1. APEC 2022 Returns to In-Person Event after 2-Year Hiatus
   
2. You Are Invited to the 2021 PSMA Planning Meeting
   
3. About Our Members
   
4. Welcome to PSMA
   
5. Friends of PSMA
   
6. APEC 2022 Sponsors Continue Student Attendance Support Program
   
7. PSMA and IPC to Collaborate on Software/Firmware Standard
   
8. PSMA Members-Only Opportunity to Underwrite Power Technology Roadmap Webinars
   
9. APEC 2022 Exposition Co-Chair Opening on the APEC Conference Committee
   
10. PSMA and IEEE PELS Educational Series for Young Professionals: "Social Networking for Engineers"
    
11. PSMA Magnetics Committee and PELS TC2 High Frequency Magnetics Workshop
    
12. PSMA/PELS Sponsor Capacitors in Power Electronics Workshop
    
13. 2021 International 3D Power Electronics Integration and Manufacturing Symposium
    
14. 2021 International Power Supply-on-Chip (PwrSoC)
    
15. WiPDA 2021 Workshop: The 8th Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications
    
16. Announcing EnerHarv2022: Building the ecosystem for Powering the Internet of Things
    
17. Announcing the International Workshop on Integrated Power Packaging (IWIPP 2022)
    
18. Green Hydrogen, Myth or Reality?
    
19. PSMA Magnetics Workshop Explores AI, Core Loss and EMI
    
20. 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: Q4_2020 | Q1_2021 | Q2_2021

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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.

 

he effects of COVID-19 on in-person technical conferences and trade shows have been nearly universal. APEC2020 was an early victim of the pandemic and APEC 2021 was held as a full virtual event in June. The energy and attendance at the Virtual-Only APEC 2021 event is a testament to the importance of our conference as the industry resource for learning of the latest in power electronics technology and new product developments. APEC 2021 attendees were offered a wide-ranging program including:

• 6 Plenary Presentations
• 3 Rap Sessions
• 16 Professional Education Seminars
• Almost 500 Technical Papers
• Over 100 Industry Session Presentations

As the world makes progress toward stemming the impact of the pandemic, plans are now fully underway for a return to a live APEC 2022 in Houston next March.

Never in the history of electronics has power conversion been more in the forefront. Efficiency is a top priority of nearly every new design. And the latest advances in technology are touching virtually every aspect of our industry, from passive components to semiconductors and packaging. And there just isn't anywhere else on earth our industry comes together so completely to learn, connect and grow than at the Applied Power Electronics Conference.

Hundreds of digests have been submitted for the Technical Sessions and now the work of the peer-reviewers is underway to select the best for the APEC 2022 program.

Work continues in development of the Plenary Session program. The committee has put together an exceptional roster of candidates. The program will be finalized before the next edition of this newsletter. The Plenary Session typically beings in well over 2,000 attendees. In addition, IEEE.tv will, once again, be streaming the entire session, live, for those who can't make it to APEC by Monday afternoon.

By mid-September, all the submissions of proposals for both the very popular Industry Sessions as well as the highly informative Professional Education Seminars will be under consideration. The Industry Session tracks which will run in parallel with the Technical Sessions are expected to be as popular as ever.

Back at APEC 2019, over 1500 attendees arrived early to take advantage of the Sunday and Monday morning Professional Education Seminars. The committee is planning for a repeat of this attendance in 2022.

Booth selection for the APEC 2022 exhibit hall is now open and a fully booked and vibrant exhibition is in the works.

Registration opens in October.  Go to www.apec-conf.org to get all the information you need. In addition to making your reservation to attend, you will also be able to book your hotel accommodations. APEC has secured blocks of rooms at the close-in hotels to the convention center.  As usual, these rooms will sell out long before next March.

The entire APEC Conference Committee is excited about bringing our Premier Global Event in Applied Power Electronics to Houston, March 20-24, 2022.

Provided by Greg Evans, APEC 2022 Publicity Chair

ll members of PSMA companies are invited to attend the 2021 PSMA Planning Meeting and to offer their inputs and suggestions for the projects and activities the Association should focus on in the coming year. Since ongoing concerns with COVID-19 are preventing many from travelling, the meeting will be held virtually on Tuesday October 19, beginning at 10 AM CDT (3 PM GMT).

The Annual Planning Meeting is a key input to the Board of Directors for planning PSMA activities for the upcoming year that will bring benefits to the PSMA membership.  Members are encouraged to share their ideas on how to drive PSMA forward. Many projects have come out of the Annual Planning Meeting including the PwrSoC workshops and 3D-PEIM symposiums, the revitalized Industry-Education Committee and increased collaboration with other industry organizations including iNEMI, IPC, EPSMA, IEEE PELS and others.

This year's meeting will begin with a brief review of the year-to-date accomplishments and a summary of ongoing activities by PSMA Chair Mike Hayes. This will be followed by an update of the six-quarter financial forecast from Treasurer Tim McDonald.

Much of the meeting will feature reports from the active PSMA committees followed by an open forum to introduce and discuss possible special projects, initiatives, and priorities for the coming months. All members of PSMA Companies are encouraged to provide inputs. If you cannot attend the meeting, we invite you to email suggestions to power@psma.com. These will be considered and included in the discussions. In the coming months, the PSMA Executive and Marketing Committees will summarize the results of the meeting and prioritize which projects and initiatives will be included in the focus for the next year.

If you plan to attend the 2021 PSMA Planning Meeting, please email the Association Office at power@psma.com for joining information. We look forward to "seeing" many of you at this important meeting.

 
olara Technical Sales is a vendor agnostic, Engineering Value-Added Reseller of Power Solutions for Telecom & Datacom applications, as well as an Independent Sales Representative for several leading manufacturers. Our team is made up of degreed engineers, each with decades of experience. We are recognized as the "Industry's Experts" in defining power and battery-backup systems.

Applications Include:

• Passive Optical Networks
• Distributed Antenna Systems
• Microwave Radios (point-2-point, point-2-multi point)
• Telecom/Datacom Systems

Solara provides Consulting Services in definition and design of power systems, installation program management and site turn-up, technical training, proper site grounding per Motorola R56 and lighting protection to National Fire Protection Association 780.

Staging equipment while properly storing & maintaining batteries is a must. Experienced personnel on site for system review and turn up saves time and money. Our BISCI-accredited 2-hour course on Gigabit Passive Optical Networks is available to you, at your engineering headquarters, from one of Solara's power systems experts.

Science, not magic, governs lightning strikes and protection from them. Correct grounding not only reduces lightning-related failures, but it also reduces nuisance signal quality issues while protecting personnel.

We represent the following companies and their products:

• Distribution Panels & DC breakers (plug-in, bolt-in, hard to find)
• Batteries (UPS, Telco, Utility/Industrial)
• Inverters (modular & monolithic)
• Complete DC plants

Solara Technical is a member of:

• Association for Passive Optical LAN(APOLAN)
• Building Industry Consulting Services International (BICSI)
• Fiber Broadband Association (FBA)
• Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA)

For more information, call us at 214-906-9853, or visit our website www.solaratech.com.

Provided by Jerry Hogan, Director of Engineering & Marketing, Solara Technical Sales

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.

Bose Research Limited
Dr.Supratim Basu
1,KVC Complex, 5th Main RMV Stage II
Bangalore, India 560094
Telephone +0802341927
E-mail: sb@boseresearch.com
Website: https://boseresearch.com

Bose Research is a rapidly growing company providing R&D Services in Power Electronics with embedded / analog controls to technical specifications, product cost, reliability figures etc. Bose Research develops productionable prototypes that meet predefined specifications, and the complete technology is transferred to their customers.

