1. APEC Returns to Texas – See You in San Antonio, March 4-8, 2018
   
2. 2017 PSMA Planning Meeting in San Antonio Texas
   
3. Meet Your Directors
   
4. Welcome to PSMA
   
5. PSMA Capacitor Committee and IEEE PELS Capacitor Workshop: (Almost)Everything You Wanted to Know About Capacitors But Were Afraid to Ask
   
6. PSMA Magnetics Committee and IEEE PELS High Frequency Magnetics Workshop: Power Magnetics @ High Frequency - Eliminating the Smoke and Mirrors
   
7. CPSS & PSMA Joint Workshop at CPSSC 2017
   
8. 2018 International 3D Power Electronics Integration and Manufacturing Symposium Announcement and Call for Papers
   
9. EnerHarv 2018: An International, Technical Workshop Dedicated to Enabling the Energy Harvesting Ecosystem
   
10. WiPDA 2017 Overview
    
11. International Future Energy Challenge - A New Challenge
    
12. Will the Power Supply Industry Adopt the Cradle-to-Cradle Business Model?
    
13. Solar Energy Stock Index Q3 2017
    
14. Solar Energy DealReader Q3 2017
    
15. EMS Stock Index Q3 2017
    
16. EMS DealReader Q3 2017
    
17. 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: Q1_2017 | Q2_2017 | Q3_2017

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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.

 

e sure to make your calendars. APEC is early this year! The Applied Power Electronics Conference, which will convene March 4-8, 2018 at the San Antonio Convention Center, continues the longstanding tradition of addressing issues of immediate and long-term interest to the practicing power electronics engineer.  The Conference Committee for APEC 2018 has put together an expansive program that covers the key technology developments that are driving power electronics innovation.

• The Plenary Session on Monday, March 5, is still being established but the list of potential speakers is exciting, indeed. Please check back soon for the complete schedule.
• Eighteen Professional Development Seminars on Sunday, March 4 and Monday, March 5, taught by world-class experts are designed to bring you up to speed on critical power electronics design technologies and techniques. Each year, the attendance at these exception seminars continues to grow and many are sold-out in advance. 
• A Technical Program from Tuesday, March 6 through Thursday, March 8, comprises nearly 600 top-quality, peer-reviewed papers to choose from.
• The very popular Industry Session program running concurrently with the Technical Program has been expanded this year to five tracks and 140 presentations.
• Three controversial topics will be covered in our annual Rap Sessions on Tuesday evening. Grab a cool beverage and bring your questions for the panelists.
• Exhibitor Seminars conducted on the show floor will again allow attendees to hear presentations about the latest products on display.
• The crowded exhibit hall has also been expanded and will be packed with the latest power electronics products.
• The always popular annual MicroMouse contest pitting teams from around the world to solve the maze the fastest with their intelligent motorized mice will again be held on Monday evening after the exhibits close.
• A terrific social event is in the planning stages that will bring us all together on Wednesday evening. This committee has its work cut out to match the great event we had last year in Tampa.

In addition, on the Saturday prior to the start of APEC2017, PSMA and PELS will be sponsoring two workshops, the third High Frequency Magnetics Workshop -"Power Magnetics @ High Frequency – Eliminating the Smoke and Mirrors" and the first Capacitor Workshop – "Everything You Wanted to Know About Capacitors But Were Afraid to Ask". For more information see the articles on each workshop in this issue of the UPDATE.

Speaking for all of us on the APEC Conference Committee, I invite you to come to San Antonio to be part of our annual gathering. You really don't want to miss it.  Check the APEC website for details (www.apec-conf.org).

If you haven't already made plans to attend, don't wait any longer. Be sure you have it in your 2018 budget to attend this exceptional event – truly The Premier Event in Applied Power Electronics™.

Provided by Greg Evans, APEC 2017 Publicity Chair

he 2017 PSMA Planning Meeting was held on Saturday October 7 at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter Hotel in San Antonio, TX with 23 members attending. The purpose of the Planning Meeting was to review where the Association is today, discuss outstanding issues and to identify possible programs and projects that promise to bring value to the membership.

PSMA Chairman Eric Persson led the meeting and reviewed his vision for the organization and summarized the general health of the association as well as membership statistics and the changes since the 2016 Planning Meeting. He listed organizations PSMA interacts with, reviewed recent sponsored conferences and workshops and emphasized that the technical committees are the heart of the organization. It is in these committees that the real work of PSMA is done.

In discussing some of the areas of concern to the organization he highlighted the need to continue to invest in special projects that will bring value to our members, increase the effort to develop more and deeper involvement with more individuals within member companies and the continued commitment to bring more industry content to APEC.

Michel Grenon, Secretary/Treasurer, prepared a 6-Quarter financial forecast which indicated that the Association will remain in a reasonable financial position over the period which will allow funding to support Special Projects that promise to bring value to the membership.

