News

50 Most-Read Industry News Stories for 2015: 50-41

January 03, 2016 by Power Pulse1595211359

The following is a listing (with links for the full story) of the most-read Industry News stories on PowerPulse.Net for 2015, thus providing a window into the "pulse" of the trends and interests in the Power Electronics Industry. This is the first article in the series, which will continue tomorrow.

#50: GaN Systems raises USD$20 Million in Series C Financing

GaN Systems Inc. announced a USD$20 million venture capital financing. Cycle Capital Management led the round and was joined by BDC Capital and Beijing-based Tsing Capital, as well as existing investors Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital and RockPort Capital. As GaN Systems' customers launch multiple consumer and enterprise products designed with its GaN transistors, this financing will enable the company to ramp up sales and marketing support for its rapidly growing international customer base and to continue manufacturing line expansion. more

#49: Data Center Energy Management Firm Launched

RLE Technologies, Inc. has launched a new division, Future Resource Engineering, that will systematically identify facility and operational inefficiencies in enterprise or embedded data centers and implement turnkey solutions to reduce power usage and increase the data center's bottom line. Future Resource Engineering administers a three step process to provide data center owner/operators with tangible power savings with no IT downtime or movement of equipment. more

#48: 20kHz 30kW SiC Converter has 99% Efficiency

Princeton Power Systems has demonstrated for the first time a grid-tied bi-directional power converter intended for commercial use based on a silicon-carbide switching technology platform. The converter operates at 30kW power throughput and 480-Vac, using junction field effect transistor (JFET) devices provided by United Silicon Carbide (USCi) and Princeton Power Systems trigger cards integrated in a unique architecture. The converter demonstrated peak efficiency greater than 99% and sustained 100% power overloads. more

#47: Tyndall Collaboration secures €1m for Nano-GaN Project

Tyndall National Institute has partnered with US and Northern Irish research institutes to secure €1 million in funding to develop new ways of harnessing converted electricity. The Nano-GaN Power Electronic Devices project will seek to improve the efficiency of converting electrical power by up to 25%. The collaborators from Tyndall National Institute, Cork; Illinois Institute of Technology; and Queens University Belfast, will look to stabilize GaN so it can be used to convert high voltages to more manageable levels, without the current high energy losses. The new technology is expected to be particularly useful in the development of electric and hybrid vehicles. more

#46: Emerson to Spin off Network Power Business

Emerson plans to spin off its Network Power business via a tax-free distribution to shareholders as part of a plan to streamline its portfolio, drive growth, and accelerate value creation for shareholders. Emerson will also explore strategic alternatives for its motors and drives, power generation and remaining storage businesses. In addition, the company will conduct a complete review and assessment of its corporate services and structure to bring them into alignment with its smaller scale and sharper focus. more

#45: Saving Energy is Still Cheap says Berkeley Labs

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have conducted the most comprehensive study yet of the full cost of saving electricity by U.S. utility efficiency programs and now have an answer: 4.6 cents. That's the average total cost of saving a kilowatt-hour in 20 states from 2009 to 2013, according to a Berkeley Lab report titled, The Total Cost of Saving Electricity Through Utility Customer-Funded Energy Efficiency Programs: Estimates at the National, State, Sector and Program Level, released today. To arrive at that average, researchers collected and analyzed several hundred regulatory documents filed in each state by utilities and other administrators of efficiency programs that are funded by utility customers. more

#44: New Paper-like Material Could Boost EV Batteries

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, Bourns College of Engineering have developed a novel paper-like material for lithium-ion batteries. It has the potential to boost by several times the specific energy, or amount of energy that can be delivered per unit weight of the battery. This paper-like material is composed of sponge-like silicon nanofibers more than 100 times thinner than human hair. It could be used in batteries for electric vehicles and personal electronics. more

#43: SynQor IBA Patent now Invalid Reversing earlier Decision

In the latest twist in a long-running legal battle, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., on March 13, 2015, issued a unanimous ruling invalidating key claims of a power converter patent asserted by SynQor Inc. against Vicor Corporation and Cisco Systems, Inc. in litigation currently pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Reversing a decision of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Federal Circuit agreed with Vicor that prior art anticipated certain claims of SynQor's 7,072,190 patent and ordered the USPTO to reconsider the obviousness of the remaining claims. more

#42: NXP and Freescale $40 Billion Merger-Acquisition

NXP Semiconductors N.V. and Freescale Semiconductor, Ltd. today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which NXP will merge with Freescale in a transaction which values the combined enterprise at just over $40 billion. NXP's purchase of Freescale for $11.8 billion creates an enterprise with combined revenue of greater than $10 billion. The merged entity will become the market leader in automotive semiconductor solutions and the market leader in general purpose microcontroller (MCU) products. The combined company will capitalize on the growing opportunities created by the accelerating demand for security, connectivity and processing. more

#41: Improved Technique for Making Flexible Solar Cells

Research led by a Brown University Ph.D. student has revealed a new way to make light-absorbing perovskite films for use in solar cells. The new method involves a room-temperature solvent bath to create perovskite crystals, rather than the blast of heat used in current crystallization methods. A study published in the Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Materials Chemistry A shows that the technique produces high-quality crystalline films with precise control over thickness across large areas, and could point the way toward mass production methods for perovskite cells. more