With a wide range of specialist expertise, including development of Power Electronics, Custom Power Supplies, Analog Circuits, Digital Power, Solar and Renewable Energy, EMC and New Product Development, there are few design challenges beyond their scope. In addition to engineering excellence, Bose Research has a range of Intellectual Property building blocks to deliver market ready products within time and budget.

Cambridge GaN Devices, Limited
Andrea Bricconi
Deanland House, 160 Cowley Road
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB4 0DL
United Kingdom
Telephone: +491732410796
E-mail: andrea.bricconi@camgandevices.com
Website: https://camgandevices.com

After almost a decade of leading-edge research and development at Cambridge University, CEO Giorgia Longobardi and her team have launched Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD) which has been created to explore and develop a number of unique opportunities in power electronics made possible by the team's proprietary application of Gallium Nitride to the silicon-based semiconductor transistor manufacturing process.

Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD) offers customers Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistors with significantly higher switching frequency, lower losses and lower on-resistance than the most commercially successful silicon alternatives. Using GaN as the main semiconductor and growing this on a silicon substrate, combined with a suite of proprietary technical innovations, provides CGD with a number of competitive advantages. The possibilities and range of potential applications for these transistors is almost endless in this increasingly digitally connected world.

NetBit
Natasha Probert
2/2 3 Craigcrook Terrace
Edinburgh, Scotland EH4 3QN
United Kingdom
Telephone: +07766530002
E-mail: natasha.probert@netbit.com
Website: https://www.netbit.com

NetBit Electronics is the only major power supply company focusing exclusively on customer premises equipment such as broadband gateways, video set-top boxes, and smart home devices. NetBit's customized power supply designs feature industry-leading efficiency and power density at competitive prices. From the onset, NetBit works with customers every step of the way to meet their specifications and deliver on time.

NetBit can design and manufacture any type of AC- DC power supply with an output power from 1W to 160W in a variety of form factors to suit their customers' requirements. In addition to the case design, they can design the PSU to exact requirements to meet specific reliability and efficiency requirements as well as international safety and regulatory standards. They can also support and advise with regional approvals for areas in South and North America, the Middle East and Asia.

Prodrive Technology B.V.
Nikolay Mihaylov
Science Park Eindhoven 5501
Son, Noord-Brabant 5692 EM
The Netherlands
Telephone: +31 64 68 58 531
E-mail: nikolay.mihaylov@prodrive-technologies.com
Website: https://prodrive-technologies.com/

Prodrive Technology B.V. is a privately owned company founded in 1993, specializing mainly in design, validation and manufacturing of Electronics and Mechatronics with a wide range of power converters, high-precision linear actuators and amplifiers. In close cooperation with clients, Prodrive develops and delivers a wide range of high-tech products, systems and solutions, employing techniques that are extremely efficient and often unique. Everything is done in-house, using the very latest process techniques, many of which they developed. As a result of this innovative approach, Prodrive is among the fastest-growing technology companies in Europe.

Prodrive Technology creates technologies that are essential links in the systems which form the basis for today's and tomorrow's world. This includes technology, for instance, that improves the quality of medical imaging, which allows for diagnostics that recognize diseases earlier and more accurately. Other Prodrive techniques also contribute to reducing the global dependency on fossil fuels, and to minimizing human exposure to air pollution.

Wired and Wireless Technologies Ltd. (WAWT)
Dinesh Kithany
Founder & Chief Analyst
10 High Street, Cubbington
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV32 7LY
United Kingdom
Telephone: +00447935855255
E-mail: dinesh.kithany@wawt.tech
Website: https://www.wawt.tech/

Wired & Wireless Technologies (WAWT) is a strategic technology analyst and consultancy firm focusing on power supplies, wireless power, and EV charging infrastructure industries. WAWT's aim is to provide data, insights, market intelligence and strategic guidance to companies across the value-chain, with its market reports, intelligence and consultancy services as well as Thought-Leadership solutions.

WAWT was founded on the core beliefs of providing exceptional, authentic, reliable data and competent knowledge and insights on the latest technology trends and updates. Their thorough research and analysis practices help clients drive change in their strategies and investments that help them to grow and to succeed. WAWT's Subject Matter Experts have strong knowledge and 10+ years of experience in their field and come with a research and insights background that help them offer tailormade solutions appropriate to meet clients research and business objectives.

 

riends of PSMA introduces readers to organizations that PSMA has a cooperative relationship with to better serve our respective memberships and the international power electronics industry. If you have suggestions on other industry organizations we should consider or ways that we can improve our current relationship with other industry associations, we would be delighted to hear from you.

In this article we introduce you to the The European Power Supply Manufacturers' Association (EPSMA).

In the year 2020, the EPSMA celebrated the 25th anniversary of its founding. It was formed from a group of European power supply manufacturers who were participating in a continuous power market survey, organized by IMS, now IHS Markit. The data from the companies was anonymized, but the group made connections with each other and saw an advantage in forming an association for their mutual benefit. IHS agreed to act as the secretariat for the group and it was formally registered as a 'European Economic Interest Group' (EEIG) in 2002. This status allowed companies who were often competitors to meet as a 'trade association' to represent the interests of their members to national bodies and to promote European power supply manufacturers overall. To be able to monitor and influence European standards relating to power supplies, the EPSMA became a CENELEC liaison organization, affiliated with technical committee TC 22X, which is responsible for standards relating to power converters. Some EPSMA members are in fact already members of TC 22X. IHS relinquished the secretariat service in 2015 and the function is now within the EPSMA organization.

Some of the initial work by the EPSMA was related to the protection of the European industry from product and component 'dumping' from the far east which was creating an unfair market with items that were not necessarily meeting acceptable quality standards. The EPSMA identified related products and informed the authorities. Another area of work was an effort to influence and mitigate the effects of the original power factor correction (PFC) requirements, that had been imposed on the industry with little warning.

EPSMA membership originally was limited to power companies headquartered in Europe, but with the globalization of the industry, this was relaxed and any power supply manufacturer or supplier to the industry can join as a full member if they have at least one full-time employee in Europe. There is also an affiliate membership category which typically includes educational establishments such as universities. The EPSMA is controlled by a management committee of around twelve members which meets four times each year, either in person or by teleconference. There is also a technical committee (TC) consisting of experts from member companies, which meets to discuss technical developments in the industry and inform the membership. The TC also generates in-depth technical documents, typically related to standards, for the guidance of members. These documents are available for non-members to purchase. The most popular over time has been the EPSMA's analysis of the PFC or 'harmonic emissions' standard with specific guidance on how to comply. This was updated in 2018 to include the most recent requirements. Other documents published include guidance for compliance with medical, rail, telecomms, DIN rail and hazardous location safety standards.

The TC has also published papers on the implications of the RoHS, WEEE directives and general power supply design guides on 'Accurate Efficiency Measurements', 'Lifetime Prediction', 'Reliability Prediction' and 'Embedded Software verification and Validation'. Some of these documents are free to download for non-members and a full list, including abstracts of 'members only' documents are available at www.epsma.org/technical-publications. The current work by the TC is focused on generating a guidance document about 'Over-voltage Categories' and their implications on power supply design.

As of today, the EPSMA has around 25 members including all of the main European power supply manufacturers. Six universities are affiliate members as is one of the European test houses. Four of the founding members remain active in the association and new members join at a steady rate. The website www.epsma.org is the portal for information on the activities of the EPSMA with member news and product press releases, information about latest publications, member job vacancies and a quarterly newsletter. There are links on the website to industry resources and indeed to the PSMA. For more information about membership or any other aspect of the EPSMA, please contact: secretariat@epsma.org.