There was a report from each of the technical committees that summarized their accomplishments over the past year and focused on ongoing programs and projects. Eight of the technical committees have submitted proposals to organize Industry Sessions at APEC 2018 and all technical committees are supporting the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap effort. In addition:

• James Lewis, Capacitor Committee member, reported that the committee is planning a workshop, Everything You Wanted to Know about Capacitors but Were Afraid to Ask, the Saturday before APEC.
• Energy Harvesting Committee member Brian Zahnstecher reported that the committee is planning a 2-3 day workshop the week of May 28, 2018 at Tyndall in Cork Ireland.
• The Alternative Energy and Energy Efficiency Committees have merged since the 2016 Planning Meeting to form the Energy Management Committee which focuses on addressing all forms of the management of energy from generation to consumption. Martin Fornage, Committee Co-Chair, was unable to attend the meeting in person but provided a report on the committee's activities, including continued support of the Energy Efficiency Database (EEDB) on the PSMA website.
• Joe Horzepa reported that the Industry-Education Committee supported the Student Travel Support for APEC 2017 and, together with PELS and IAS, provided up to a total of $40,000. The 3 sponsors have increased the Student Travel Support for APEC 2018 to provide up to $1,000 in travel reimbursement per student for 60 students whose technical abstracts were selected for presentation and who will be attending the conference.
• Ed Herbert, Magnetics Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee held a very successful Magnetics Workshop at APEC 2017 and is organizing a third High Frequency Magnetics Workshop, Power Magnetics @ High Frequency -  Eliminating the Smoke and Mirrors, for APEC 2018.
• Frank Cirolia, Marketing Committee Co-Chair, reviewed the recent activities of the committee including plans for APEC 2018. For the fifth year, the committee will sponsor the "PSMA Passport Game" to increase visibility and traffic to PSMA member exhibit booths during APEC. The committee will continue to issue news releases for PSMA events and activities. He also identified a number of activities for consideration, including PSMA exhibiting at PCIM and classification of Semiconductor companies as Regular Members.
• The Power Electronics Packaging Committee has been very active in 2017, as reported by committee Co-Chair, Brian Narveson. The committee has been holding up to 6 meetings each month with 10-12 people attending. For the coming year major projects include a Phase 3 Technology Report on Embedded Power Components being conducted by Georgia Tech as a Special Project and organizing the second 3D-PEIM Symposium at University of Maryland.  
• Conor Quinn, Power Technology Roadmap Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee published the 2017 Power Technology Roadmap that was released at APEC 2017 and has already begun planning for the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap. The first meeting of the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap Technical Committee is scheduled this month and planning is underway to host a number of Webinars starting this year.

• The Reliability Committee is PSMA's newest committee, formed in July 2017 and held its first meeting on August 10 with 9 attendees. The committee has since gained 7 more members and is working to increase the diversity of the committee membership. Committee Co-Chairs Tony O'Brien and Brian Zahnstecher, reviewed recent activities and planning for the coming year. The committee has distributed a survey to help prioritize their initiatives.
• Kevin Parmenter, Safety and Compliance Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee continues to support and works to enhance the Safety and Compliance Data Base which was launched in 2016 and is available to all PSMA members as well as to individuals in the power sources industry. Committee members have presented at external events to build awareness and contributes a monthly column in How2Power.
• Semiconductor Committee member Eric Persson reported that the committee is supporting as technical and financial co-sponsor together with IEEE PELS the WiPDA Workshop in Albuquerque, NM. Members of the committee are also working as part of a team that is putting together a standardization guideline for wide bandgap devices in terms of datasheets, testing and reliability.
• The Co-Chairs of the Transportation Power Electronics Committee, Ralph Taylor and Fred Weber, were unable to attend in person, but submitted a report reviewing the committee's activities. The committee typically has 5-7 participants at their monthly meetings, but participation has increased to up to 10 members as the prepare for their Industry Session at APEC 2018.

During the Committee Reports a number of issues and possible future activities were identified and discussed. These issues will be the focus for PSMA over the next year (and beyond).

PSMA members can view the minutes of the Planning Meeting on the "Members Only" section of the PSMA web site.

The APEC Technical Program Committee for APEC 2018 met on Sunday and were joined by many of the PSMA members from the Planning Meeting. Based on the results of their work we can all look forward to a very interesting and a successful APEC 2018.

our members of the Board of Directors are elected at the PSMA Annual Meeting held every year during the APEC conference. Each Director serves a three year term and is eligible to be reelected for one additional term.

In this issue, we will introduce you to Michel Grenon and Conor Quinn.
 


Michel Grenon has been a member of the Gaïa Converter company for 12 years where manufacturing of COTS type DC/DC converters and peripherals has been promoted to leaders in the Aeronautical, Military, Transportation and Industrial market segments.  Marketing and sales, R&D and manufacturing are all skills involved in increasing market penetration and customer satisfaction.

Having survived the Telecom revolution for 25 years, with companies such as Siemens, Alcatel, Motorola, Stromberg-Carlson and Nortel, as well as private entities that enabled the introduction of networks based on fibre and PC technologies allowed me to develop a vast experience with many different topologies.

My involvement with PSMA has allowed us to create a network of contacts amongst the industry and directly impacted our knowledge of all the different technologies and players, and is an unbelievable source of information on where the future will take us all.

As everyone knows, there aren't many things these days that does not need some sort of power!
 

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

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

Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC)
Renee Yawger
909 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 230
El Segundo, CA 90245
Telephone: 908-619-9678
E-mail: renee.yawger@epc-co.com
Website: epc-co.com/epc

EPC was founded in November 2007 by three engineers, with a combined 60 years of experience in advanced power management technology. EPC's CEO Alex Lidow was the co-inventor of the silicon power MOSFET in the 1970s; and, in addition to holding positions in R&D and manufacturing, was the CEO of International Rectifier for 12 years. Over time it became clear to the founders of EPC that silicon had reached its performance limits, failing to propel innovation forward at the rate to which we had become accustomed.

