Fred Weber, Capacitor Committee Co-Chair

ach of the PSMA Technical Committees provided updates on the recent activities of their committees at the Annual Meeting at APEC 2019 in Anaheim, CA. In addition, each Committee also held individual meetings during the week of APEC 2019.

Fred Weber, Capacitor Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee now has two additional co-chairs (Pierre Lohber and Wilmer Companioni) and have organized a four speaker Industry Session with the theme of "Which Capacitor Technology You Should Use for Power Conversion Applications". The committee also organized two technical webinars in support of the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap and an educational webinar on Capacitor Fundamentals.

The committee held a successful workshop on Saturday prior to start of APEC2019 with over 50 registrations. The committee is meeting during the week to review the workshop, plan for a follow-up workshop at APEC2020 and discuss the theme and subjects for the upcoming year.

Mike Hayes and Brian Zahnstecher, Energy Harvesting Committee Co-Chairs, reported that the committee now has 46 members covering 4 continents and been meeting monthly via teleconference. The committee supported the 2019 PSMA Power Technology Roadmap with two Technical Webinars and has organized a seven presentation Industry Session for APEC 2019 with the theme "Making the Batteries Outlive the Devices They Power". The Industry Session includes a Live Demo with hardware, models and systems.

Mike Hayes and Brian Zahnstecher, Energy Harvesting Committee Co-Chairs

The committee organized EnerHarv 2018 Workshop in Cork Ireland. This was a very successful workshop attracting over 80 registrations. The committee will be meeting during APEC to discuss and plan EnerHarv 2020, develop a theme for the APEC2020 Industry Session and plan a possible student competition.

Ed Herbert and Patrick LeFevre, Energy Management Committee Co-Chairs

Patrick Le Fevre and Ed Herbert, Energy Management Committee Co-Chairs, reported the committee was unable to organize an Industry Session for APEC2019 but is planning one for APEC2020 and considering ideas for a special project. The committee is currently looking for new leadership and to increase committee membership and participation.

The committee continues to support the efforts to update the Energy Efficiency Data Base that is available on the PSMA web site. Arnold Alderman, provided a brief update of the current status of the Energy Efficiency Data Base.

Joe Horzepa reviewed the objectives of the Industry-Education 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 been and continues to spearhead a joint program with PELS and IAS for Travel Support for students to attend APEC. For APEC 2019, 60 students from 15 countries will share a total of $60,000.  In addition, all students were encouraged to post their resumes on the PSMA website for the industry member to consider for position openings.

Joe Horzepa discussed the need for PSMA members to take a more active role in encouraging students at the high school levels to consider the opportunities for a career in power electronics and encourage qualified candidates to pursue a degree in the field. He encouraged the attendees to join the Industry Education Committee and to initiate special projects focused on middle and high school students that highlight the potential of a career in the power electronics industry.

Steve Carlsen, Magnetics Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee has held monthly meeting this past year and has organized a seven presentation Industry Session focusing on new magnetic materials for APEC 2019. The committee has been sponsoring two special projects during the past year. A preliminary report is currently available and the final results will be documented in a Report when completed.

Under the leadership of Matt Wilkowski and Ed Herbert, the committee, with technical support from IEEE PELS, organized fourth very successful one-day workshop on high frequency magnetics the day prior to APEC2019 with about 110 people registered. An overview of the workshop will be presented at the Industry Session and Magnetics Committee meeting. A fifth workshop is being planned for APEC 2020.

Frank Cirolia and Greg Evans, Marketing Committee Co-Chairs, provided an overview of the committee and highlighted some of the activities on its current agenda. The committee was instrumental in reducing and simplifying the number of Membership Categories for the Association and defining Component Suppliers as Regular Members. The committee also updated and printed a new Membership Brochure and continued the Passport program at APEC2019. In addition, the committee is considering a new logo for the Association and will be distributing a survey during APEC2019 to better understand the awareness and expectations for the Association.

Ernie Parker, Power Packaging and Manufacturing Committee Co-Chair

Power Packaging and Manufacturing Committee Co-Chair, Ernie Parker, reviewed the activities and results of the committee this past year.  It has been another outstanding year with the organizing of a 7-presentaion Industry Sessions for APEC 2019 entitled "Making Power Sources Small with 3D Power Packaging Solutions", organizing the Second 3D PEIM Symposium the past June which attracted 70 attendees, and providing financial and technical support for a very successful PwrSoC 2018 in Taiwan with over 150 registrations. In addition, the committee supported the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap.

The committee is currently supporting IWIPP 2019 in Toulouse, France, planning for PwrSoC2020 in Philadelphia and the third 3D-PEIM2020 scheduled for Osaka Japan.

Dhaval Dalal and Conor Quinn, Power Technology Roadmap Committee Co-Chairs, reported that the committee committee has completed work on the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap Report which has been published and will be distributed to the membership in the next several weeks. In support of the Roadmap the committee organized 17 Technical Webinars and significantly expanded the survey (more than 100 responses) to include a Chinese translation with the support of CPSS. In addition, a new section was included on University Research activities on future products and technologies. The Plenary Session for APEC2019 includes a presentation on the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap focusing on the University Research. 

The committee will be meeting during APEC2019 to discuss plans for the 2021 Roadmap effort.

Tony O'Brien and Brian Zahnstecher, Reliability Committee Co-Chairs, reported that the new committee has monthly meetings and has 22 members from the industry. The recent focus of the committee has been sponsoring a Special Project that addresses Power Supply Software/Hardware Specifications and Testing Standardization. The project will be documented in the coming year. The committee organized a Technology Webinar in support of the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap.

The committee will be meeting during APEC2019 to discuss the special Project and planning for the coming year.

Safety & Compliance Committee Co-Chairs, Kevin Parmenter and Jim Spangler, reported that the committee is looking for more active members and new co-chairs to continue the committee's efforts in 2019 and beyond. The committee contributed a section to the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap and continues to promote and support the Safety and Compliance Data base on the web site which is updated on a continuing basis as well as adding additional agencies that are tracked. The co-chairs have also provided monthly articles on Safety and Compliance issues to How 2 Power.

There will be a committee meeting during APEC2019 to discuss the need for new co-chairs and the future of the committee.

Tim McDonald, Co-Chair of the Semiconductor Committee, reported the committee has been very active this past year and has organized three Industry Sessions -the first two are 7-presentation Industry sessions entitled: "Getting up to Speed on Switching: Wide Band Gap & Other High Performance Components" and "Current reliability and product qualification topics for SiC and GaN wide band gap devices" The third is a 6-presentation session entitled: "Production use cases of wide band gap semiconductors".

The committee has also provided support to the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap including a number of technical webinars. The committee sponsored the 2018 WiPDA (Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications) and will help organize and sponsor the 2019 WiPDA workshop.to be held in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The committee will be meeting during APEC2019 to plan the activities for the coming year including considering a Special Project of interest to the industry.

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 with the theme: "Enablers for Transportation Electrification" The presenters are from the major automotive manufacturers and experts from the industry. The committee has also contributed to the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap.

The committee will meet during APEC2019 to identify possible themes for APEC 2020 and to discuss the initial results of a Special Project focused on ways to generate more awareness of PSMA to the automotive industry.

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 webconference 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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