Provided by Paul Lee, EPSMA Secretariat

Support of up to $1,000 offered to graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in
power electronics programs to assist in attendance at APEC 2022

he joint sponsors of the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) have announced the continuation of the popular Student Attendance Support Program of up to $1,000 to cover a portion of the expenses for eligible students to attend APEC 2022. Interested students must apply by November 7, 2021.

In its 17th year, this popular program, initiated by the Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA), is now jointly underwritten by PSMA and the other co-sponsors of the APEC conference: the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) and the IEEE Industry Applications society (IAS).

The recipients will be chosen by the APEC 2022 Student Attendance Support Committee. Application forms are available at APEC Attendance Support Application. The application criteria are:

• The applicant must be an undergraduate or graduate student enrolled in a power electronics program at an accredited institution.
• Only students who have not received attendance support in the past will be considered.
• The recipients must be an author or co-author of a paper that was accepted for presentation at APEC 2022.
• The recipient must attend APEC 2022 and submit expense receipts to the Committee for reimbursement.
• If APEC includes virtual attendance, registration will be the only reimbursable expense if a recipient attends virtually.
• Applications must be made and received by the Committee by November 7, 2021.
• The recipients will be notified by the Committee by November 23, 2021.

As part of the application process, students must provide information about their educational institution, degree program, the name of their faculty advisor and a brief description of their career interest and reasons for planning to attend APEC. The application also requires the title and ID number of their accepted APEC paper, as well as the name(s) of the co-author(s).

More information about the APEC Student Attendance Support Program may be found at the PSMA's Education Forum page.

PC in cooperation with PSMA is developing a new standard on the "Specification for Firmware Design and Test Requirements for Power Subsystem Assemblies".  The proposal for this standard is based on the "PSMA Power Supply Software/Firmware Reliability Improvement Report." This report was written as part of a special project sponsored by the PSMA Reliability Committee.

We are seeking members from PSMA and the greater power electronics community to join this effort.  Topics that are proposed to be a part of this standard include:

• Firmware design requirements including basic function, error handling, reliability, performance, etc. This will cover basic architecture and design around that architecture as well as upgradeability. A section to be included on understanding intended application environment. 
• Firmware test/qualification requirements to verify that the design elements are operating at minimum level. Sections would include testing to verify all critical design and application requirements. It will address exerciser code, unit test and integration topics. 
• Firmware security for protecting against internal threats and external attack. Sections to include library verification, access to source code, physical security, plugging into the IT/OT network, user logging and tracking, virus mitigation, external access security, update/upgrade security, etc.

We are in the process of forming the committee to start drafting this standard and are seeking members interested participating and/or leading the development of various sections to be included in the document.  This is intended to be a requirements standard that can be used to define expectations for firmware design, test, and security in power assemblies and could be considered the start of a family of standards that complement the current IPC-9592B standard.  Please contact any of the following people if interested.

Jerry Strunk (Jerry.strunk@us.abb.com)
Eric Swenson (ebswensn@us.ibm.com)
Brian Zahnstecher (bz@powerrox.com)

Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you. 

s a PSMA Update reader, you are aware of many of the valuable services PSMA provides to our industry through our ongoing Power Technology Roadmap (PTR) program. The PTR Webinar Series has become a critical component of the published report that maps out the industry's combined assessment of the technology developments and trends affecting our industry in the 5-year period ahead. The webinars draw on industry experts each presenting on a specific topic with typical attendance of 150-300 registrants.

You can see the schedule of upcoming as well as a list of previous Power Technology Roadmap Webinars, and also join our mailing list to receive invitations to upcoming webinars, at https://www.psma.com/technical-forums/roadmap/news-events.

Underwriting the PTR Webinar Series
PSMA is now offering our member companies an exclusive opportunity to underwrite these important and well-attended webinars. The next "season" covers webinars conducted from the Fall of 2021 through the end of 2022. Underwriters of the PSMA PTR webinars receive promotional benefits according to three levels of Underwriting offered – Platinum, Gold and Silver – as detailed in the flyer you can download here.

Please take a moment to download this information  and pass it along to members of your organization who would be involved in the decision to participate in this program.

s a co-sponsor of APEC, the PSMA is helping to spread the word about the opportunity for a passionate exhibitor representative to volunteer on the APEC Conference Committee as an Exposition Co-Chair. This is a key role for the success of APEC 2022 and onwards. The Expo leadership team is made up of an Exposition Chair and two Co-Chairs. Naturally this opportunity requires leadership, management, and organizational skills.

Key responsibilities of the exhibitor representative:

• Identify ways to retain exhibitors for future APECs.
• Recommend ways to attract new exhibitors & attendees.
• Offer suggestions to improve the conference experience for both exhibitor and attendees.
• Maintain a good relationship with other exhibitors.
• Understand and represent the interests of exhibitors.
• Understand and represent the APEC Conference Committee to exhibitors.
• Provide input on the exhibitor floorplan before exhibitors select booths.
• Provide input to the APEC Steering committee for exhibition selection criteria for future APEC locations and conference management.

Key candidate selection criteria:

• Must participate on the APEC conference committee monthly conference calls (approximately 60-90 minutes long each call).
• Preference for a representative who is able to travel to APEC Planning Meeting for on-site tour.
• Must proactively share how committee decisions impact the exhibitor community.
• Must be willing to help resolve exhibitor issues and issues with exhibitors.
• Preference for a current exhibitor who has exhibited at least three times at previous APECs.
• Preference for a representative from a small or medium sized company.
• Must be willing to serve a minimum of 3 years (note: all committee members serve at the pleasure of the General Chair, who may choose someone else if he/she prefers).

If you would like additional information or are interested in volunteering for this position, please contact Frank Cirolia, APEC Social Media Chair, at frank.cirolia@aei.com.

Provided by: Frank Cirolia, APEC Social Media Chair and PSMA Marketing Committee Co-Chair

"Social Networking for Engineers" October 24, 2021

he PSMA  Industry Education Committee and IEEE PELS will be sponsoring a series of seminars for young professionals designed to provide them guidance in their professional careers in the power electronics industry. The series will include in-person, webinar and hybrid events. The seminars will cover a range of non-technical topics that are vital to advancing the careers of engineers starting in the power electronics industry and will be made available at no cost to attendees.

The first of these seminars will be held in-person in conjunction with the 2021 Power Supply on Chip (PwrSoC) Workshop from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM on Sunday October 24 at the Singh Center for Nanotechnology on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia PA.

This session is open to all in-person registered attendees of the 2021 Power Supply on Chip workshop and will address the importance of social networking and how to network or connect with people more effectively. Students, young professionals, and even seasoned professionals will gain valuable insights and guidance on making meaningful connections with others.

The presenter and facilitator for this session is Ada Cheng. Ada Cheng was an electrical engineer at Motorola for 11 years before transitioning into a market analyst role at Gartner Dataquest. Consequently, she had to learn how to network quickly. As a result of networking, Ada served over 13 years on the APEC committee in various invited roles. Now as a market consultant with AdaClock and Anagenesis, she shares practical advice and tips for engineers to network effectively as part of their careers.

We look forward to the inaugural seminar of the series and encourage all those who will be attending the seminar on Sunday October 24 to bring their business cards – you will be glad that you did.

For more information and to join the mailing list to receive information on future seminars, visit the PSMA Education Forum. If you have any suggested topics to be included in the series and/or are interested in presenting a seminar, please contact the PSMA Office at power@psma.com.

An article with additional information on the series will be included in the next issue of the UPDATE.