In June 2009, EPC delivered the first commercial enhancement-mode GaN (eGaN®) transistors. These new devices were manufactured in a Taiwanese foundry designed to produce standard silicon integrated circuits creating a mature, efficient, and low cost supply chain, making its GaN transistors extraordinarily reliable and affordable. Today EPC offers more than 100 products that address a $13 Billion market.

Electronetics
Doug Eaton
1320 75th St. SW
Everett, WA 98203
Telephone: 425-355-1855
E-mail:deaton@electronetics.us
Website: www.electronetics.us

Electronetics, LLC was founded in 1983 to meet the need for customized, application-specific solutions. Through consistent quality and innovation, they have earned a reputation as the go-to specialists in custom magnetic component design for a broad range of industries, including aerospace, medical, defense, audio and telecommunications.

Electronetics works with their customers' engineers and designers to create custom designs, design modifications, retrofits to existing equipment or to tailor an existing design to new requirements or applications. They recommend optimal materials to improve performance or to replace an obsolete material and design and manufacture custom magnetics from Ferroresonant transformers to small high frequency magnetics. All manufacturing is done in the USA out of a 20,660 sq. foot facility in Everett, WA.

Idaho National Laboratory
Rob Hovsapian
Westone, 1765 North Yellowstone
Mailstop 3570
Idaho Fall, ID 83401
Telephone: 208-526-8217
E-mail: rob.hovsapian@inl.gov
Website: at.inl.gov

Idaho National Laboratory is part of the U.S. Department of Energy's complex of national laboratories. The laboratory performs work in each of the strategic goal areas of DOE: energy, national security, science and environment. INL is the nation's leading center for nuclear energy research and development.

INL has established its Power & Energy Real-Time Laboratory (PERL), which uses Real-Time Digital Simulators (RTDS) to address power and energy challenges that will inevitably arise with the country's changing needs and the demands of renewable energy. The laboratory is designed to enhance our understanding of the different grid systems, their features, and their interactions. Research in this laboratory will help scientists and utility companies mitigate problems before they cascade throughout the systems.

Lockheed Martin

Shivani Singh
1111 Lockheed Martin Way
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Telephone: 415-231-4929
E-mail:shivani.singh@lmco.com
Website: www.lockheedmartin.com/us.html

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 97,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

As a global security, innovation, and aerospace company, the majority of Lockheed Martin's business is with the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. federal government agencies. In addition, Sikorsky (a Lockheed Martin Company) provides military and rotary-wing aircraft to all five branches of the U.S. armed forces along with military services and commercial operators in 40 nations. The remaining portion of Lockheed Martin's business is comprised of international government and commercial sales of products, services and platforms.

Pulse Electronics - Power Business Unit
Geoffrey Wildman
15255 Innovation Dr. Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92128
Telephone: 858-674-8356
E-mail: gwildman@pulseelectronics.com
Website: www.power.pulseelectronics.com

The Pulse Electronics Power Business Unit is the electronic components partner that helps customers build the next great product by providing the needed technical solutions. Pulse Electronics has a long operating history of innovation in Power magnetics, and can ramp quickly into high-quality, high-volume production. Pulse Electronics serves the Datacom and networking communications, power management, military/aerospace, energy, and automotive industries. With a complete line of power magnetics for voltage conversion applications, it is their mission to help our customers build the next great product by providing the needed technical solutions simply and easily.

(Almost) Everything You Wanted to Know About Capacitors But Were Afraid to Ask

Date: Saturday March 3, 2018
APEC 2018 San Antonio, Texas

emember back in school when we learned about capacitors. The first thing we learned is that there are two types: polarized and non-polarized. The second lesson was, do not plug in polarized capacitors backward! After that, we moved on to inductors. As any engineer who has worked with capacitors knows, there is so much more to them.

The PSMA Capacitor Committee is organizing their first capacitor workshop for APEC 2018 in San Antonio, the day before the conference begins, Saturday March 3, 2018. The workshop's title sets the tone for the packaged day: "(Almost) Everything You Wanted to Know About Caps But Were Afraid to Ask.

Designers of dc-dc converters, variable frequency drives, inverters, and all other power conversation applications will benefit from this workshop. The content is designed to introduce, or re-introduce, fundamentals of capacitor technologies and how it affects end user applications. So really all engineers working with or interested in broadening their understanding of capacitor technology will benefit from this workshop.

Unlike what we learned in school, there are more than two kinds of capacitors. The materials used to construct the dielectric and the electrodes, alter their characteristics and behavior. What happens when you replace the electrolyte in an aluminum capacitor? How does the film type change the self-healing of a film capacitor? Is it possible to avoid ceramics cracking on a PCB? These are the kinds of questions that will be addressed.

The focus is on capacitor fundamentals, but not their basics. The agenda addresses the design of different capacitor types, how their characteristics change in your application, the effect of the operating environment, and considerations for their operational lifetime.

The workshop will consist of three technical content sessions and an interactive technology demonstration presentation session. The technical lecture presentation sessions will each be followed by a panel Q&A session and the technology demonstrations will also be available during the breakfast just prior to the opening session of the workshop and during the networking session following the workshop's formal presentation sessions.

With capacitors being used across the electronics industry and in every electronic design, it is tough to create content that applies to every engineer at APEC. For this reason, the team is grouping content into three sessions:

• Low Voltage / The first part of the morning will focus on Low Voltage Capacitors, under 100V. This includes Ceramics, Aluminums, and Supercaps
• High Voltage / The second half of the morning will focus on High Voltage Capacitors, over 100V. This includes Ceramics, Aluminums, and Film
• Failure Modes / The afternoon will focus on Understanding how a capacitor, or any device, fail means you can design to avoid it.

