Vicor bus converter earns coveted 2019 Leap Award

The votes are in. Business-to-Business publisher WTWH Media, LLC, has announced the winners of the second-year Leadership in Engineering Achievement Program (LEAP) Awards, a design engineering product competition honoring the most exciting new products in a host of technology areas: Additive Manufacturing, Advanced Materials, Analog Electronics, Connectivity, Embedded Computing, Fastener Technology, Hydraulics, Industrial Automation, Mechanical, Motion Control, Pneumatics, Power Electronics, Software, Switches & Sensors, and Test & Measurement.

Earning honors in the Power Electronics category was Vicor Corp. with its NBM2317 bidirectional bus converter module. The device is aimed at power systems with 48-to-12 V and 12-to-48 V power conversion requirements and where power density and high efficiency are critical design parameters.

The module is rated at 800 W with dimensions of 23x17x7.5 mm, achieving an industry leading power density of 4.5 kW/in³, and consumes only a fraction of the space occupied by conventional, slower switching (sub 1 MHz) dc-dc solutions. The NBM also delivers voltage essentially free of noise without any need for external filters, bulk caps, hot swap or in-rush current limiting while conventional solutions typically require a large multiplicity of discrete components to provide equivalent operation.

The NBM’s high density and peak efficiency of 97.9% are achieved by using a proprietary high frequency (1.7 MHz for the NBM2317) sine amplitude converter (SAC) switching topology and low profile modular package with fully integrated planar magnetics. The NBM is inherently bi-directional, which makes it possible to migrate seamlessly between 12  and 48-V systems (often legacy systems will rely on 12 V systems, with modern 48-V systems offering the increased power capability necessary for applications such as those used in AI and the electrification of vehicles).

Leveraging the thermal and density benefits of Vicor SM-ChiP packaging technology, the NBM offers flexible thermal management options with low top- and bottom-side thermal impedances. Thermally-adept SM-ChiP-based power components enable designers to achieve low-cost power system solutions with previously unattainable system size, weight and efficiency attributes quickly and predictably. The NBM non-isolated topology allows bidirectional start up and steady-state operation and provides bidirectional protections.

Congratulations to Vicor and to the other 2019 Leap Award winners.