Power Magnetics @ High Frequency
Saturday March 19 2022
Prior to APEC 2022
George R Brown Convention Center
Houston, Texas

he PSMA Magnetics Committee and IEEE PELS are planning to conduct the seventh "Power Magnetics @ High Frequency" workshop on Saturday, March 19, 2022, which is the day before and at the same venue as APEC 2022 in Houston, TX.

The 2022 Power Magnetics @ High Frequency workshop will mark the return to the "in-person" workshop format after the virtual format used for the past two workshops in 2020 and 2021. The relevance and interest in the Power Magnetic @ High Frequency workshop series has been validated by over one hundred registered workshop attendees each and for the panel Q&A sessions that ran overtime for both the 2020 and 2021 virtual workshops. The most recent 2021 Power Magnetics at High Frequency workshop was held as a virtual event on Wednesday June 2 and Thursday June 3.

Day one of the 2021 workshop focused on EMI Issues Caused and EMI Issues Solved by Magnetics. The morning session consisted of presentations by Balaji Narayanasamy of Tesla, Ammad Javed of Ernst Abbe University of Applied Science Jena, Stefanie Birkenbach of Wurth Elektronik, Mike Arasim of Fair-Rite Products. Jared Quenzer of Wurth Elektronik, JC Sun of Bs&T, Frank Puhane of Wurth Elektronik and Asif Imran Emon of Stoneybrook University. The second day of the workshop focused on Integrated Magnetics. The morning session consisted of presentations by Bryce Hesterman of Utah State University, John Gallagher of Pulse Electronics, Mike Kavion Ranjram of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chema Molina of Frenetic, Shuo Wang of Virginia Tech CPES, and John Noble of Magnetics. The afternoon session each day opened with a "Best of the Best" summary of the morning presentations by Alexander Gerfer of Wurth Elektronik, followed by a keynote presentation. "High Frequency 'side-effect' Mitigation in Power Electronics Converters: Modelling and Filtering Solutions" by Dr Fang Luo of Stoneybrook University on the first day and "High Efficiency and High Density 48V LLC Converters with Integrated Planar Magnetics for Data Center Applications" by Dr Qiang Li of Virginia Tech CPES on the second day. Each day concluded with a panel Q&A discussion with all of that day's presenters. You can read about the workshop from the perspective of an attendee in a separate article in this issue "PSMA Magnetics Workshop Explores AI, Core Loss and EMI."

The purpose and focus of the Power Magnetics @ High Frequency Workshop are to identify the latest improvements in magnetic materials, coil (winding) design, construction and fabrication, evaluation and characterization techniques and modelling and simulation tools. The objective is to target those power magnetics advancements that are deemed necessary by the participants to meet the technical expectations and requirements of new and emerging market applications to satisfy the ever higher operating frequencies and emerging topologies which are being driven by the continuous advances in circuits topologies and semi-conductor devices.

The target audiences for the 2022 Power Magnetics @ High Frequency workshop include the designers of power magnetic components for use in electronic power converters responsible to implement the most technologically advanced power magnetic components that are necessary to achieve higher power densities, specific physical aspect ratios such as low profile, higher power efficiencies and improved thermal performance. The target audiences also include people involved in the supply chain for the power magnetics industry ranging from manufacturers of magnetic materials and magnetic structures, fabricators of magnetic components, providers of modelling and simulation software as well as manufacturers of test and characterization equipment.

The 2022 Power Magnetics @ High Frequency will open with a keynote presentation by Charles Sullivan of Dartmouth University followed by several lecture presentations regarding the impact of magnetic core geometry and physical dimensions on magnetic component characteristics and specification parameters. In addition to the brief Q&A period after each individual presentation, there will be a panel of the presenters at the end of the session to address topics requiring more detail as deemed by the workshop attendees.

During lunch, breakfast, and the networking hour at the end of the workshop there will be an interactive session of tabletop technology demonstrations each addressing specific technical disciplines and capabilities consistent with the workshop agenda. Each technology demonstration station will include a ten-minute presentation at fifteen-minute intervals. Interaction between the attendees and the presenters is highly encouraged during this portion of the workshop as a segue from the opening keynote presentation and the technical issues session.

If anyone would like to participate as a presenter for the technical demonstration session, please contact the organizing committee by email to power@psma.com with a description of your proposed technical capabilities topic. We are limited to ten technology demonstration stations.

Based upon survey responses from the 2021 workshop, the afternoon session will focus on magnetics design for manufacturing, reliability, and safety agency requirements. A keynote presentation will be followed by a series of related technical presentations. In addition to the brief Q&A period after each individual presentation, there will be panel of the presenters to address topics requiring more detail as deemed by the workshop attendees. 

The specifics for the workshop structure and the presentations for the workshop are currently in progress. If anyone is interested in presenting on the impact of magnetic core geometry, physical dimensions, manufacturability, reliability and safety agency requirements on magnetic component design, characteristics, and parameters, please contact the organizing committee through by email to power@psma.com.

More details regarding the agenda for the workshop as well as registration for the workshop will become available on the PSMA website (www.psma.com/technical-forums/magnetics/workshop) over the coming months.

The latest information on the workshop as well as registration information is available on the PSMA website at: http://www.psma.com/technical-forums/magnetics/workshop

Organizing Committee
Steve Carlsen, Independent
Ed Herbert, PSMA
Chema Molina, Frenetic
Rodney Rogers, Allstar Magnetics
George Slama, Wurth Elektronik
Fred Weber, Future Technology Worldwide
Chuck Wild, Dexter Magnetic Technologies Inc.
Matt Wilkowski, EnaChip

 "Influences on Capacitors, How Materials and Environmental Effects Influence Capacitor Performance"
Saturday March 19 2022, Prior to APEC 2022
George R Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas

ust when one workshop ends, we begin planning for the next based on the feedback received from attendees. In June of this year, we offered our 4th annual Capacitor Workshop. Thanks to the second year of COVID-19 we had to once again transition to a virtual platform in 2021. While we formatted the virtual workshop to be as interactive as possible, a face-to-face onsite workshop will always offer additional opportunities for attendees.

The PSMA Capacitor Committee is delighted to announce our 5th annual pre-APEC Capacitor Workshop sponsored by PSMA and IEEE PELS. We continue our focus on the latest technologies and applications to educate and inform the industry about recent developments in the Capacitor Industry. Each year we are happy to see a growing interest and receive valuable feedback from our attendees which we use when planning our next events. The first workshop in 2018 introduced the basics and now, in 2022, we will put focus on the inner construction of capacitors, the secrets of their materials and how environmental effects will influence performance.

The PSMA Capacitor Workshop Organizing Committee has a clear mission:

The PSMA Capacitor Committee Annual Workshop aligned with APEC has a mission to educate the attendees on capacitor trends, technologies, and innovations. Wherever and whenever applications need energy, Capacitors are at the spotlight, and as energy moves the world it is incumbent for everyone to understand capacitor issues. PSMA's Capacitor Committee is committed to present the best material available to meet the industry's needs.

In 2022, our aim is to deliver value to everyone, newbies and advanced designers of DC-DC converters, frequency drives, inverters, and other power conversation applications alike. The workshop agenda will include topics from a variety of manufacturers, designers, testing and supporting companies.

From the feedback received from attendees, some of the highlights of recent workshops include the joint panel discussion featuring members from the Magnetics and Capacitor Committees as well as the video sequences of real measurements and test setups. Both are scheduled to be included again next year. A live expert roundtable talk is planned along with demonstration stations from magnetics and capacitor specialists demonstrating the behavior of the components in various applications. The preliminary workshop agenda will provide a dive deep into the component structure to show the relation between the material and environmental impact on the capacitor behavior.