Capacitor Workshop Organizing Team

Fred Weber, Future Technology Worldwide
Pierre Lohrber, Wurth Electronics
Wilmer Companioni, KEMET Electronics

Power Magnetics @ High Frequency -  Eliminating the Smoke and Mirrors

Date: Saturday March 3, 2018
APEC 2018 San Antonio, Texas

he PSMA Magnetics Committee and IEEE PELS will conduct the third "Power Magnetics @ High Frequency" workshop on Saturday, March 3, 2018, which is the day before and at the same venue as APEC 2018.

The purpose and focus of the workshop is to identify the latest improvements in magnetic materials, coil (winding) design, construction and fabrication, evaluation and characterization techniques and modelling and simulation tools so as to target the advancements that are deemed necessary by the participants for power magnetics to meet the technical expectations and requirements of higher application frequencies and emerging topologies that are being driven by continuous advances in circuits topologies and semi-conductor devices driven by new market applications.

The workshop will consist of two technical lecture presentation sessions and an interactive technology demonstration presentation session. The two technical lecture presentation sessions will each be followed by a panel Q&A session and the technology demonstrations will also be available during the breakfast just prior to the opening session of the workshop and during the networking session following the workshop's formal presentation sessions.

The morning session on ac power losses will begin with a keynote presentation by Charles Sullivan from The Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College that will provide a technical overview of ac power loss calculation modelling and measurement issues. Stefan Ehrlich of Fraunhofer Institute will address accuracy and compensation issues for ac power loss measurements, Marcin Kacki of SMA magnetics will address impact of physical dimensions effects on core loss, Byron Beddingfield of North Carolina University will review generic test methods and Ed Herbert of PSMA will present a proposal for generic specification sheets.  Dr. Ray Ridley of Ridley Engineering will summarize the session with a discussion of "what's needed going forward". The morning session will be followed with a panel Q&A consisting of the morning's presenters.

The lunch session will be an interactive technology presentation session during which the workshop attendees can visit and engage with the experts as they provide technical demonstrations of different topics associated with magnetics design, modelling and characterization. Some of the technical topics and experts are as follows: thermal limitations versus power loss efficiency limitations by Chris Oliver of Micrometals, spice modelling of winding losses by Ray Ridley of Ridley Engineering, ac power loss under square wave excitation by JC Sun of Bs&T, design and modelling issues associated with gapped cores by Bruce Carsten of Peak, DC-biased cores for high frequency applications by Sumida, practical implementation of litz wire by Kyle Jensen of Rubadue, impact of distributed gaps in air cores by Jan Simecek and Bernaud Michaud of Epcos. Additional technical demonstration sessions are also being planned.

The afternoon session on fringing effects will begin with a keynote presentation by Charles Sullivan that will provide a technical overview of the topics to be covered during this session.  Dr Johann Kolar of ETH will provide a presentation of the losses due to fringing flux in cut cores, Sumida will present simple analytical methods to calculate air gap induced eddy current losses in inductive components and Ranjith Bramanpalli of Wurth Elektronik will discuss near magnetic field considerations for power magnetics design. There also will be a presentation on power losses associated with distributed air gaps and the impact of fringing effects on practical design applications.  The session will be followed with a panel Q&A consisting of the afternoon's presenters.

The registration fee for the workshop is $325 per participant reducing to $225 for PSMA and IEEE PELS members and students. On February 1, 2018, the registration fee will increase to $375 reducing to $275 for PSMA and IEEE PELS members and students. Breakfast and lunch will be provided as part of the workshop. Electronic copies of the technical lecture presentations and technology demonstration presentations will be made available to the workshop participants.

One can register for the Power Magnetics @ High Frequency – Eliminating the Smoke and Mirrors workshop at: http://www.psma.com/webforms/power-magnetics-high-frequency-workshop-2018-registration There will be student waivers for registrations fees. Students can apply for one of the available waivers by downloading and submitting the waiver application form available on the workshop website.

The latest information on agenda as well as registration information for the workshop will become available on the PSMA website over the next few months at: http://www.psma.com/technical-forums/magnetics/workshop .


Organizing Committee

Steve Carlsen, Raytheon
Ed Herbert
Khurram Afridi, University of Colorado Boulder
Ali Bazzi, University of Connecticut
Rodney Rogers, All Star Magnetics
Laili Wang, Xi'an Jiaotong University
Fred Weber, Future Technology Worldwide
Chuck Wild, Dexter Magnetics

ollowing earlier PSMA participation in 2015, and discussions at APEC 2017, PSMA members travelled to Shanghai, PRC in November to participate in the China Power Supply Society Conference (CPSSC) 2017.

On Saturday Nov. 4th, PSMA representatives participated in the CPSSC opening ceremony and presented an introduction to the PSMA and keynote speech on the PSMA's Power Technology Roadmap (PTR).

CPSSC opening ceremony, Dr. Dehong (Mark) Xu

CPSSC keynote attendees

On Sunday Nov. 5th, CPSS & PSMA held a Joint Technology Workshop with six presentations plus Q&A, across three topics:

• New energy, New-Energy Vehicles, Energy storage
• Data center, IT equipment power supply
• Consumer AC-DC: smartphone, laptop, TV, etc.

