurer (EPCOS) and Brad Van Fleet (Magnetics).

Based on post workshop discussions, the next High Frequency Magnetics workshop in the series will be held the Saturday before APEC2019. This fourth workshop will be in conjunction with APEC 2019 in Anaheim California. A survey of attendees is in process to identify the theme, specific topics and presenters for the next workshop will continue to drive efforts to improve the characterization and specification of magnetic materials and magnetic cores to support the power electronics industry and to identify efforts that will 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 2019 worksop in Anaheim California should contact the PSMA office (power@psma.com). We are looking forward to the fourth workshop and driving the industry forward to meet the expectations of the workshop attendees.

Organizing Committee
Khurram Afridi, University of Colorado Boulder
Ali Bazzi, University of Connecticut
Steve Carlsen, Raytheon Systems Company
Ed Herbert , PSMA
Laili Wang, Xi'an Jiaotong University
Rodney Rogers, Allstar Magnetics
Fred Weber, Future Technology Worldwide
Chuck Wild, Dexter Magnetic Technologies Inc.
Matt Wilkowski, Intel

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.