APEC

You can find the PSMA 2025 Annual Meeting Agenda here.

APEC 2025 marks not only the 40th anniversary of APEC but also the 40th anniversary of PSMA. We will be marking the anniversary in several ways at APEC 2025. 

Click here for a full list of PSMA activities at APEC 2025.

Saturday, March 15: - The PSMA Magnetics Committee, in collaboration with IEEE/PELS, will hold their 10th annual Magnetics @ High Frequency workshop prior to the start of APEC 2025. This is always a popular event and sells out quickly. 

Click here for information and to register.

Sunday, March 16 through Thursday, March 20 – The PSMA Student Mentoring program is in it’s third year and continues during the course of APEC. The three sponsors of APEC (PSMA, IEEE/IAS and IEEE/PELS) offer travel support for up to 60 students who are presenting at APEC. These students represent the future of the power industry. To help these students get their careers started PSMA started a mentorship program at APEC 2023, connecting a student one on one with a mentor to help them maximize their experience at APEC guide them on how to get started in the industry. Mentoring opportunities are all filled for this year but watch for an opportunity to mentor students at APEC 2026.

Monday, March 17 – PSMA will hold their Annual Meeting at the Omni Centenial Park hotel across from the Georgia World Congress Center starting at 8 AM. One of the highlights of the meeting will be the presentation of the first Joe Horzepa Lifetime Service Award. This award was created last year and honors the late Joe Horzepa, the long time Executive Director of PSMA. It is given to a PSMA member, past or current, who has exhibited outstanding dedication in helping PSMA achieve the goal of bettering the Power Sources community. The Annual Meeting will also have presentations from the PSMA Executive Committee and all of the PSMA Technical Committees.

Monday, March 17 – the PSMA Energy Management Committee will present the first PSMA Global Energy Efficiency Award in the APEC Hub on the exposition floor at 6 PM. David Chen, co-chair of the Energy Management Committee will discuss the finalists and present the award to the winner. Please stop by our booth in the APEC Hub for this presentation. Don’t be late, as the presentation will start on time and is expected to take fifteen minutes.

Monday, March 17 through Wednesday, March 19 – for the 10th year PSMA will run their Passport to Prizes scavenger hunt on the Exhibition Floor during exhibit hours. Attendees are encourage to see all of the participating PSMA members who are exhibiting and get a digital “stamp” in the APEC app for a chance to win prizes.

Tuesday, March 18 through Thursday, March 20 – APEC Industry Sessions. PSMA introduced Industry Sessions to PSMA as OEM Initiative’s Special Presentation Sessions at APEC 2004. That year there were 17 presentations across three sessions. Industry Sessions proved to be a popular event, and this year there will be 174 presentations across 28 sessions. PSMA Committees are presenting multiple Industry Sessions on all three days, see the PSMA APEC Meeting Schedule for details of which sessions are being hosted by PSMA.

Tuesday, March 18 – during the PSMA Packaging & Manufacturing Committees’s Industry Session IS04 – 3D Power Packaging for AI and Vehicles Ranajit Sai of Tyndall National Institute will introduce PSMA’s “Power Technology Report on Embedded and Integrated Magnetics”, a new special report which will be available shortly after APEC 2025.

Tuesday, March 18 – the PSMA Reliability Session will have a call to action during their Industry Session IS06 – Reliability Redefined: Optimizing the Design-to-Production Transition for Superior Product Performance to join the IPC 9592C Standards Committee led by Eric Swenson of IBM.

Tuesday, March 18 – PSMA will be offering free professional head shots from 1 PM – 3 PM in room 409 of the Georgia World Congress Center. Registration in advance is required.

Click here to register.

The PSMA Packaging Committee is organizing and presenting an Industry Session for APEC 2024 that is focused on advances in 3D-Packaging Technology.  This will include a presentation on embedded and integrated magnetics based on a PSMA commissioned report from Tyndall National Institute in Ireland. The exciting advances in packaging for AI and EV power will be the key focus area.  New technologies that address the need to achieve high packaging densities while addressing issues such as thermal management, noise and improved efficiencies will be presented. The challenges and benefits associated with SiC and GaN will be reviewed.   This session will bring together leading academic and industrial researchers in this area to review the current technology and future needs.

