For openers this week, we’ll deviate from our usual theme of power electronics to bring you a video dubbed by its creator, “Worst electrical work ever.” We agree. Heaven help whoever is living in the houses where these monstrosities can be found. Solid state components do, in fact, smoke These guys prove definitively that solid-state […]
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300W ultra low profile, slim design sign panel power supply
MEAN WELL is pleased to unveil the ultra low profile, slim design sign panel power supply with up to 300W rated-power, HSN-300 series. HSN-300 series adopts the 31mm ultra low profile design and the width is 81mm only, allowing the dimension and weight of the sign panel module to be lowered, lessening the manufacture cost […]
Pop quiz: Ace our eGaN FET quiz, win a textbook by the eGaN uber guru
So you think you know your power circuits? Prove it! Ace our little quiz on gallium-nitride FET circuit design and you can win your very own signed copy of GaN uber guru Alex Lidow’s GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion, 2nd Edition.Alex Lidow is CEO of Efficient Power Conversion Corp. (EPC) and was CEO of […]
Podcast: Where engineers trying to learn power GaN get into trouble
Gallium nitride (GaN) is one of the technologies that could well displace silicon MOSFETs in the next generation of power transistors. As silicon approaches its performance limits, GaN devices conduct better and switch faster. But GaN devices don’t behave the way silicon power devices do. That’s the reason for the recently published textbook GaN Transistors […]
Power fail videos of the week
Smoked components seems to be the theme for this week. And now, a moment of silence for the cooling fans, resistors, capacitors, and displays that all made the ultimate sacrifice in the interest of entertaining bored techies……….. Small components meet high voltages Most engineers know what happens in the case of an overvoltage. For non-believers, […]
Gallery: Scenes from the IEEE ECCE conference
The IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition took place last week in Pittsburgh. The clear trends based on exhibits on the show floor included a lot of interest in SiC power devices and in alternative topologies for inverters. Here are a few of the more interesting sites we encountered there. SiC on display The Center […]
MOSFET Drivers – what are they and why do we need them?
There are a lot of MOSFET drivers around these days. MOSFET drivers often contain MOSFETs themselves. There are several reasons for needing MOSFET drivers: Drive current – MOSFETs can have very high gate capacitance. For example, the IRF530NS from International Rectifier is a 90mW device which can withstand 17A continuous drain current at 100V and […]
Super-junction MOSFET market could equal that of ….. dating services?
A new market research report called “Super Junction MOSFET Market by FAB Technology (Multiple-Epitaxy, Deep-Trench), Packaging Technology Material (Substrate, Transition Layer, Electrode), Application (Power Supply, Display, Lighting, EV/HEV, Industrial) & by Geography- Global Trends & Forecasts to 2013 – 2020″, sees the SJ-MOSFET market crossing $2.20 billion by 2020, growing at a high CAGR from 2013 to 2020. […]
This week’s power electronics fail videos: Zapped engineers, zapped components
The five best fail videos in power electronics we found this week.
Dozen best web sites for power electronics design
We recently spent an afternoon perusing the web in search of good power electronics stuff. We came up with a dozen sites that provided educational material or other information that can come in handy for engineers working in power electronics. Switching-Mode Power Supply Websites –- The creator of this list of sites says the major […]