CPSSC joint workshop, Stephen Oliver and Dr. Dehong (Mark) Xu

CPSSC joint workshop, Conor Quinn and Dr. Longqiang Yi

Attendees at the PSMA & CPSS Joint Technology Workshop

• Promote the PSMA
• Attract additional members
• Collaborate with other international organizations
• Invite participation on PSMA committees
• Invite technical contributions to PSMA-sponsored events (including 3D-PEIM)
• Increase awareness of and participation in the Power Technology Roadmap (PTR)

CPSS & PSMA: (left to right) Lei Zhang, Stephen Oliver, Dr. Dehong (Mark) Xu, and Dr. Conor Quinn

It was a successful trip and PSMA and CPSS look forward to future opportunities to collaborate. CPSS members will attend APEC 2018 in San Antonio in March of 2018 and the PSMA was invited to attend PEAC 2018 in Shenzhen in November of 2018.

Provided by Provided by Stephen Oliver, PSMA President, Navitas Semiconductor

Abstracts are Due December 15, 2017

SMA is proud to announce the organizing of The Second Biennial International Symposium on 3D Power Electronics Integration and Manufacturing (3D-PEIM-18) to be held on June 25-27, 2018.  This Symposium will be held at the University of Maryland, College Park and will bring together world-class experts representing a wide range of disciplinary perspectives to advance the development of future 3D power electronics systems. Prof. Patrick McCluskey of the University of Maryland, College Park is the General Chair and Prof. G.Q. Liu from Virginia Tech is Program Chair for the symposium.

For the professional or educator engaged in the research and development of power electronics packaging design, and manufacturing processes, this Symposium is the ideal event to share your ideas, progress and challenges with leading members of international associations and societies active in these fields of expertise. The program will focus on additive, embedded, co-designed, and integrative packaging technologies. Sessions will address mechanical, materials, reliability, and manufacturability issues in small, smart, power dense components and modules.

Abstracts of candidate papers are sought that address important challenges related to the design, packaging and manufacturing of smaller, lighter, more efficient, and sustainable power electronic products, especially in the following topic areas:

• Additive Manufacturing
• Embedded Components and Embedding Technologies
• Systems Integration and Thermal Management for High-density Packaging
• Multi-physics Modeling and Simulation of Integrated Packaging and Circuit Solutions
• Materials (e.g., interconnects, encapsulants, substrates)
• Heterogeneous Integration
• Manufacturability of circuits and packaging (manufacturing processes, equipment, and standards)
• Quality and Reliability, including Prognostics and Condition Monitoring

• "Good balance of academic and industry papers and attendance covering and illustrating research, development, and manufacturing technologies."
• "It was a very important forum as we move into the post-Moore's Law/Heterogeneous Integrated era"
• "The keynote speeches were most valuable, providing an excellent recent update on embedded technologies."

Provided by:

General Chair
Prof. Patrick McCluskey, University of Maryland, College Park

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

Publicity Chair
Arnold Alderman, Anagenesis, Inc.

n less than five short years, attention on energy harvesting has made a dramatic shift.  In years past, we have seen the reaction to proposed energy harvesting applications range from anecdotal curiosity to being dismissed as producing negligible amounts of power.  Fast-forward to today and we have an entire production ecosystem that has quickly gained steam as folks start to realize just how limiting batteries are in (mostly) low power applications (in terms of battery life and the resultant need for frequent replacement) and how energy harvesting is the key to enabling reliable and maintenance-free powering of all those amazing Internet of Things (IoT)  devices for Industrial IoT, wearables, 5G, wireless sensor networks, robotics, and medical technologies, just to name a small handful.  The conversation has shifted from "What is it?" and "It will never deliver useful power levels." to "How can I take advantage of this technology?" and "Can you help me develop an energy harvesting strategy/roadmap before my competitors do?" and "We see the value, but need help getting our learning curve up-to-speed to execute quickly and verify it will work for our applications."

The Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA) has always been at the forefront of power technologies and the promotion of the driving force behind all electronics for many decades now and energy harvesting is no exception.  In less than 18 months, the PSMA Energy Harvesting Committee has increased membership from seven to over 30 members with a wide mix of academia and representatives from a variety of industry players on both the supplier and user sides of the fence.  A key initiative was the management and execution of a full Industry Session at the 2017 Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC), the premier, global event for power electronics.  The session was expected to be a stepping-stone to segue future interest in energy harvesting technologies at APEC and turned into a standing-room-only technical demonstration and lecture session. The demonstration session in particular was an important message to the audience that energy harvesting has moved from the lab to real life applications and offers significant competitive advantages.

Under the steadfast and energetic leadership of the PSMA Energy Harvesting Committee, the group is pushing forward with the next, ambitious step in this exciting field.  The Committee has recently announced the creation and planning of EnerHarv 2018, a three-day, international workshop 'by energy harvesting people for energy harvesting people.'  It is completely dedicated to bringing the best and brightest minds in this very siloed industry together to raise awareness, develop synergies between the various constituents of the energy harvesting ecosystem, and enable applications.  EnerHarv will be hosted by Tyndall National Institute in Cork, Ireland in late-May, 2018.  Tyndall is one of Europe's leading industry-led IoT research centers and is an epicenter for energy harvesting research.