The session is intended for system and design engineers, program managers involved in design, manufacture or application of power electronics and researchers where decreased size and improved efficiency is required for AI and EV applications. 

Topics / Speakers:

IS04.1 - Off-Road Vehicles' Power Electronics - Packaging and Thermal Management - Brij N. Singh, PhD (he/him/his) – John Deere

IS04.2 - Modern power conversion enabled by WGB semiconductors and innovative package solutions - Peter Friedrichs, PhD (he/him/his) – Infineon Technologies AG

IS04.3 - PowerSiP packaging for AI/datacenter applications - Vikas Gupta, PhD – ASE, USA

IS04.4 - Power Technology Report on Embedded and Integrated Magnetics - Ranajit Sai – Tyndall National Institute

IS04.5 - Advanced Package of Power Modules for AI - Ian Chan (he/him/his) – Cyntec Co. Ltd., Taiwan

IS04.6 - A packaging solution for powering AI processors - Joseph Meyer – Ferric Inc., USA

IS04.7 - Integrated GaN & Passive Modules by Panel Level Manufacturing for AI data centers - Yoshiaki Aizawa, ME (he/him/his) – AOI Electronics, Japan

Session Chairs: Brian Narveson and Jason Rouse

The session runs from 8:30 AM until 11:55 on Tuesday, March 18. We hope to see you there!

On Thursday, March 20, the Energy Harvesting, Energy Management and Energy Storage Committee are joining forces to present an eight speaker Industry Session "Super Session."

They will have eight speakers over two adjacent 4-speaker sessions and a break-time demo on Thursday morning to cover a wide range of topics related to energy management, electrification technologies, renewables, and impacts to the grid. We’ll end on a moderated panel discussion.

Speakers:

IS21.1 - Do More Using Less with Optimized Power Factor Correction - Darrel Kingham – Pulsiv, Co-Author: Zaki Ahmed – Pulsiv, Co-Author: Nick Theodoris – Pulsiv

IS21.2 - Grid-Forming Solutions with Energy Storage Integration - Jack Flicker – Sandia National Laboratories

IS21.3 - Challenges of an Inverterized Grid - Brendan Preece, MS, PE (he/him/his) – Southern Company, Co-Author: Jason Autrey, MA, PE – Southern Company

IS21.4 - EnerHarv - Driving an Ecosystem for Collaboration in Self-Powering IoT Edge Devices -

Brian Zahnstecher, ME (he/him/his) – PowerRox

IS21.5 - RISEnergy - Synergies in and Access to Cross-Cutting Renewable Energy Technologies in Europe - Michael Hayes, MEngSc (he/him/his) – Tyndall National Institute

IS21.6 - Electrification and Its Impact on the Grid: Challenges and Opportunities -

Baskar Vairamohan, MSEE, PE, CEM (he/him/his) – EPRI

IS21.7 - Electrification and IEEE TEC - Don Tan – E2 Systems

IS21.8 - Grid Interfaces for Transportation Electrification -

Babu Chalamala, PhD (he/him/his) – Sandia National Laboratories

In addition to the presentations and panel discussion, the Energy Harvesting Committee will be presenting demos during the mid-session break.

The session runs from 8 AM until 11:50 with a 30 minute break in the middle. We hope to see you there!

PSMA Meeting Schedule during APEC 2025

rev. 2/7/25                     Please note any changes to this schedule at the last minute will be posted on APEC monitors.

The 2025 PSMA Annual Meeting will be held in conjunction with APEC 2025 at the Atlanta Omni Hotel, adjacent to the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA on Monday, March 17. A buffet breakfast at 7:30 a.m. will precede the meeting and individuals from member companies as well non-member guests are invited to attend and participate in a full agenda of topics of interest to the industry. At the meeting, you will have the opportunity to meet and interact with other PSMA members as well as with many of the students who received APEC Attendance Support to present their papers at the Technical Sessions this year. Regular member company representatives will participate in the election of four Directors to serve on the PSMA Board for a three-year term beginning immediately and ending at APEC 2028.

