APEC 2021 Highlights WBG Technologies, Energy Storage, Smart Power, and More
Even in a virtual format, this week’s APEC exhibition brought a variety of power topics and networking opportunities. Here’s what you might have missed.
The biggest names in power congregated virtually this week to showcase all the industry has produced over the last year.
With an uncertain and unprecedented last year, power companies still forged ahead to develop new research, technologies and much-needed solutions.
Here’s an overview of some of this week’s key announcements and trends:
Infineon
This week, Infineon’s engineers and representatives presented on traditional and WBG power technologies for applications in homes and vehicles to large-scale factories.
Infineon more specifically covered the topics of advanced motor control and thermal performance with new additions to its product portfolio.
The new packages in Infineon’s OptiMOS TOLx family offer solutions in applications such as small-scale electric vehicles, power tools, and battery management systems.
Image courtesy of Infineon.
With the additions of the TOLT and TOLG packages, the TOLx family features a high-current rating of over 300A to increase system efficiency in high-power density designs. Both packages are optimized to mitigate thermal issues.
Infineon also introduced a fully programmable three-phase driver IC with the EiceDRIVER 6EDL7141. The EiceDRIVER 6EDL7141 features an SPI interface for gate drive outputs configuration, as well as an integrated power supply and dual charge pumps to supply all system functions.
The 6EDL7141 provides temperature warning and shutdown, rotor locked detection based on hall sensor inputs, and overcurrent protection.
EPC
EPC dived into the world of e-mobility and radiation-hardened devices at this week’s APEC showcase.
The EPC7014, a rad-hard eGaN FET, is the first device in what will eventually become a new line of rad-hard transistors and integrated circuits, according to EPC.
Image courtesy of EPC.
“This is another example of where GaN is getting to dominate all new applications in this space. The reason is that GaN is intrinsically radiation hard,” said Alex Lidlow, CEO, and co-founder of EPC, in an interview with EE Power.
Applications for the EPC7014 include power supplies for satellites and mission equipment, light detection and ranging (lidar) for robotics, and autonomous navigation and rendezvous docking, among others.
EPC also announced the EPC2065 and EPC2054, additions to the eGaN FET product family as 80V and 200V devices. According to EPC, the new generation of FETs will address application areas in e-mobility, robotics, and drones for BLDC motor drives.
“With the clear superiority of these new eGaN FETs, power system designers can take advantage of devices that are higher performing, smaller, more thermally efficient, and at a comparable cost. The displacement of the power MOSFET with GaN devices continues to accelerate,” Lidlow said.
ON Semiconductor
This week, ON Semiconductor focused on EV charging and industrial motor drives.
Just before APEC kicked off this week, ON Semiconductor announced a pair of 1200V full silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET 2-PACK modules for electric vehicle chargers. Citing the need to mitigate range anxiety and the need to increase power and efficiency, the NXH010P120MNF1 and NXH010P120MNF2 are based upon planar technology and suited to a drive voltage in the range of 18-20V.
Image courtesy of ON Semiconductor.
“Given the diverse environments and locations in which these chargers are deployed, compactness, robustness and enhanced reliability are all challenges that designers face,” an ON Semiconductor press release read.
ON Semiconductor's new integrated, converter-inverter-power factor correction (PFC) modules are transfer-molded power integration modules.
Image courtesy of ON Semiconductor.
The NXH50M65L4C2SG and NXH50M65L4C2ESG are applicable to industrial motor drives, servo drives and HVAC where they are used to drive motors for applications including fans and pumps.
Power Integrations
Power Integrations also introduced two new products this week — new QSpeed Silicon Diodes and a new switching power supply IC.
PI’s AEC-Q101-qualified 600V 12A Qspeed diode, the QH12TZ600Q, is said to improve the efficiency of the PFC stage of on-board chargers and reduce the thermals of the PFC MOSFETs, according to Power Integrations.
Image courtesy of Power Integrations.
“The Qrr of these new Qspeed diodes is half that of the next best ultra-fast silicon diodes, resulting in very high system efficiency. This is particularly important for automotive on-board charger applications that require higher switching frequency to reduce volume and weight, and enables the Qspeed diodes to replace SiC devices,” senior product marketing manager at Power Integrations, Edward Ong said.
In a different sector, with the smartphones and home appliances market, Power Integrations also released the LinkSwitch-TNZ, a new switching power supply IC with offline power conversion, lossless zero-cross detection, and (optional) X-capacitor discharge functions.
“The new LinkSwitch-TNZ ICs provide an accurate signal indicating that the sinusoidal AC line is at zero volts. This signal is used by smart home and building automation (HBA) products and appliances to control the switching of relays, IGBTs and TRIACs to minimize switching stress and system in-rush current. LinkSwitch-TNZ’s detection of the zero-cross point consumes less than 5 mW, allowing systems to reduce standby power losses versus alternative approaches that require ten or more discrete components and burn 50 to 100 mW of continuous power," said Adnaan Lokhandwala, product marketing manager at Power Integrations.