EnerHarv is a unique workshop in the way it will be structured to maximize collaboration and push the industry forward.  The entire program will be experienced as a collective of all workshop delegates.  From the technical lectures to the functional technology demonstrations to the open panel discussions, each day will be packed with technical knowledge mixed with practical application information all to culminate in a group discussion on a theme following a common thread throughout each day of the workshop.  The workshop is targeted at anyone involved or considering getting involved in developing or using energy harvesting technology, particularly (but not exclusively) for ultra-low power IoT applications.  Delegates will walk away inspired, enabled, connected and eager to exercise their newfound education and collaborations immediately upon returning to their colleagues/labs/partners/etc.

In addition to PSMA's financial backing and member support, the EnerHarv Workshop Committee (EWC) has quickly retained many of the industry's top organizations as Technical Sponsors.  This list includes the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS), the European Power Electronics Research Network (ECPE), Ireland's national research centre for Future Networks & Communications (CONNECT), and the China Power Supply Society (CPSS).  This is in addition to many representatives on the EWC from prestigious academic and industry mainstays in the world of energy harvesting and power electronics.

The EWC is currently filling presentation and poster slots for this invite-only event.  If you are interested in contributing content, then please visit the EnerHarv 2018 website at www.EnerHarv.com for workshop tracks and EWC contact information.  Additionally, you will find an opportunity to input your own contact information and be one of the first to learn when registration becomes available.

Please join us in the beautiful and historical city of Cork, Ireland's gourmet capital, in May and be part of the inaugural EnerHarv Workshop.  Open your mind to harvesting every type of ambient energy physics affords us.  Learn how to extend battery life and perhaps mitigate batteries altogether in your application.  Learn about the materials, devices and systems and supporting simulation development and deployment tools that are making energy harvesting a reality today.  Obtain valuable training on the nuances of ultra-low power designs/loads.  Build relationships and network with an entire ecosystem at your immediate disposal, while focused on the organic growth of this emerging area in an impartial and altruistic environment without all the baggage that comes with a commercial, for-profit event.  You will be able to return to your teams and tell them the predictions for 10s of billions of devices in the next three to five years are actually a reality but can only become so if we work together to remove the present limitations of batteries and/or other fixed non-regenerative power sources!

Provided by General Chair
Mike Hayes, Tyndall National Institute
Technical Program Chair
Brian Zahnstecher, PowerRox

he 5th IEEE Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications (WiPDA, www.wipda.org), sponsored by IEEE and PSMA, was successfully held from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort near Albuquerque, NM.

WIPDA is a fast-growing annual event which provides a forum for device scientists, circuit designers, and application engineers to share technology updates, research findings, development experience, and application knowledge.
As in past years, WiPDA covered a wide range of topics related to wide-bandgap power electronics, including but not limited to:

1. Heteroepitaxial and bulk materials growth
2. Gate dielectrics and surface passivation
3. Device structures and fabrication techniques
4. Device characterization and modeling
5. Very high efficiency and compact converters
6. SOAs including short-circuit, spike, and transient tolerance
7. Harsh environment (e.g. high temperature) operation and reliability
8. Packaging, power modules, and ICs
9. Hard-switched and soft-switched applications
10. Common-mode and EMI management
11. Gate drive and other auxiliary circuits
12. High-performance passive components
13. Applications in renewable energy and storage, transportation, industrial drives, and grid power systems

There were seven tutorials covering both device and application topics, from fundamental knowledge to the frontier research trends. The tutorial speakers were from both academic institutions (Purdue University, North Carolina State University, Virginia Tech, and University of Alabama) and industry (John Deere, Texas Instruments, and Infineon Technologies). The WIPDA 2017 keynote sessions featured eight distinguished speakers from ARPA-E, Navitas Semiconductor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, PowerAmerica, Ford, Infineon, and Texas Instruments, who shared their experiences and visions on SiC and GaN development and applications from different angles as the device manufacturer, the equipment designer, the researcher, and the system integrator. Additionally, two panel sessions focused on high-voltage SiC and high-frequency GaN, and included leading experts from US federal agencies, industry, and academia. The technical program consisted of 50 oral presentations and 21 posters, representing 10 countries. Each presentation or poster will be available on IEEE Xplore.

This year's poster session and banquet were held at the Cottonwoods Pavilion, located on the Tamaya grounds along the banks of the Rio Grande River. Further, IEEE's International Technology Roadmap for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (ITRW) working group met at the workshop. Finally, an exhibition consisting of ten different companies and agencies paticipanted in WIPDA2017.

As in past years, WiPDA again provided student travel grants to encourage student participation in the conference and promote education in the area of wide-bandgap power electronics. 16 students received these awards, out of a total of 60 student participants, supported equally by PELS and PSMA.

WiPDA 2018 will be hosted by Georgia Tech in Atlanta, and is tentatively scheduled for November 5-7, 2018. Please check www.wipda.org for information and updates. We look forward to your participation at next year's exciting event!

Provided by Dr. Fang Luo, Publicity Chair WiPDA 2017

he Future Energy Challenge started in 2001 as a bi-annual competition in North America. Prof. Jason Lai from Virginia Tech organized this first competition. In 2003, the competition became an international event and was officially named the International Future Energy Challenge (IFEC). From 2003 to 2015, a total of 152 university teams had participated in IFEC. With more teams participating in the competition, the steering committee of IFEC decided to change the competition from a bi-annual event to an annual event starting in 2016.

In 2017, the competition was hosted by Prof. Qiang Li from the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) at Virginia Tech. Sponsors of the 2017 IFEC include IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS), IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS), IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) and Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA). Combining 2016 and 2017, the number of IFEC participants are almost doubled from the past bi-annual competitions.