The detailed agenda for the meeting is available on the PSMA web site and includes reports from each of the technical committees and stimulating discussions on new PSMA initiatives for 2025 and beyond. The APEC 2025 Conference Chair will review the progress on APEC 2025 and there will be a report on plans for APEC 2026 in San Antonio, TX.

Members and guests are also welcome to remain for the Board of Directors meeting that will immediately follow the Annual Meeting. Participation in these meetings will provide you with the opportunity to network with colleagues from other companies and to influence the direction of the PSMA and the power sources industry.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the active PSMA Technical Committees will hold open meetings during the week of APEC 2025. All are invited to participate or to just drop in any of these committee meetings to hear and provide input as the committee activities are being planned for the coming year. Visit the PSMA website to see the schedule of PSMA meetings and events at APEC 2025.

On March 15, the Saturday prior to the start of APEC 2025, PSMA and PELS will be sponsoring the tenth annual High Frequency Magnetics Workshop -"Power Magnetics @ High Frequency." 

Be sure to visit us at the PSMA booth in the APEC hub, at the exhibition area during APEC. PSMA is again sponsoring the popular PSMA/ APEC Passport Program in the Exhibit Hall. Visit the booths of participating PSMA members to enter a raffle drawing for some great prizes. Once again this year, the Passport will be part of the APEC app!

We look forward to a good turnout at the PSMA meetings and a very busy and exciting week.

For the latest information on all of the activities planned during APEC 2025, visit us at www.psma.com.

Since APEC 2016 was being held in virtually our back yard, Cherokee International founder and president Ganpat Patel and I drove to Long Beach to attend the 30th annual Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC).

This year's event was held inside the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center (located adjacent to the Hyatt Regency Hotel). Having served as the APEC Publicity Chairman (1991-96 & 1998-2004) I wanted to meet some former committee colleagues and to see what new products are being developed and introduced. APEC, sponsored by the IEEE PELS and IEEE IAS Societies and the Power Sources Manufacturers Association, PSMA, is "recognized by many as the leading conference for practicing electronics professionals."

In addition to 21 3-1/2 half hour educational Seminars that commenced on Sunday, APEC 2016 offered over 500 technical papers in 45 different Sessions which started on Monday afternoon and concluded on Thursday March 24. 

APEC is truly an International Conference. 1212 Technical Session abstracts, received from 45 different nations, were peer reviewed last fall. Abstracts from 30 of these countries were selected for inclusion in this year’s record setting event. Case in point, engineers traveled from as far away as Australia and New Zealand to share their latest design concepts. Speakers from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan represented Asia. Representing South and Central America, speakers travel from Brazil and Columbia. From the Middle East there were presentations from Egypt, Israel, and Qatar. Representing Europe were speakers from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, German, India, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and the Ukraine. Let me not overlook the speakers from Canada, Ireland and the U.K.

Complementing the technical presentations, the APEC exhibit hall contained 370 booths with a wide array of products. “Feed them and they will come” always works. APEC set up multiple serving stations with great entrees and beverages as well as ice cream stations for the 5,100 plus attendees to keep them from leaving the exhibit hall at the Convention Center.

And what was happening with the PSMA you might ask? A lot. There were 24 two to three hour technical committee meetings scheduled, ranging from a workshop on High Frequency Magnetics that started at 7:30 on Saturday morning to a three-hour session addressing Safety and Compliance issues and another three-hour session on Semiconductors advances that were held on Thursday. I would be remiss not to point out that the very popular Power Technology Roadmap Committee met for two hours on Tuesday. We did look into the Packaging Technical Committee meeting on Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday evening attendees could select from three desirable Rap sessions including: Future of Semiconductor Technology Development, Power Electronics for Internet of Things: Will it Happen and Advanced Refueling Technologies for EVs.

In quizzing some of the attendees we were told that the new hot item is Gallium Nitride semiconductors. Another area to be aware of is IoT. "Internet of things" where you will be told when you are running low on milk, your coffee is ready and other smart power alerts. "The Internet of Things” is the network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange data."

Larry Gilbert, Mohan Mankikar, and Pat Patel

Where is everyone from my past? We did find representatives from firms dating back to the 70s and 80s. Many of the others have merged, sold outright or folded in a very competitive environment.

Provided by Larry Gilbert,  former APEC Publicity Chair  (1991-96 & 1998-2004)