News

50 Most-Read Industry News Stories of 2013: 40 to 31

December 26, 2013 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 2013, thus providing a window into the "pulse" of the trends and interests in the Power Electronics Industry. This is the second article in the series, which will continue Monday.

40: Amantys Gets $5 Million from Avago and adds Erwin Wolf as CEO

Amantys Ltd. today announced that Avago Technologies, Inc. has invested $5 million in power electronics innovator Amantys as part of a strategic investment agreement between the two companies. At the same time, Erwin Wolf has joined Amantys as Chief Executive Officer to lead the company through the coming years of growth. And as part of the investment, Martin Weigert, Avago’s GM Industrial Fibre Products, will join the Amantys board as a non-executive director. more

39: Concept Opens Design Center in Ense to Develop High-Performance Custom IGBT Driver Solutions

IGBT driver manufacturer CT-Concept Technologie AG, a Power Integrations company, has opened a design center in Ense, Germany. The facility will develop semi-custom gate-drive designs based on its driver cores and produce full-custom drivers using CONCEPT’s SCALE-2® platform for large projects. more

38: Mercedes, Qualcomm and Verizon Support WPC's Qi Wireless Charging Standard

Qualcomm, Inc. and Verizon Wireless have joined the board of management of the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) and Mercedes-Benz has announced that it will include the WPC’s Qi standard for wireless charging in its cars starting in 2014. The announcement by Mercedes-Benz follows the announcement earlier this month by the Consumer Electronics for Automotive association (CE4A) that it has endorsed Qi as the worldwide charging standard in passenger cars. Mercedes is a CE4A member. more

37: Disney Discovers Paper-like Materials that Generate Electricity

Electric current sufficient to light a string of LEDs, activate an e-paper display or even trigger action by a computer can be generated by tapping or rubbing simple, flexible generators made of paper, thin sheets of plastic and other everyday materials, researchers at Disney Research, Pittsburgh, have demonstrated. more

36: Europeans Establish Dueling Projects to Advance Power Electronics Technologies

The recently-established Powerelectronics UK industry consortium has an emphasis on developing next-generation power semiconductors and related technologies. It was established about 18 months after publication of a UK government-sponsored report Power Electronics - A Strategy for Success and the same week as the European Union-sponsored Enhanced Power Pilot Line (EPPL) project was announced to focus on development of advanced generations of power semiconductors manufactured on 300mm wafers. more

35: Altera Acquires Enpirion for $140 Million, Forms Power Business Unit

Altera Corporation today announced it has signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire Enpirion, Inc., the industry’s leading provider of high-efficiency, integrated power conversion products known as PowerSoCs (power system-on-chip), for $140 million. The combination of Altera’s FPGAs with Enpirion’s PowerSoCs is expected offer customers higher performance, lower system power, higher reliability, smaller footprint and faster time-to-market. Altera projects $35 million in revenue from the acquired Enpirion products in 2014. more

34: Dreamliner Nightmares a Factor in New UL Standards Activities for Li-ion Batteries

Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL) has announced that it is developing tests and standards for applications involving cell safety through battery system safety. The focus is on refining large-format lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery standards. Safety concerns that UL is considering related to lithium-ion batteries include fire, explosion, electric shock and hazardous material exposure (vented toxic gases, leaked electrolytes). more

33: Want an LED Lightbulb for Less Than $10? - Go to Walmart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has announced the launch of a Great Value line of LED lightbulbs for less than $10 in all of its U.S. stores, with the goal of making LED lightbulbs more accessible and affordable for consumers. The new line will be available exclusively at Walmart stores nationwide and Walmart.com. The energy-efficient LED, or light-emitting diode, technology provides the same quality and appearance of traditional lightbulbs, but LEDs are 80 percent more efficient, emit 40 percent less heat and last 25 times longer. By replacing all of the lightbulbs in their homes with energy-efficient LEDs, customers can save an average of $129 per year. more

32: Panasonic Delivers Over 100 Million 18650 Li-Ion Cells for Tesla's Model S EV

Panasonic Corporation today announced that shipments of its automotive-grade lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery cells for Tesla Motors' premium, all-electric Model S sedan will surpass 100 million units by the end of this month. Delivery of the Model S started in 2012 in the United States. The electric-powered car has been praised for its innovative and luxurious design and outstanding performance, including long driving range, and sales of the vehicle are projected to top 20,000 units this year. more

31: STMicro Collaborates with Tatung on HomePlug Smart System-on-Chip

STMicroelectronics NV has released its unique ST2100 STreamPlug System-on-Chip (SoC) targeting smart-home and smart-energy applications to the world market. The device is already powering a new portfolio of intelligent products developed jointly by ST and Tatung, a leading electronics company for smart-home solutions. As the world’s first intelligent-gateway SoC, ST’s ST2100 STreamPlug combines a high-performance processing subsystem with Powerline Communication (PLC), security and peripheral features to support hybrid networks utilizing popular wired and wireless standards. more