In 2017, the competition topic was high-Efficiency high-density isolated dc/dc converter. The converter needed to work with a dc input (360~400 V dc) and output a constant 12 V dc voltage with a peak power of 750 W. The targeted power density was 15 W/cm3 or higher with a peak efficiency requirement of 97% at 50% of the rated load. At the final onsite competition, the converter went through all functional tests, and a 55 oC high operation temperature test. Competition  teams  were  encouraged  to  adopt  WBG  power devices  in  innovative  circuit  topologies  to achieve high efficiency and high density at the same time.  Twenty-three teams from five continents joined the competition. The grand prize went to Kunming University of Science and Technology. You can see the full list of winners at energychallenge.weebly.com/ifec-2017.html.

The IFEC2018 call for proposals is already out. This time, the topic is high-efficiency high-density isolated bidirectional dc/dc converter for residential energy storage systems. The final competition will be hosted at the Tsinghua University in Beijing. Visit energychallenge.weebly.com/ifec-2018.html for more information. The IFEC2019 will be hosted at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.  The topic will be electric bicycle with an emphasis on motor control.  IFEC, a new challenge awaits!

Provided by
IFEC 2017 Organizing Committee Members:
Qiang Li, Virginia Tech
Jin Wang, Ohio State University
Yaow-ming Chen, National Taiwan University

ue to its very nature, the power supply industry has been on a never-ending quest searching for new technologies to improve energy efficiency, safety and miniaturization.  In doing so, an admirable pioneering spirit has developed and grown within the power community. Moving from the plated germanium rectifiers of the old days to the latest gallium nitride or silicon carbide technology, time and time again power designers have proven their ability to optimize efficient energy conversion while complying with ever more demanding regulations. Step by step - sometimes small ones, sometimes big – the industry has created power architectures that reduce energy consumption and in many cases has discovered technical solutions to supposedly 'unsolvable' problems.  Who twenty years ago would have believed that we could produce power supplies with such high levels of efficiency that also comply with very stringent environmental regulations? All those achievements are great but are they enough to address the growing demand from the market to reduce - even further - the environmental impact?

Risks under control

Technology has helped us to perform 'magic' but at the same time the world has changed and environmental challenges have become more complex and global, requiring all industries to reconsider their ways of working, particularly with a higher regard and responsibility for environmental and social issues.

This is the latest challenge that the power industry is now facing, and despite the fact that the technologies brought to the market have helped reduce CO2 emissions, companies' Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) policies aligned to international standards will require many adjustments in the way they are working. Not only that, but the issue of how their suppliers will comply with such environmental regulations and manage the related risks.

One example is the implementation of the global risk management ISO 31000 methodology.  This was initially developed for decision and policy makers within governments and large corporations in order to minimize exposure to risk and to secure business integrity for stockholders, and is now adopted by many companies such as those in the medical industry.
ISO 31000 is becoming an important tool, helping companies to develop their environmental strategy and gain better control of risk, both internal and external. ISO 31000 is defined as 'a process that provides confidence that planned objectives will be achieved within an acceptable degree of residual risk'.  Moving forwards, ISO 31000 will become an immense and increasingly important part of organizations.

Clearly, many power supply designers are used to dealing with risk management assessment (e.g. when designing a medical power supply to comply with the IEC 60601-1-3 Edition, or a power supply for demanding applications in other segments such as in gas and oil industry), though in coming years the demand from OEM customers on the power supply industry in term of risk management might become more global, including environmental impact and social responsibility down to a single supplier. That requires our industry to be prepared for new ways of working and even to consider revamping some of the business principles that we thought were engraved in stone!

Are we ready for that?

Medical drives trends!

Addressing a vast range of applications, from consumer to defense, the power supply industry has to comply with many standards and regulations.  Some of these, originally developed for a specific segment are now rapidly being adopted by other industries. Regulation in the medical industry is a good example where a number of parameters specified in the IEC 60601-1-3 and -4 have now been adopted by industrial project managers involved in 'Industry 4.0' (e.g. higher isolation, lower leakage current, reduced and in-control EMI and documented risk assessment).
Designing power supplies and complying with safety regulations is for sure a vital obligation, but designing a product for the environment (DfE) is just as important. Here again, the medical industry is setting the scene and according to a market study released in 2014 by Johnson & Johnson, more than 80 percent of the hospitals around the world are expected to incorporate sustainability into their purchasing decisions and for many to follow ISO 31000's risk assessment process - including their suppliers.

That considered, one way or another the power supply industry will have to comply with environmental requirements demanded by the medical industry, and by other industries formulating the same demands on their suppliers and partners.  Therefore it becomes very important for the power supply industry to adopt a way of working that includes environmental aspects at the very early stages of any project.

Designing for the environment has often been performed on a voluntary basis or used as a marketing/sales argument, though that is now changing. For many, a product with high efficiency and low standby power may seem to be DfE by nature, but that is not necessarily the case. DfE is much more than that and despite the existence of ISO 14062, the lack of a common definition or standard that is relevant to the electronics industry is making it difficult for customers and users to verify what is included under each company DfE definition and verification.

Being aware of the difficulties in assessing the different variables considered as part of DfE from their suppliers, the medical industry and regulatory bodies realized the need to define a standardized methodology that considers the overall life cycle, i.e. all stages, from the initial specification to end-of-life management.