Topics for the 2022 workshop include:

• New Materials & Composites for Capacitors
• Film
• Ceramic
• Aluminum / Polymer
• Tantalum
• Super
• Environmental Influences
• Temperature
• Pressure
• Vibration
• Qualification of Capacitors, Requirements & Challenges
• Comparison between simulation and reality

The organizers aim to provide an optimal balance between practical content delivered by leading capacitor manufacturers and content offered by worldwide renowned universities on future capacitor research & development. The agenda includes keynote presentations from recognized experts and technical presentations on ongoing advances in capacitor research and development. The workshop will also feature panel discussions with the presenters to address questions and expand on the materials they presented. During breakfast, lunch and the end-of-day networking period there will be demonstrations of products, technologies, equipment, and measurements to highlight many of the key concepts discussed during the presentations.

The workshop is designed to open new horizons of capacitor technologies, materials and environmental influences to designers and to answer questions engineers have, or will have, when working with different capacitor dielectrics. Please contact Pierre Lohrber (pierre.lohrber@we-online.de) of the organizing committee if you have any specific areas or issues you would like to see addressed at the workshop.

The latest information on the agenda as well as registration information for the workshop is available on the PSMA website at: http://www.psma.com/technical-forums/capacitor/workshop

Provided by members of the Capacitor Workshop Organizing Committee:
Pierre Lohrber, Wurth Electronics
Fred Weber, Future Technology Worldwide

he third International Symposium on 3D Power Electronics Integration and Manufacturing (3D PEIM) was another success! On June 21-23, 2021, 75 international participants from Asia, Europe and the Americas attended a 100% virtual 3-day symposium. In spite of COVID-19 restrictions requiring the Japan hosted symposium to go fully virtual, all registered and speaking participants were in attendance.

The Symposium attendees received great insight from each of the plenary presentations given by leading experts in power electronics: "Optimal modularization technology for the latest WBG devices" by Yoshikazu Takahashi, Tohoku University, Japan, "Automotive Semiconductors in the CASE era and its 'Jisso' technologies" by Yasushi Shinojima, MIRISE Technologies Corporation, "Materials and Technologies for Power Electronic Module" by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Habil Hans-Jürgen Albrecht, IAVT TU, "Diamond Devices Based on Unique Material Properties" by Toshiharu Makino, AIST, Advanced Power Electronics Research Center, "Applications with SiC Power Devices for Railcar" by Tomonobu Mihara, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, and "Reliability Aspects of 3D Integrated Power Devices" by Dr. Josef Lutz, Professor at Chemnitz University of Technology.

The Symposium Sessions were kicked off with outstanding keynote talks given by leading experts in power packaging: "Thermal Fluid Simulation Modeling and Structural Analysis of Double-sided Cooling Power Module Based on Thermal Transient Test" by Tom Hara, ‎Siemens Digital Industries Software, "Developments of High Power Blue Diode Laser Systems for Laser Metal Deposition and Selective Laser Melting in Additive Manufacturing" by Masahiro Tsukamoto, Joining and Welding Research Institute, Osaka University, "Development of High Performance SiC Power Module" by Dr. Hiroshi Yamaguchi, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), "Superior Reliability of Power Electronic Packages with Die Top Systems (DTS®). Why a Wire-Based Technology Solution Outperforms Clip-Based Interconnections" by Michael Joerger, Heraeus Electronics, and "The Technology Race in Power Electronics Packaging: The race is on!" by Rainer Frauwallner AT & S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik Aktiengesellschaft.

The keynotes were followed by a single-track technical program featuring 21 invited oral presentations divided into seven topical sessions, several with a keynote speaker followed by invited/contributed talks. The presenters and attendees engaged in lively discussions during the question periods in each session.  In addition, 100% of participant feedback stated that attendees felt the presented material was high quality and were interested in attending a future 3D-PEIM either in person or virtually.

The videos and pdf's of the presentations are available to all registered attendees and through post conference registration at Registration - 3D PEIM (3d-peim.org).

The Symposium was sponsored by the Power Sources Manufacturers Association (www.psma.com), and chaired by Prof. Tsuyoshi Funaki, Osaka University, Japan. IEEE EPS was a technical sponsor and financial support was provided by nine industry sponsors.

Planning is now underway for 3D-PEIM 2023 which will be chaired Associate Prof. P.M. Raj at Florida International University. If you are interested in helping to organize or participate, please contact info@3D-PEIM.org, or the PSMA office at power@psma.com.

Provided by:

General Chair Prof. Tsuyoshi Funaki, Osaka University

Technical Program Chair Prof. Guo-Quan (GQ) Lu, Virginia Tech USA

Technical Program Chair Prof. Katsuaki Suganuma, Osaka University

Technical Program Chair Minora Ueshima, Daicel, Japan

Steering Committee Chair Brian Narveson, PSMA Packaging Committee Co-Chair

October 24-27, 2021
Sponsored by PSMA and IEEE PELS

he 2021 Power Supply on Chip (PwrSoC) Workshop is scheduled to be held as a hybrid event from October 24, through October 27, at the Singh Center for Nanotechnology on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia PA.

For information regarding registration and workshop partner opportunities please visit http://pwrsocevents.com/registration-2/

Throughout its history, each workshop has spotlighted advanced technologies needed to build granular and modular power supplies and provided compelling demonstrations of commercialized products that make a clear case that PwrSoC and PSiP technologies are becoming more prominent and mainstream.

A team of world-renowned experts, innovators and pioneers of the Power Supply on Chip technology has assembled the technical program for the nine technical sessions following the single-track format of past power supply on chip workshops.

• Plenary Session - Jose Cobos, University Polytechnic Madrid
• Systems and Applications - Francesco Carobolante, IoTissimo
• Topologies and Control - Bruno Allard, Université de Lyon
• Wideband Gap Integration - Brian Ma, University Texas Dallas
• Integrated Capacitors & Energy Storage - Medhi Jatlaoui, Murata
• Integrated Magnetics - Masahiro Yamaguchi, Tohoku University Japan
• System Integration Manufacturing and Packaging - Baoxing Chen, Analog Devices
• Granular Power - Santosh Kulkarni, Dialog Semiconductor
• Posters - Minjie Chen, Princeton University

There will be thirty-one lecture style presentations presenters from academic, research and industry sectors for the technical areas. The ninth technical session, a poster session on the evening of Monday October 25, will encompass the seven technical disciplines of the workshop. The poster session will provide the attendees the time to interact informally and learn more about new technologies being developed from researchers and product developers.

The Plenary Session will provide insights regarding the role of GaN, packaging architectures and integrated voltage regulators in the powering of electronics. The plenary presenters are Isik Kizilyalli, Associate Director of Technology of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy ( ARPA-E), Ravi Mahajan, Intel Fellow and Director of Pathfinding for Assembly and Packaging Technologies for 7-nonometer silicon and beyond, and Tim Phillips, founder and Chief Executive Officer of EmPower Semiconductor.

The technical program schedule is available at http://pwrsocevents.com/program-schedule-quickview/

The program includes three "in-person" only events.

The first "in-person only" event will be during the evening on-site check in time on Sunday October 24. There will be a seminar on "Social Networking for Engineers" presented by Ada Cheng a market consultant with AdaClock and Anagenesis and sponsored by the PSMA Industry-Education Committee in partnership with IEEE PELS. This session is open to students, young professionals and even seasoned professionals who are registered for the workshop who want to gain insights and guidance on making meaningful connections with others. Please see the separate article in this issue on the PSMA/ PELS Educational Series for more information on this session.

The second in-person only event will during the late afternoon on Monday October 25 and will be a "Trends and Opportunities" panel session moderated by Sunit Rikhi of Rockley Photonics, Inc. who retired from Intel in 2015 with more than thirty years of foundry experience. The panel includes experts from markets analysis, venture capitalist, integrated device manufacturers, small start-up component manufacturers and semiconductor fab organizations.

