More stringent requirements are scheduled to soon emerge from standards bodies that will affect a wide range of manufactured equipment. Sebastian Fischer, Andreas Flũhlern • Traco Electronic AG Standards committees are working on a new, common standard for safety requirements governing audio/video, information and communication technology–the IEC/EN/UL 62368-1. The first version of IEC 62368-1 was […]
FAQ
Why electrolytic capacitors blow up
Electrolytic capacitors have a reputation for failing spectacularly when mistreated. Leland Teschler • Executive Editor Pop open a common LED bulb and you’ll often find an electrolytic capacitor occupying a place in the input from the ac line. Though illumination-grade LEDs generally have lifetimes exceeding 10,000 hours, the electrolytic caps in their base may not […]
Capacitors for power converter output filtering
Capacitors are found throughout switch mode power converters. The first FAQ in this series of three articles looked at the X and Y safety capacitors used in the input filtering section. The second article looked inside the power converter and considered dc link capacitors as well as energy storage and pulse power capacitors. This final […]
DC link, energy storage, and pulse power capacitors
The first article in this three-part FAQ series reviewed safety capacitors (sometimes called high-frequency bypass capacitors), primarily for filtering electromagnetic interference (EMI) on the input of mains-connected power converters such as power supplies, battery chargers, and motor drives. This FAQ moves deeper inside the various types of power converters and will consider DC link capacitors, […]
Safety capacitors for EMI filtering and voltage isolation
This is the first article in a three-part FAQ series on capacitors used in power-handling applications. This article will consider safety capacitors for filtering electromagnetic interference (EMI, also called radio frequency interference, RFI) on ac power lines, for antenna coupling, and for providing voltage isolation in DC/DC converters. Part two will look into “DC link, […]
Higher contrast, better resolution: Automotive display full-array local dimming
By Logan Cummins, Infotainment Systems Engineer, Texas Instruments A local dimming backlight technology individually adjusts LEDs in an LCD panel to save power and improve contrast ratios in automotive displays. Compared to globally dimmed displays and organic LEDs (OLEDs), local dimming with LEDs is a more practical design choice because it can withstand the extreme […]
A better automotive display from pixel to picture with local dimming
By Logan Cummins, Infotainment Systems Engineer, Texas Instruments Automotive specifications and environmental conditions have caused the automotive display market to lag behind the consumer display industry in contrast ratio, black levels, resolution, curvature, and form factor. Automakers try to differentiate their infotainment human-machine interface (HMI) displays and catch up to the technological advances now common […]
How to design modular DC-DC systems
When designing a modular DC-DC system, it is important to look at the entire power-delivery system from source to load to achieve the desired functionality and performance. This tutorial series examines the modular DC-DC system design process and walks through an example set of system loads and the process to supply those from a given […]
Flow battery application challenges and considerations – Virtual Roundtable (part 2 of 2)
In this second part of EEWorld’s “virtual roundtable” discussion on flow batteries, our panelists delve into the impact that the emergence of flow batteries is having on energy storage compared with conventional rechargeable batteries: What factors determine when flow batteries are more cost-effective than rechargeable batteries? How do the maintenance and monitoring needs of flow […]
Flow battery capabilities and performance – Virtual Roundtable (part 1 of 2)
In this first part of EEWorld’s “virtual roundtable” discussion on flow batteries, our panelists delve into the impact that the emergence of flow batteries is having on energy storage compared with conventional rechargeable batteries: What performance advantage do flow batteries have? What is the barrier to large scale deployment? And how do the environmental or […]
