Bodo´s Power SystemsBodo´s Power SystemsSystems Design Motion and Conversion December 2006

ZKZ 64717

12-06ISSN: 1863-5598

Bodo´s Power SystemsBodo´s Power SystemsViewpoint

Electricity, Engineers and Locomotives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4-8

Product of the Month

First Wireless Electrical Sub-Metering Components . . . . . . . . . . .10

Guest Editorial

Power Quality an Investment in the Future;

By Rudi Müller, Product Marketing, Epcos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Market

The Lennox Report; By Robert Lennox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Market

Portable Power Shaken-Up by Battery Recalls; By Jeremiah P.Bryant, Managing Research Analyst, Darnell Group . . . . . . . . . . .16

VIP Interview

Interview on Connector Technology with Pierre Amouyal,

Senior Vice President; By Bodo Arlt, Editor BPSD . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Cover Story

HGCTs with Outstanding Current Handling Capability;

By T. Wikström, M. Rahimo and E. Carroll, ABB Switzerland Ltd, Semiconductors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20-22

Thyristors

Power Factor Correction; By Rudolf Müller, Dipl.-Ing., Product manager for PFC power capacitors at EPCOS. . . . . . .24-26

Power Management

Processor-Controlled Power Conversion;

By Mario Aerden, TSM, Future Electronics (Belgium) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28-31

Capacitors

Energy Storage for Hybrid Power;

By Adrian Schneuwly, Maxwell Technologies .32-33

Battery Management

MOSFET based Battery Protection Systems;

By Ashfaq Afzal and Des Beckford, NXP Semiconductors . . . .34-35

Power Management

Dual Input Boost Converter Shares Power from Two Inputs;

By Goran Perica, Linear Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36-37

Motion Control

State of the Art of Smart Power Modules;

By Dae-Woong Chung and Bum-Seok Suh, SPM R&D Group,Fairchild Semiconductor . . . . . .38-42

Motion Control

Highly-Integrated Hard-Disk Drive

Motor Controller;

By Steffen Grahlmann,STMicroelectronics . . . . . . . . . .44-45

New Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46-48

C O N T E N T S

My train boxes are out of storage and rail

tracks are taking over my office - like going

back to childhood Christmas times. People

calling me may hear the Union Pacific

whistling. For engineers, creativity is in play-

ing around with elements to discover new

ventures. Imagination and freedom of cre-

ativity are essential to Engineers. Never the

less, watching nature and the structures built

by evolution is mandatory, if one is to create

efficient and reliable solutions in either

mechanical or electrical design.

Electronics has been one of the most impor-

tant elements to a comfortable life.

Functionality has been the goal in the last

decades and power seemed almost free.

But today’s electronics, with modern proces-

sor technology and with mobility, demands

new innovations in efficient power manage-

ment. Standby time is the big subject.

Battery technology is not keeping up with the

markets it serves and it is a limitation for our

big boy toys. Energy charging, wherever and

with whatever alternative source is available,

is needed.

Wireless connection is the standard for most

communications today. But electric power

needs wires to be efficient transported. The

stories old people told me of using just a

dipole antenna in their “Schrebergarten”

around the radio-tower to get a light bulb lit

are not too practical. The USB and Ethernet

connections are ready to be micro power-

lines to support our portables. We are also

learning that communication will come

through existing power lines.

So we have to rethink how we do things and

how to store energy. Wind and solar power

are nearly for free - but if the power generat-

ed needs to be stored, what are the options?

Pumping water uphill and having it run the

generator when needed is a tried and true

method and delivers electricity into every

household. Flywheels and capacitors are

possibilities, beside the common battery

option. It is a question of the storage dura-

tion time and what amount of energy needs

to be stored. The future could have electro-

chemical processes produce hydrogen that

can be stored for future use – as in fuel-cell

systems or in hydrogen internal combustion

engines. Making hydrogen at any possible

place that has surplus power may be the

concept to reduce our dependence on fossil

energy. The thinking process has begun -

H2expo in Hamburg indicated solutions.

Electronica in Munich last month necessitat-

ed half hour jumps from meeting to meeting.

The “big party” definitely stretched my avail-

ability. I hope I have made all my commit-

ments to stop by for an interview and chat. If

I missed you just give me call. SPS in

Nuremberg in late November focused on

industrial control and drives and was a prime

place for my publication, as most of the

exhibitors make strong demands on power

solutions for their end products.

A few of my goals to serve you 2007:

· Firstly the magazine will be on your desk

every month,

· For those registered on my site, the

Newsletter will come by e-mail at mid-

month,

· News and Events will get to you as they

arise,

· All issues and feature articles will bearchived on my website.

· My publication will serve a world need inpower electronic design and will be avail-

able at all major events for you.