Following several years preparation, in 2007 as collateral to the IEC 60601 the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) published the so-called 'dash one nine'; IEC 60601-1-9. The objective of IEC 60601-1-9 is to reduce the environmental impact of the entire range of medical electrical equipment (ME equipment), taking into account all stages of the product life cycle, namely product specification, design, manufacturing, sales, logistics, installation, commissioning, deployment, and end of life management.
The fundamental principle of the IEC 60601-1-9 is to protect the environment and human health from hazardous substances, to preserve raw materials and energy, minimize the generation of waste, and minimize the adverse environmental impact associated with waste.

Figure 1.

Without going into microscopic detail, the core requirements of IEC 60601-1-9 can be summarized as 'identification', 'instruction', and 'end-of-life management'. During this process, manufacturers will have to perform in accordance with existing processes (e.g. risk management performed in compliance with ISO 1497, life-cycle thinking, in line with ISO 14001 with particular emphasis on ISO 14062) and develop documentation demonstrating that all steps have been carried out with the highest consideration for the environment.

Since IEC 60601-1-9 was amended in 2013, the standard has been used to guide and help companies minimize products' and operational environmental impact and has been implemented on a voluntary basis.  However in 2014 the Brazil National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) took the lead, requiring that any medical electrical equipment sold into the country meets the standard by December 1, 2016 with special attention to three clauses: (4.1) Identification of Environmental Aspects, (4.5.2) Instructions for Minimizing Environmental Impact During Normal Use, and (4.5.3) Information for End of Life Management.
So Brazil is the first country to stipulate that medical electrical equipment formally complies with the standard, but other countries are also considering its implementation or national directives aimed at motivating medical equipment manufacturers to include parts of the standard to minimize impacts, and contribute to the development of a sustainable economy that preserves the environment.

Could the power industry adopt the cradle-to-cradle business model?

As engineers we enjoy challenges, solving problems, and to some extent we are used to breaking 'unbreakable' limits. The power supply history is awash with examples of 'that which will never be possible' eventually becoming a 'great innovation'. In terms of contributing to the environment, by permanently improving technical performance and reducing energy consumption, we have proven our ability to contribute to the reduction of environmental impact, but we can do more. Integrating the full life cycle stages and complying with standards such as ISO 60601-1-9 (or equivalent) are good, but looking forward can we rethink the way the power supply industry is working? Can we contribute even more to build a sustainable environment for future generations?

Figure 2.

As part of an internal project, a group of engineers from different disciplines and companies were invited to project the complete life cycle of Powerbox's OFM225 power supply (Figure 1). The power supply had originally been designed for high efficiency and ease of manufacturing, and the group was asked to explore how, outside the established business model, could such a product/process not only have the lowest possible environmental impact, but also be able to optimize the positive impact (e.g. Supporting local economy).

Taking into consideration all aspects from initial design to end-of-life (and potential second life), the project followed the cradle-to-cradle (C2C) approach and identified areas to work on in order to minimize negative impacts and optimize positive ones (Figure 2).

For many it may seem an odd approach for a power supply company to consider revamping a conventional way of working to adopt such a model, but considering that C2C takes the whole lifecycle of an item into account, including sourcing and end-of-life disposal, it becomes synchronous with existing and forthcoming regulations, with customers, end-users and stakeholders expectations, and a way forward for the power supply industry to help create a better world.

Integrating the C2C five goals (Figure 3) at the beginning of a project will contribute to the development of power supplies with the lowest environmental impact while increasing the positive ones (e.g. selecting a components supplier engaged in sustainable development, working with CEM partners to reduce water consumption and to use renewable energies, designing products with end-of-life or second life in mind), contributing to make the power supply industry, not only able to provide products with best in class technology, but to contribute to local economies and the development of a new way of working, paving the way for future generations.

Recent climate and ecological events remind us daily of how fragile our environment is, and we all have to contribute to its protection. The cradle-to-cradle business model within the power industry may not be a utopia, but it will eventually become part of our daily way of working. So to the question: "Will the power supply industry adopt the cradle-to-cradle business model?" The answer is a resounding, "Yes!"

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

incoln International is pleased to present you with the latest Solar Energy Stock Index from our Global Energy & Power Group. This will provide you with:

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

solar_energy_stock_index_q3_2017.pdf (272k pdf)

This data is included with the permission of Lincoln International. For more information, you may contact John McManus (jmcman@optonline.net) or the Association Office.

incoln International is pleased to present you with the latest Solar Energy DealReader from our Global Energy & Power Group. This will provide you with:

• Q3 2017 deal volume comparison by total transactions, deal type, geography, and target company sector
• Recent Solar Energy transaction announcements
• Analysis of Global Solar Energy Trends

solar_dealreader_q3_2017.pdf (361k pdf)

This data is included with the permission of Lincoln International. For more information, you may contact John McManus (jmcman@optonline.net) or the Association Office.

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

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

ems_stock_index_q3_2017.pdf (312k pdf)

This data is included with the permission of Lincoln International. For more information, you may contact John McManus (jmcman@optonline.net) or the Association Office.

incoln International is pleased to present with the latest EMS DealReader from our Global Electronics Group. Topics covered in this issue include:

• Q3 2017 deal volume comparison by total transactions, deal type, geography and size
• Recent EMS transaction announcements
• An analysis of growth trends affecting the EMS industry

ems_dealreader_q3_2017.pdf (372k pdf)

This data is included with the permission of Lincoln International. For more information, you may contact John McManus (jmcman@optonline.net) or the Association Office.

If you or anyone in your company is interested in getting on the distribution list for future issues of PSMA UPDATE, please send e-mail to: power@psma.com. Be sure to include your name and the name of your company.