The third in-person only event will be a 'Roadmap for Power Integration Discussion" co-moderated by Francesco Carobolante of IoTissimo and Hanh-Phuc Le of the University of California at San Diego. The roadmap discussion will include inputs from a panel of technologists as well as from the audience. The roadmap discussions will be shared as part of  the technical roadmap activities of IEEE and PSMA on power integration.

Continuing the tradition of the enthusiasm, market relevance and success of past workshops, we are looking forward to the International Power Supply-on-Chip (PwrSoC) Workshop 2021 in Philadelphia, PA. This workshop will highlight the technology and market application developments since the most recent in-person PwrSoC workshop in Taiwan during October 2018 and to create a vision of power supply on chip activities for the next five to fifteen years.

General Chair:
Mark Allen  mallen@seas.upenn.edu

Technical Program Co-Chairs
Matt Wilkowski mwilkowski@enachip.com
Hanh-Phuc Le hanhphuc@ucsd.edu

For more information about previous and coming PwrSoC events, visit http://pwrsocevents.com.

The 8th Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications

mid a still fluid situation, the organizing committee for the 8th Annual IEEE / PSMA Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications (WiPDA) is planning for a hybrid event with the in-person activities on November 7 – 9, 2021.

Whether you join us virtually or in Redondo Beach, the workshop will provide engineers and scientists with opportunities to share their expertise in wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor technology. WiPDA 2021 will feature carefully selected tutorials as well as keynote sessions from industry leaders, panel sessions, technical sessions, and a poster session that cover four technical tracks: Silicon Carbide (SiC) power devices, SiC applications, Gallium Nitride (GaN) power devices, GaN applications, and new this year, Gallium Nitride (GaN) RF devices and applications and International Technology Roadmap for Wide Bandgap Power Semiconductors) (ITRW) sessions. 

Keynote Sessions:
The committee is thrilled to be able to offer all participants the opportunity to attend keynote sessions featuring industry leaders discussing the latest developments in wide bandgap technology and applications.  The speakers include:

• Dan Kinzer, COO, CTO, Co-founder and Director of Navitas Semiconductor
• Jim Witham, CEO of GaN Systems
• Jon Palmour, CTO of Wolfspeed, a Cree company
• Alex Lidow, CEO and Co-founder of Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) Corporation
• Professor Wai Tung Ng, Professor with the Edward S. Rogers Senior Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto
• Keisuke Shinohara, Principal Scientist with Teledyne Scientific & Imaging
• Gerald Deboy, Infineon Technologies
• Primit Parikh, Co-founder and COO, Transphorm Inc

Full bios for keynote speakers can be found at wipda.org/keynote-sessions/

There will be many opportunities to network with leading WBG specialists in industry, academia and national laboratories, especially at the Industry and Sponsors Exhibition, which occurs simultaneously with the workshop. 

The workshop is sponsored by the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS), the Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA), and the IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS).  The General Chair is Sameh Khalil, Senior Principal Engineer, GaN Device Reliability and Product Engineering Management at Infineon Technologies.  He is supported by Vice Chair Helen Li, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, FAMU-FSU college of Engineering
 
Exhibit and sponsorship opportunities are still available. Contact exhibitsatwipda2021@gmail.com for more information.

The committee is deeply appreciative of our sponsors and valued audience members during these uncertain times.  Continue to stay safe and well and we look forward to seeing everyone in Redondo Beach in November 2021! 

Please subscribe to stay informed of the latest news and receive deadline reminders for WiPDA 2021. Also, join the conversation with the WiPDA group on LinkedIn.

Stay safe!

Provided by Provided by Renee Yawger WiPDA 2021 Publicity Chair

Announcing EnerHarv2022: Building the ecosystem for Powering the Internet of Things
5-7 April 2022
ASSIST Center, North Carolina State University

"Building the Ecosystem for Powering the Internet of Things"

The mission remains unchanged from EnerHarv 2018, to create "a focal point for a community of experts and users of energy harvesting & related technologies to share knowledge, best practices, roadmaps, experiences and create opportunities for collaboration." The 2018 workshop demonstrated a need for technology and thought leadership in this sector and the potential benefits of emerging technologies, if properly guided and integrated. It cross connects not just suppliers and developers of power electronics components and systems but also demonstrates the value of collaboration when experts from power electronics, ICT and MEMS co-develop standardized, inter-operable and system optimized solutions for real life applications. To date the ecosystem has already grown substantially, addressing the challenge of powering one trillion sensors that the world will have by 2025 which offers unprecedented growth opportunities for developers and integrators of power electronics parts and systems.

EnerHarv 2022 will mainly (but not exclusively) be dedicated to making portable power sources last longer for ultra-low power IoT edge devices. Ideally, devices can be powered indefinitely by using energy harvesting, where ambient energies are available, but at the very least embedding technologies that will minimize the power consumption and maximize the conversion efficiencies.

Workshop attendees will learn of the many constituents of an existing, energy harvesting/micro-power management product ecosystem and how to apply these products to their application requirements in a system optimized way.  They will also learn valuable information to drive optimal design execution and address common pain points in bringing a variety of products to market will enable a dramatic penetration of energy harvesting solutions into a broader range of applications. Through networking, attending tutorials, viewing real life demonstrations and participating in discussions developers will gain a step function increase in their knowledge and ability to gain access to energy harvesting powered solutions. The workshop will demonstrate examples of successful energy harvesting products already created via synergies between the energy harvesting source and the load demand developers.

EnerHarv2022 will be supported the EU EnABLES project which has already built an international 'power IoT' community comprising over 500 academic and industry stakeholders.

EnerHarv 2022 is an opportunity not to be missed for anyone interested in 'powering the internet of things.' In future newsletters we will provide further details including the organizing and technical committees, sponsors, outline program an initial speaker line up. In the interim please if you would like to learn more or get involved please contact the PSMA Energy Harvesting committee co-chairs Mike Hayes (michael.hayes@tyndall.ie) or Brian Zahnstecher (bz@powerrox.com).

Provided by PSMA Energy Harvesting Committee co-chairs:

Mike Hayes, Tyndall National Institute

Brian Zahnstecher, PowerRox

fter a very successful IWIPP corridor webinar series in August, PSMA is excited to again be cosponsoring the next edition of IWIPP (2022) which will be held August 24-26, 2022, on the beautiful campus of Aalborg University, in Aalborg, Denmark. IWIPP is a growing successful power technology workshop featuring excellent speakers and networking opportunities.  The program for IWIPP 2022 will include a set of keynote addresses from leading experts, a broad range of technical sessions, as well as a complement of technical tutorial sessions, all of which are included in the registration fee.

The International Workshop on Integrated Power Packaging (IWIPP) brings together industry, academic and government researchers in the field of power electronics components, electrical insulating materials, and packaging technologies to facilitate and promote the development and commercialization of high-density and high-efficiency power converters. Invited presentations and contributed papers ranging from core material technologies to power converters will address important challenges and present solutions to increase reliability and manufacturability of power electronic components and systems while targeting increased performance and reduced system cost.

Since packaging and related technologies are the key to creating high density power devices, attendance at this important event can keep you and your colleagues on the cutting edge. If you have technology to present to the community, consider submitting a digest for review by the technical committee. The call for papers will be posted on the website in September.  Additional information regarding the workshop can be found at the conference website: https://iwipp.org/ .

IWIPP is supported by the PSMA Packaging Committee.   Brian Narveson, Ernie Parker and John Bultitude are the Co-chairman.  They look forward to seeing all of you at Aalborg, University August 24-26, 2022.

