n the last quarter's PSMA newsletter, Mike Hayes, the new Chair of PSMA, offered a high-level outline of what PSMA and in particular the Executive Committee's goals are. It certainly is a challenging time with most working from home and every Conference and Exhibition cancelled or at best turned into a virtual event. Even with these challenges, the PSMA Executive Committee has been busy working on improving PSMA for the benefit of our membership and ecosystem at large.

As we prepare for next year's APEC in Phoenix, AZ, everyone is hard at work organizing an in-person event, while also planning for any eventualities. We certainly hope that the COVID pandemic of 2020 will be completely behind us and events will move forward in Phoenix. Given the lessons learned in 2020 we believe that should APEC once again be required to become virtual we will be prepared to make that transition faster and smoother than this year. Between now and then we are also working to advance our objectives.

Application Based Orientation

As the champion to move PSMA more towards an application-based orientation, I have worked with the PSMA Transportation Electronics, Energy Management and Capacitor Committees to create offerings that will begin that transition.

For example, the Capacitor Committee has formed a sub-committee, Energy Storage & Applications, which is working with the Energy Management Committee to create an independent Industry Session for APEC2021 on Energy Storage. The expectation is that Energy Storage & Applications will eventually become its own Committee once critical mass is achieved. The goal will be to focus on the types of Energy Storage and methods to optimize the different technologies including everything from EV Car Battery or Fuel Cell Systems to Energy Harvesting from microwatts to megawatts.

Another activity that is now being worked on is a Webinar that will combine Transportation and Capacitors. This webinar will offer a process outlining critical parameters in choosing capacitors in Automotive applications. There will be separate Webinars for 12V, 48V and High Voltage (400V - 800V) transportation systems. The presenters will identify a needed capacitor, size it, and then evaluate the proper technology and specific component that should be chosen using product datasheets, and knowledge of the technologies.

Finally (for now), the Transportation Electronics Committee has dropped its reference to power (previously called Transportation Power Electronics) to allow inclusion of everything that supports Autonomous Vehicles. We believe this is a critical step to give PSMA and the Transportation Electronics Committee more exposure to the Vehicular Industry. We are working hard to help educate the engineers in the vehicle industry to the benefits and strengths of PSMA and value of membership (see IPC below). As can be seen from all of the above this also means a lot more interaction and synergies between the PSMA technical committees reflecting the need for technologies to be combined to better solve applications problems.

Engaging more with our industry and academic stakeholders

PSMA has presented in both the IFEC Conference (International Future Energy Challenge), and a Webinar with IPC titled - Automotive Electronics: Solutions to New Challenges. PSMA is a co-sponsor of IFEC and it was a privilege to present an overview of who and what PSMA is. Many attendees and participants of conferences never know details about the sponsoring organizations. The Executive Committee is working to change that, especially since we sponsor so many conferences in addition to APEC, by giving more detailed introductions at all of our events. The IPC Webinar was directed specifically to Automotive personnel. A quick survey showed that the majority of these Automotive engineers had never heard of PSMA or APEC. PSMA will continue participating in Automotive based activities to further our footprint in that industry.

The Executive Committee is always open to additional ideas and/or possible suggestions. I hope that by outlining some of our current activities, that I may have triggered an idea or two from you, the reader. I would look forward to hearing any feedback that you may have.

Fred Weber PSMA President Future Technology Worldwide

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.