20 Most-Read North American Product Announcements for 2016: 20-11

PowerPulse provides readers extensive coverage of new product and technology developments spanning the globe from Asia to Europe and North America. Coverage includes active and passive components, energy storage devices, power converters, and more. The following is a listing (with links for the full story) of the most-read Product News stories from North America on PowerPulse.Net for 2016, thus providing a window into the "pulse" of the trends and interests in the North American Power Electronics community.

#20: 600-V GaN FET Power Stage

Texas Instruments (TI) announced the availability of 600-V GaN FET power-stage engineering samples. The new 12-A LMG3410 power stage coupled with TI's analog and digital power-conversion controllers enables designers to create smaller, more efficient and higher-performing designs compared to silicon FET-based solutions. These benefits are especially important in isolated high-voltage industrial, telecom, enterprise computing and renewable energy applications. More.

#19: Isolated Drivers for GaN and SiC claim Highest Noise Immunity

Silicon Labs has launched a family of isolated gate drivers that solves a critical need for cutting-edge power supply designs. Based on Silicon Labs' proven digital isolation technology, the new Si827x ISOdriver family claims the highest noise immunity of any gate driver on the market. This industry-leading common mode transient immunity (CMTI) makes the Si827x drivers well-suited for fast-switching and potentially noisy power supply systems. Target applications include power supplies for servers, computers and base stations, as well as solar power inverters and microinverters, class D amplifiers, motor controllers, and chargers for electric vehicle/hybrid-electric vehicles (EV/HEV). More.

#18: 1-GHz Optically-Isolated Measurements for GaN and SiC

Tektronix announced that the IsoVuâ„¢ Measurement System previewed earlier this year at the APEC 2016 show is now shipping and available for worldwide delivery to customers. Pricing for the optically isolated measurement system starts at $12,000. More.

#17: 1600-Watt Hyperscale/Open Compute Server Power Supply

Artesyn Embedded Technologies today released a new 1600-Watt power supply, the HS-OCS Series, designed for hyperscale data centers such as those using the Open Compute Project specifications. The new power supply offers a compact, customizable server rack power source with an optional battery pack to provide the local energy storage (LES) designed as part of the Open Cloud Server hyperscale system that Microsoft donated to the Open Compute Project. Integrating a battery backup into the rack power supply eliminates the need for uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) at the facility-level. More.

#16: 40W One-Inch-Square DC-DC Converters

Semiconductor Circuits, Inc. has introduced the new "Cool Power Technologies" ultra-wide input range 5V, 8A (40W) one-inch-square dc-dc converter. This open frame or optional encapsulated module provides 40W of output power with an output voltage of 5Vdc. According to the company, the CP40 series is the only 40W one-inch-square 4:1 input module available on the market today (a 12V version is also available.) This module is designed for industrial or distributed power architecture applications. More.

#15: 650V GaN FET with 41mOhms On-Resistance in a TO-247

Transphorm Inc. introduced the TPH3207WS GaN field effect transistor (FET) with the lowest on-resistance (41 mΩ) in a TO-247 package that reduces system volume as much as 50% without sacrificing efficiency. The device's low Rds(on) and ultra-low Qrr (175nC) bring the benefits of GaN to applications that previously relied on silicon, enabling engineers to achieve power-dense solutions with reduced component count and improved reliability in high-voltage power conversion applications. More.

#14: 60V MOSFETs for Quick Charger Designs

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited (AOS) announced the release of 8 new products in the 60V MOSFET family. These products are designed for synchronous rectification in flyback converters, used in quick chargers for smart phones and other portable devices. The part numbers include AO4262E, AO4264E, AO4268, AON6262E, AON6264E, AON6268, AON7262E, and AON7264E. These products offer three levels of maximum on-resistance at 4.5V gate drive voltage: 6.5mohm, 8.5mohm, 13.5mohm. They are available in three package types: SO-8, DFN5x6, and DFN3x3. More.

#13: 650V Ultra Junction Power MOSFETs with Fast Body Diodes

IXYS Corporation announced an expansion of its Ultra Junction Power MOSFET product line: 650V X2-Class Power MOSFETs with fast body diodes. With on-resistance as low as 17 milliohms and current ratings ranging from 22A to 150A, these devices are optimized for soft-switching resonant-mode power conversion applications. More.

#12: Integration of 650V GaN FETs with Drive and Logic

Navitas Semiconductor announced the world's first Gallium Nitride (GaN) Power ICs, using its proprietary AllGaNâ„¢ monolithically-integrated 650V platform. Combining GaN power FETs with GaN logic and drive circuits enables 10x to 100x higher switching frequencies than existing silicon circuits, enabling smaller, lighter power electronics at lower cost. Navitas expects to enable a new generation of high frequency, energy efficient converters for smartphone and laptop chargers, OLED TVs, LED lighting, solar inverters, wireless charging devices and datacenters. More.

#11: Modules Support Google 48V Data Center Infrastructure

Vicor Corporation announced its latest generation of 48V Direct-to-PoL (Point-of-Load) power components. These modules, which allow contemporary low-voltage, high-current CPUs, GPUs, ASICs and DDR memory to be powered off of a 48V distribution bus, enable unprecedented power density, conversion efficiency and low power system distribution loss. Evidencing advances in power conversion engines, control systems and modular power technology, Vicor's latest 48V modules are being introduced following the Open Compute Project (OCP) Summit 2016 at which Google announced its initiative to promote 48V server and distribution infrastructure as a standard for data centers. More.