Sponsored by:
Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA)
IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS)
IEEE Electronic Packaging Society (EPS)
IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS)
European Center for Power Electronics (ECPE)

xtracting clean energy from water has been a dream for more than a century. Many of us remember the book Jules Verne wrote in 1874, 'The Mysterious Island,' and its vision to extract hydrogen from water, an infinite source of energy for future generations. So for 147 years, the use of civil hydrogen has been up for debate and we are unable to hazard a guess at the number of articles, conferences and announcements supporting the inception of hydrogen as an undoubtable source of energy.

For us as power electronics engineers, very much as it was in Jules Verne's vision, hydrogen energy is achieved by electrolyzing hydrogen and oxygen, and then deploying a fuel cell to generate electricity. In reality, production of hydrogen by electrolyzation is currently less than 4% worldwide, with more than 94% of this hydrogen produced from fossil resources, mainly coal and gas, and with production from biomass and other representing just 2%.

70% of the overall hydrogen produced in the world is extracted from the natural gas methane. Its extraction uses a so called 'steam reforming' process in which high-temperature steam (700°C – 1,000°C) is used to produce hydrogen. The steam reforming process, if the carbon dioxide is not captured, is responsible for high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The amount of CO2 released ino the atmosphere by worldwide hydrogen production is estimated to be around 830 million tons.

Although this is where we are today, with the conundrum 'green hydrogen - myth or a reality' fueling the debate. But things are changing and we are getting closer and closer to Jules Verne's vision!

The shades of hydrogen!

To simplify the understanding of the different production methods and their environmental impact, industry has codified hydrogen by color. In practice, four main categories are commonly used; brown, grey, blue, and green. From time to time sub-categories appear e.g., the hydrogen that is produced by electrolyzers powered by nuclear plants is sometimes referred to as 'pink', but that is more anecdotal than a de facto delineation.

Brown hydrogen:
The color brown has been assigned to hydrogen extracted from coal by gasification. In this process the carbon based material is converted into a mix of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. Gasification is achieved at very high temperatures (>700°C) without combustion with a controlled amount of oxygen and/or steam. The carbon monoxide then reacts with water to form carbon dioxide and more hydrogen via a water-gas shift reaction. The resulting gas from this process is called syngas. The hydrogen produced by this method is known as brown (lignite) or black (bituminous) depending on the type of coal used. However, this process is highly polluting since both the CO2 and carbon monoxide cannot be reused and are released into the atmosphere.

Grey hydrogen:
Nowadays, grey hydrogen represents the highest portion of production. More than 70% of hydrogen currently produced worldwide is classified as grey hydrogen. The most common production process uses steam methane reforming (SMR). In this process high pressure steam reacts with methane resulting in hydrogen and the greenhouse gas CO2. About 9.3kg of CO2 per kg of hydrogen is generated in this process. Although this is lower than brown hydrogen it is still a substantial amount when released into the atmosphere.

Blue hydrogen:
When CO2 produced from the previous methods is captured and stored underground using industrial carbon capture and storage (CSS) the manufacturing process is less harmful for the environment, but this process is more expensive and less efficient than conventional methods. Blue hydrogen is considered an important step in the energy transition towards green hydrogen and the vast majority of new production units are strictly controlled in terms of their environmental impact. However, despite high levels of improvement compared to brown and grey, 10% to 20% of the CO2 cannot be captured and is released.

Green hydrogen
Globally, the amount of hydrogen production from water electrolysis is very small, less than 4%, but it is the most well-known technique, one that some of us will remember from our school chemistry lessons. Using electricity, hydrogen is produced by splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. In the case of green hydrogen, the electricity is produced by renewable energy sources (less than 1%). In this process the electrolyzers are the 'masterpiece' and have been used for decades with an average efficiency of 73% (compared to 65% for the steam reforming process). As for the power supply, improving its efficiency is obviously vitally important to reduce energy consumption and cost. Intensive research aims to achieve a 95% conversion efficiency, which in fact we are not far away from achieving.

Hydrogen in Europe - state of the business

Many are aware of climate challenges and the Paris agreement adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris on December 12, 2015. The ratified agreement was entered into force on 4 November 2016. The Paris Agreement embraces a vision of fully utilizing the development of technology and transfer for both improving resilience to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Illustration 01 – The European Green Deal overview (Source PRBX/ European Commission)

To achieve this goal many activities have been initiated and one of those is to develop and deploy a European strategy for hydrogen. This strategy was published in July 2020, setting out a vision of how the EU can turn clean hydrogen into a viable solution to decarbonize different sectors over time, installing at least 6GW of renewable hydrogen electrolyzers in the EU by 2024 and 40GW of renewable hydrogen electrolyzers by 2030.

To support that strategy, it is important to have global coordination between public authorities, industry, civil society and the research community. A number of alliances have been formed, facilitating synergies and the execution of strategies.

The EU Clean Hydrogen Alliance
As part of the New Industrial Strategy for Europe, in July 2020 the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance (ECH2A) was launched in the context of the hydrogen strategy for a climate-neutral Europe.

The European Clean Hydrogen Alliance is aimed at developing and deploying hydrogen as a viable and competitive energy source in Europe. The Alliance supports the implementation of the hydrogen strategy for a climate neutral Europe, by working towards developing a full and accessible EU wide hydrogen value chain. This will be achieved through, among others things, an investment agenda and a pipeline of projects, as well as by mobilizing resources and actions to install renewable hydrogen electrolyzers to achieve the aforementioned 6GW and 40GW objectives.

In April 2021, the EU Commission sent an invitation to all 1000+ members of the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance inviting them to submit projects for renewable and low-carbon hydrogen technologies and solutions. In June 2021 the second European Hydrogen Forum took place and reported an impressive number of 1,052 submitted projects, from which 997 met the eligibility criteria. This number reflects the very high interest and engagement of European industry to accelerate the development of hydrogen on the continent.

The EU Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking
Because the importance of developing efficient electrolyzers is a high priority, as long ago as 2003 the European Commission facilitated the creation of the European Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology platform with the goal to link public and private research and to create initiatives to accelerate the development of efficient fuel-cell and hydrogen technologies.

From this initiative, in May 2008 the Council of the European Union set up the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) with the objective: To contribute to the implementation of the Seventh Framework Program and in particular the Specific Program 'Cooperation' themes for 'Energy', 'Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and New Production Technologies', 'Environment (including Climate Change)', and 'Transport (including Aeronautics)'.

Illustration 02 – AIRBUS Zero emission airplane powered by Hydrogen (Source PRBX/AIRBUS)

Amongst the notable projects and initiatives underway is one very interesting study, commissioned by Clean Sky 2 and Fuel Cells & Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertakings on hydrogen's potential for use in aviation. Using hydrogen in aeronautics will require a huge amount of technical innovation and a new infrastructure, but it is seen as a major step forwards in the reduction of CO2 emissions from the aviation sector. The airplane manufacturer AIRBUS took part in the study and it's worth mentioning the company's ambition to develop the world's first zero-emission commercial aircraft by 2035 (illustration 02).

From small to big, hydrogen is making its way!

Step by step, slowly but surely, green hydrogen is becoming a reality and the number of installed electrolyzers is rapidly increasing. Clearly it would be difficult to list all the projects, but it's interesting to mention a few of them to illustrate the evolving reality.

