News

Capacitors and Magnetics for Wireless Power, Robotics, Automotive and More

March 13, 2019 by Scott McMahan

TDK Corporation will present its latest power solutions and components at APEC 2019 both #811, March 18-20 in Anaheim, CA. The company will display products and components for automotive, mobile, robotics, and industrial equipment,  and beyond.

The exhibition will showcase TDK, EPCOS and TDK-Lambda products, including:

Ceramic capacitor series with modular flex-assembly technology

Proven CeraLink® has extended their product offering to include modular flex-assembly (FA) technology. This space-saving CeraLink FA series connects two, three, or ten identical capacitors in parallel over the same terminals to increase the capacitance. Due to their low parasitic effects, CeraLink capacitors are suited for converter topologies due to their fast-switching semiconductors such as GaN or SiC. The company says that Voltage overshoots when switching are significantly lower than with conventional capacitor technologies.

Stacked MLCCs with High Capacitance and Low ESR

The CA series of vertically stacked MEGACAP MLCCs combine high capacitance and low ESR. The capacitors are suitable for the resonant circuits of wireless and plug-in charging systems, for example, for industrial vehicles and robots. They can also be used in smoothing and decoupling applications in industrial equipment.

Soft-Termination MLCCs with Low ESR

The CN series features terminal electrodes with a conductive resin layer that provides high mechanical robustness to protect against board flexure. At the same time, the MLCCs offer a low ESR that is comparable to that of conventional MLCCs. Soft-termination MLCCs, which can withstand the stress from board flexure, are effective at preventing short circuits when used in battery lines.

Applying the conductive resin layer only where the terminal electrode comes into contact with the PCB enables the MLCCs to achieve low terminal resistance values. These MLCCs are suitable for battery lines in automotive and industrial robot applications, where they help to improve system reliability.

Robust and Rugged AC Filter Capacitors with Extended Range

The B32754 to B32758 series of EPCOS ac filter capacitors cover a range of from 250Vac to 400Vac and offer capacitances of between 1µF and 70µF.

The capacitors comply with IEC 61071: 2007 and the company says they are extremely robust, even at high humidity. They are suitable for demanding applications in industrial electronics including output filtering for power supplies, frequency converters for drives and renewable energy, or UPS systems.

High-Voltage Contactors with Current Capabilities up to 500A

TDK expanded the HVC series of high-voltage contactors with the new HVC300 and HVC500 types with current capabilities of 300A and 500A, respectively. Their gas-filled switching chambers ensure that arcs are safely and quickly extinguished when the current is switched off.

The HVC series is especially suitable for use in battery management systems and dc charging stations in e-mobility applications. Further applications include dc traction systems, photovoltaic, energy storage systems, and uninterruptable power supplies (UPS). These applications require fast and reliable disconnecting from the dc source.

Compact Fuse-Protected Over-Voltage Protection Varistors

The company added the compact NT14 and NT20 series to its EPCOS ThermoFuse™ family of over-voltage protection varistors. These new components feature a footprint that fits into existing circuit board layouts. ThermoFuse varistors are uniquely designed disk varistors that are connected in series with a thermally coupled fuse and are therefore intrinsically safe.

If the varistor overheats, the patented thermal fuse dependably trips and isolates the varistor from the grid. This prevents any potential damage on the PCB or to components located near the varistor and increases the reliability of the equipment to be protected.

High-Current SMD Power Inductors with Superior DC Bias

The SPM series of metal composite type wire-wound power inductors have the coils integrally molded with metallic magnetic powder. Compared to ferrite-base wire-wound inductors, the SPM series inductors realize larger current, lower Rdc, smaller size, and superior dc bias characteristics. In addition, they ensure low magnetic flux leakage and are effective at suppressing acoustic noise of the coil.

Miniaturized Thin-Film Metal Power Inductors for ADAS

The TFM252012ALVA thin-film metal power inductors can be connected directly to a 12V car battery while maintaining small dimensions.

In today's automobiles, electronic control units are increasingly being installed to electrify various control functions and to implement in-vehicle information communication, autonomous driving, and other functions. The number of automotive ECUs necessary for implementing ADAS and thereby the number of inductors for power circuits used in these units have increased.

However, because the mounting space is limited, there is a growing demand for small-sized electronic parts featuring high performance and reliability.

Effective Noise Countermeasure Components for Use with Class-D Amplifiers

Class-D amplifiers, which are utilized in devices such as smartphones and audio equipment, have the advantages of being compact and highly efficient, but crucially require countermeasures against noise generated by their high-speed switching.

TDK has an extensive lineup of noise suppression filters, inductors for LPFs and chip varistors, which provide effective noise countermeasures while ensuring high sound quality and without affecting signals.

30W Wireless Charging Coils with Superior Efficiency

TDK has partnered with a wireless power system solution provider to offer 30W power delivery solutions up to 30mm of non-metallic building material. The solution uses TDK Rx & Tx coils, and offers a unique power delivery system which is not affected by low-E glass coatings. With an efficiency greater than 80%, these products support one-to-one charging and power delivery. Applications include telecom, 5G FWA, residential and enterprise CPE, security cameras, factory automation, and more.

Compact, Conduction-Cooled 504W Rated AC-DC Power Modules

The conduction cooled TDK-Lambda PFH500F-28 ac-dc power modules are ideal for applications including COTS (Commercial-Off-The-Shelf), power amplifiers, LED displays, and test equipment. The PFH500F-28 series uses GaN semiconductors and features bridgeless power factor correction, synchronous rectification, and digital control, enabling efficiencies of up to 92%.

Faraday Semi, a TDK group company, will also exhibit its recent innovations in micro dc-dc converters at TDK's APEC 2019 booth.