Power Supplies Archive
Here comes a 1,700-V MOSFET
The first commercially available SiC MOSFET to work at 1,700 V recently was developed at Cree....
Solar simulation gets a boost from programmable power supplies
The design of solar arrays can lead to expensive mistakes in the absence of simulation tests....
Breakaway cable makes EV charging safer
Recharging an electric vehicle can mean leaving the car unsupervised and plugged into a recharging unit for hours at a time. This leaves the cable vulnerable to a long list of potential risks, including forgetful owners driving off while still plugged in, and people tripping over the cable. If the cable breaks, it could expose people and property to dangerous levels of high-voltage electricity....
Li-ion battery sets an energy density record
A lithium-ion cell has demonstrated the highest recorded energy density for that type of battery chemistry....
Lithium-ion......capacitors?
Yes, there is such a thing. And unlike the related battery chemistry, they don't experience thermal run away....
GaN FETs get more attention: This time it's a low-side gate driver
The LM5114 drives GaN FETs and MOSFETs in low-side applications, such as synchronous rectifiers and power factor converters. ...
A super-dense dc/dc supply for military, industrial gear
Isolation, voltage transformation and output regulation in a form factor less than half the size of a conventional isolated 1/16th brick....
Making set-top boxes more efficient
Multi-output, digital DC/DC power management unit (DPMU) ICs could be a boon to consumer electronic devices that are getting scrutiny from energy regulators....
Safe and reliable alternative energy
Home alternative energy systems based on solar and wind power are becoming popular, but safety is becoming more of an issue. As incidents like the one in San Diego show, system designers need to build in protections against short circuits and other failures. The power inverter and its control system are the place to focus....
Industry grapples with EV battery economics
The average auto owner may someday own an electric vehicle, but perhaps not the battery that runs it. That’s one of the schemes now in the dry-run phase aimed at getting around prohibitively high vehicle costs....
Start-stop puts a strain on battery technology
Ordinary lead-acid battery technology has a short lifetime in start-stop uses, so battery makers have come up with new ideas for handling the frequent charge-discharge that characterizes start-stop....
Inverters lighten up
New topologies let inverters shed a lot of weight. There are big implications, not just for electric vehicles, but also for renewable energy sources of all kinds....
Plumbing for power: Energy harvesting turns temperature differences into electricity
The engineering team at Nextreme Thermal Solutions, Durham, N.C., have developed a new way to convert small temperature differences into electricity using...
The death of lead-acid batteries?
Lead-acid batteries have been around for over a century and go into more than 100 million vehicles annually, including boats, forklifts, and wheelchairs,...
Circuit topology boosts power density in power conversion platforms
A new circuit topology from CUI Inc. helps engineers get in synch with the four major trends in power conversion devices: higher power densities, more...