Illustration 03 – Sweden / Mariestad ElectriVillage solar to hydrogen autonomous station (Source PRBX / Mariestad Municipality)

Sweden – Mariestad ElectriVillage
Located in the southern part of Sweden on the shore of the lake Vänern, the municipality of Mariestad developed a concept to create a sustainable energy ecosystem based on renewable energy and hydrogen. The original project included a large array of solar panels to power electrolyzers generating hydrogen for an autonomous refuelling station for cars and utility vehicles. Exploring the large range of possibilities offered by this technology, the station could also use the stored hydrogen to supply a fuel cell to generate electricity. The oxygen resulting from the split process in the electrolyzers is captured and stored for medical, industrial or farming applications. This autonomous station is a good example of what could be deployed at a larger scale and even to generate hydrogen for other vehicles such as local trains (illustration 03)

Germany – Wesseling EU Largest PEM electrolyzers
As part of the REFHYNE European consortium and with EU funding through the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU), the largest European polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) water electrolyzers began operating at Shell's Energy and Chemicals Park in Rhineland near Cologne. The Rheinland electrolyzers will use renewable electricity to produce up to 1,300 tons of green hydrogen a year, and plans are underway to expand capacity of the electrolyzers from 10 megawatts to 100 megawatts (illustration 04).

These two examples reflect the scale of hydrogen initiatives in Europe and especially considering the large number of projects, place Europe as a leading player in energy transition and industry decarbonization.

In conclusion
After decades of interest in hydrogen, we have finally entered a new era. Europe began its 'H' engagement more than 20 years ago and the 'Green Deal' boosted research, cooperation and deployment. There is no doubt that Europe has taken major steps to reach the 2050 goal and other countries are also speeding-up their hydrogen strategies. In the US, under President Joe Biden's direction, major activities are taking place. As announced on July 7, 2021 by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), an allocation of $52.5 million will fund 31 projects to advance next-generation clean hydrogen technologies and support DOE's recently announced Hydrogen Energy Earthshot initiative to reduce the cost and accelerate breakthroughs in the clean hydrogen sector. These are clear signs that hydrogen is an important part of the US energy transition strategy.

Hydrogen is no longer a myth and Jules Verne's vision: "Water will one day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light, of an intensity of which coal is not capable" will become a reality.

Provided by Patrick Le Fèvre Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Powerbox

Although presented on the second day, Chema Molina's presentation "Design of Integrated Magnetics using Artificial Intelligence" in a sense set the underlying theme for the workshop. Molina, who is the head of Frenetic AI in Madrid, Spain and did his PhD work at the Polytechnical University of Madrid (UPM), introduced the video for this presentation, which included eye-catching graphics. But graphics aside, this is a subject that easily draws our attention. Integrated magnetics is a hot topic, and AI is everywhere nowadays; why not apply it to magnetics design?

With accurate modeling comes involved computation, and design also becomes complicated. A sophisticated magnetics part model under design can be trained with either FEA data or experimental measurements on converters and applied with machine learning to train the model for correct results. That is the basic strategy of the Frenetic AI product, a leading-edge magnetics design tool.

Another theme which was dominant throughout the meeting was core power loss. One of the memorable presentations on this topic was given by John Noble of Spang (Magnetics Inc.) who reviewed a major advancement in magnetics materials. A new ferrite named Edge has lower loss with frequency and at the same time has a greater saturation limit. Compared to the advanced nanocrystalline materials, Edge costs less and can be formed into various shapes like other ferrites. Because it has 50% nickel, it is more costly than traditional materials, but less so than nanocrystalline materials.[1,2]

Methods for analyzing core loss were also prominent in some compelling presentations. These talks highlighted the shortcomings in the ways magnetics suppliers characterize losses in their cores and the ways that magnetics researchers have attempted to improve the situation. 

Manufacturers have characterized core loss either graphically, as plots of power loss density, pc( , f), plotted against flux density amplitude,   with frequency, f as a parameter, and obtained from experimental data. This quantity is difficult to measure, as one presenter remarked. Ray Ridley and others have also pointed out that the power-loss curves at higher values tend to be in error, on the low side.
Meanwhile, Charles Sullivan and his team have offered appealing corrections to the existing curves in the form of enhanced equations that model power loss, but others are looking for a more comprehensive theory of power loss. European and Asian core manufacturers have tended to include in their catalogs the complex permeability as a function of frequency,

μ(f) = μ' – j×μ"

where inductance corresponds to the real component, μ' and resistance dissipating core loss as μ".

Plots of μ' characteristically are flat out to some frequency, then roll off with a linear asymptote, while μ" is near zero at low frequencies, then increases abruptly and peaks near where μ' begins to roll off, then returns to zero. The peak is recognizable as a resonance, and it is, according Marian Kazimierczuk (High-Frequency Magnetic Components, Second Edition, Wiley, 2014) an electron spin resonance in core material.

During the first day of the workshop, complex permeability appeared in multiple presentations, and was expounded upon in multiple presentations by the University of Utah professor, Bryce Hesterman, also an advisor to Frenetic AI. He presented his own magnetics model in the form of an equivalent circuit with each winding having an auxiliary winding shunted by a resistance representing core loss, or μ".

After describing why the Dowell equation is not valid for certain winding configurations, including multiple windings, he offered an alternative, originally introduced some years ago and refined by him. The resulting equivalent circuit is substantial enough to be represented by a matrix formulation for the model. Hesterman noted a couple of times that the more complete model would include capacitance, which appears to be needed to account for the μ" resonance. However, even with that omission, good agreement with FEA results were reported with this model.

The EMI filter theme received attention in many talks including one by Fang Luo of Stonybrook University, whose keynote presentation was about "High Frequency 'side-effect' Mitigation in Power Electronics Converters: Modeling and Integrated Filtering Solutions," which presented an LLC converter example, as did MIT's Mike Kavian Ranjram the next day.

In his talk, Ranjram, who is a Phd student working under David Perreault, gave the most intriguing presentation of a catchy idea. Although the basic fractional-turn idea as presented was published in 2017, it was worth repeating and has resurfaced in a 2020 paper, "Leveraging Multi-Phase and Fractional-Turn Integrated Planar Transformers for Miniaturization in Data Center Applications" by Ranjram and Perreault.

Long ago, Lloyd Dixon of Unitrode (now TI) presented a scheme for constructing a half-turn out of two whole turns connected in parallel. Ranjram refined this idea into the "VIRT" concept shown in the figure below, extracted from the 2017 paper, "Variable-Inverter-Rectifier-Transformer: A Hybrid Electronic and Magnetic Structure Enabling Adjustable High Step-Down Conversion Ratios" by Ranjram, Intae Moon and Perreault. The more recent paper and the workshop talk applied it to planar transformers with two foil windings, each a half-turn per side of the planar E core, a linear variation on the figure.

What is appealing about this scheme is that by driving two half-turns with two full-bridge (FB) drivers, the turns ratio can be varied, depending on how the switches are sequenced, to give effective turns of ½, 1, or 2. This multimodal power-transfer circuit scheme also has power-loss advantages from optimizing the turns ratio electronically, like a multi-speed transmission. It also demonstrates how circuit and magnetics design interact.

The workshop would have been better in a physical location, but by going to the Internet, the logistics of attendees were greatly simplified. Perhaps in the future, both physical and virtual conferencing can be combined for the optimal selection of attendance mode, depending on attendee circumstances. The PSMA is planning to hold their 2022 workshop in Houston, Texas with physical attendance.

For more information, see the PSMA website.

References
1. "Mathematics of Frequency Optimization for Maximum Transfer Power," Magnetics Technical Bulletin, June 18, 2020.
2. "Modeling Maximum Core Utilization," Magnetics Technical Bulletin, June 18, 2020.

Provided by Dennis Feucht, Innovatia Laboratories, Cayo, Belize

Editor's Note: This article was first published in the July 2021 issue of How2Power Today
(http://www.how2power.com/newsletters/index.php).

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