APEC 2002

March 10-14, 2002
The Adam's Mark Hotel
Dallas, Texas

Exposition

EXHIBITOR SEMINARS

Twelve Exhibitor Seminars were presented at APEC 2002 on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 12.

Session I: 2:00 - 2:45 PM

"Honey - I Shrunk The Converter!" - A Progress Update In High-Density, Low-Voltage, DC/DC Converter Design
Texas Instruments

Today's "hot button" in power conversion is with low-voltage DC/DC converter designs, driven largely by the need for local regulation for the newer DSP's and microprocessors which demand high currents at ever-lower voltages, with the added requirement of tight output regulation under fast dynamic load changes. Small size is an important requirement for these converters, partially because there is never any room for the power supply anyway, but also because the dynamic loading requires very close coupling between the power source and its load.

This push for higher power density has spawned new levels of control integration which, in turn, has driven significant achievements in the current density of on-chip power devices. This has resulted in both smaller IC packages sizes and a reduced need for outboard support components, all of which have served to minimize PC board area requirements.

Additional size reduction has been achieved by improvements in operating efficiency where reduced internal power losses, coupled with better thermally-enhanced packages, have yielded significant savings in the need for heat sinking.

Finally, an additional gain has been made in time-to-market for new designs with the availability of Web-based design software which both simplifies and speeds the design process.

New Family Of Low Loss Ferrite Materials
Ceramic Magnetics

New family of power ferrites for frequencies to 1 MHz, showing performance characteristics in both standard geometry cores and gap toroids, presented by George E. Schaller of Ceramic Magnetics, Inc. and Bogo Miklavcic of Iskra Feriti.

Comparisons Of Soft Magnetic Core Materials
Magnetics, Inc.

Magnetics will be presenting a seminar highlighting recent advancements with powder cores, including Kool Mu, High Flux and Molypermalloy (MPP), and recent advancements with power ferrite cores. For power inductors, a comparison of a Kool Mm E core versus gapped ferrite E core will be given. For extremely low height power inductors, a comparison of wafer thin MPP THINZ cores with gapped ferrite toroids will be presented. For low height transformers, new planar ferrite cores will be compared against traditional ferrite core shapes. Future developments in ferrite materials will also be discussed.

Ultra-Low ESR Multilayer Polymer Capacitors: Key Components To Achieve 99.999% Up-time (5x9 Reliability) In Telecom, Datacom And Storage Systems' Distributed Power Architecture
ITW Paktron

Multilayer Polymer (MLP) Capacitors provide Ultra-Low ESR and Robust Operating Parameters for demanding Distributed Power Architectures (DPA). Critical up-time (5x9 Reliability) DPA systems include 48V and 24V feed to Telco, Servers and Data Storage. Higher voltage MLPs cover 400V and 500V requirements in universal off-line converters and inverters. MLP capacitors offer telecom grade long life/10+ years, no cracking/non-shorting operation and excellent stability under current and voltage loads, mechanical and thermal stresses.

Session II: 3:00 - 3:45 PM

200 °C High Temperature Core Materials Introduction
Micrometals, Inc.

New high temperature core materials are introduced by Micrometals, Inc. These materials can be used in operating temperatures of up to 200 °C and are not prone to the effects of thermal aging. Properties and applications of these materials are discussed.

New ASIPMs Utilize Integrated HVIC Drivers To Simplify 240VAC and 460VAC Industrial Motor Drives
Powerex, Inc.

This seminar will cover a new family of ASIPMs (Application Specific Intelligent Power Modules), designed for three phase industrial motor drives in the 200 W to 3.7 kW power range. All of these new modules incorporate advanced high voltage integrated circuit gate drivers with 600 V or 1200 V level shifting capability to allow direct drive from logic level signals. In addition, these highly integrated modules have built in over current protection, under voltage lockout, temperature sensing, input rectifiers and a buffered analog current feedback signal.

Stability Analysis And Impedance Measurements
Venable Industries

This seminar includes an overview of frequency-domain analysis including Bode plots, open and closed loop response, transfer functions, error amplifier design, and complex impedance measurement technique. In addition, key functions of the Venable Frequency Response Analyzer and Windows Software will be explained with applications toward power supply loop stability analysis and impedance measurement for source-load stability in distributed power systems.

Design, Simulation And Loop Gain Measurement Tools
Ridley Engineering, Inc.

Measuring and predicting the loop gain and other power supply transfer functions is crucial for modern high-performance converters. In this seminar we will demonstrate the latest powerful and affordable hardware and software products that are essential for all power supply designers.

Session 3: 4:00 - 4:45 PM

High-Performance DC/DC Power Modules
Netpower Technologies, Inc.

NetPower's 40A quarter brick (QRS Series) and 70A half-brick (HRS Series) set the new standard for high-performance DC/DC power modules. These two new families of DC/DC power modules feature industry leading characteristics in efficiency, power density, thermal management, and functionality in a cost-effective single-board package. These characteristics are optimized through the use of patent pending technologies making these products a superior choice for today's demanding applications. This seminar will provide an in-depth introduction of these new DC/DC power modules.

Practical Techniques Used In Designing DC/DC Converters To Deliver Very High Output Currents At Low Voltages
Broadband Telcom Power, Inc.

Managing the tremendous amount of heat generated due to I2R is becoming very significant when the output current increases. A 70A converter will generate almost twice (100%) more heat as compared to a 50A converter, even though the current increase is only 40%. This presentation explains some practical techniques that can be used to reduce this I2R losses, and how to lower the other losses such as core loss and proximity losses in a transformer.

New Design Software For Magnetic Components
Ansoft Corporation

Ansoft will demonstrate PExprt, an easy-to-use graphical design tool. Developed by switch-mode power-supply designers, this new software speeds the selection and design of magnetic components used in low- and medium-power applications. PExprt allows engineers to input waveform or circuit specifications and to quickly receive component design alternative. See how PExprt can help you design planar components, toroidal structures, inductors, multi-winding transformers, coupled inductors, and flyback-type components, including thermal and loss calculations.

Microstepping Motor Driving Is Made Easy By Allegro's New A3977
Allegro Microsystems, Inc.

Allegro MicroSystems Inc. will be discussing and demonstrating a new microstepping motor driver which features 2.5A / 50V DMOS outputs (A3977). The focus of the seminar will be on how the new product simplifies the implementation of a microstepping system by reducing the number of control lines required to only two: STEP and DIRECTION. Other features and benefits of the IC will also be discussed. A hands-on demonstration of the product driving a motor will follow.

EXPOSITION SURVEY & GIVEAWAY

To help the exhibitors and us continually improve the APEC Exposition, a survey is taken each year. Those who complete the survey form and return it no later than early on Tuesday afternoon are entered in a drawing for one of five fabulous prizes. The first name drawn will get their choice of one of the five prizes, the second name drawn will get their choice of one of the remaining four prizes and so forth. The prizes given away at APEC 2002 were:

• Portable DVD Player
• Digital Camcorder
• Digital Still Camera
• Pocket Computer
• Digital Music Recorder/Player

EXHIBITORS

Exhibitors in the APEC 2002 Exposition are listed below.