Now it is time to get the trains running.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Electricity, Engineers

and Locomotives

Bodo´s Power SystemsBodo´s Power SystemsA Media

Katzbek 17a

D-24235 Laboe, Germany

Phone: +49 4343 42 17 90

Fax: +49 4343 42 17 89

editor@bodospower.com

www.bodospower.com

Publishing Editor

Bodo Arlt, Dipl.-Ing.editor@bodospower.com

Creative Direction & Production

Repro Studio Peschke

Repro.Peschke@t-online.de

Free Subscription to qualified readers

Bodo´s Power Systems magazine

is available for the following

subscription charges:

Annual charge (12 issues) is 150 €

world wide

Single issue is 18 €

subscription@bodospower.com

Printing by:

Central-Druck Trost GmbH & Co

Heusenstamm, Germany

A Media and Bodos Power magazine

assume and hereby disclaim any

liability to any person for any loss or

damage by errors or omissions in the

material contained herein regardless of

whether such errors result from

negligence accident or any other cause

whatsoever.

Events

APEC 2007,

Feb. 25-March 1, Anaheim CA,

www.apec-conf.com

EMV 2007, March 6-8, Stuttgart,

www.e-emv.com

ELECTRONICA China 2007,

March 21-23, Shanghai,

www.global-electronics.net

PCIM China 2007,

March 21-23, Shanghai,

www.pcimchina.com

Hannover Fair,

April16-20, Hannover,

www.hannovermesse.de

SMT, Hybrid,

April 24-26, Nuremberg,

www.mesago.de

PCIM Europe,

May 22.24, Nuremberg, www.pcim.de

EPE, September 2-5, Aalborg DK,

www.epe2007.com

V I E W P O I N T

2 www.bodospower.com

Wi-LEM

Investigate your energy waste

At the heart of power electronics.

With Wi-LEM, the new Wireless Local Energy Meter, you can easily

control your energy consumption and cut costs.

• A split core design allows easy and fast installation without the need

to disconnect the primary cable.

• It’s compact size allows Wi-LEM to fit into existing cabinet spaces.

• The wireless output simplifies the installation and the network

deployment process. It also grants the flexibility to expand at ease.

• A demonstration of the Wi-LEM Wireless Local Energy Meter and

examples how easily you could measure energy efficiency can be

found at www.lem.com

N E W S

4 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Eatontown, New

Jersey:

Electronic

Concepts, Inc.

has announced

the launch of its

new website to

reflect its cre-

ative approach

to the design

and manufactur-

ing of film capac-

itors.

Electronic Concepts offers the electronic

industry a unique combination of resources:

vertically integrated manufacturing; modern,

automated production; broad engineering

expertise which results in capacitor designs

that set the industry standard; and the flexi-

bility to handle film capacitor requirement

across a vast spectrum of manufacturing

needs.

According to Sal Cesario, Marketing

Director, the new website is designed to

accomplish two goals, namely, to provide the

industry with a tool that quickly helps design

engineers identify capacitor requirements for

specific project; and a method for delivering

capacitor innovation to meet advanced spec-

ification challenges.

Featured prominently on the site is the com-

pany’s Design Center which is charged with

the task of exploring new capacitor innova-

tion. The Design Center provides a customer

with the ability to fast track their project, by

giving access to the company’s experienced

team of engineers who can help with product

performance improvements and cost reduc-

tion opportunities, as well as the develop-

ment of new products. The website services

a wide range of industries, including

Avionics, Medical Electronics, General

Instrumentation and Telecommunications.

www.eci-capacitors.com

Launch of Innovative Website

Texas Instruments announced it has been

awarded a third-year Partners in

Performance award by Celestica, a world

leader in electronics manufacturing services

(EMS). The awards are given annually to

Celestica’s suppliers, in recognition of their

excellence in customer service and their

support of Celestica’s global supply chain.

“Texas Instruments is proud to be recog-

nized by Celestica,” said Steve Kelley, vice

president of the standard linear and logic

business unit for Texas Instruments. “At TI,

we are always striving to provide our cus-

tomers the resources they need to be the

best in the market, whether that be through

innovative analog products, applications

expertise, technical support or flexible sup-

ply-chain programs.”

The 2005 Partners in Performance winners

demonstrated a level of responsiveness,

flexibility and service that contributed to the

success of Celestica’s business and posi-

tively impacted its customers.

“In today’s competitive business environ-

ment, the agility of our global supply chain is

key to our success,” said John Boucher,

Chief Supply Chain and Procurement Officer,

Celestica. “As a three-year Partners in

Performance

award recipient,

Texas

Instruments’

commitment to

flexibility and

responsiveness

helped support

Celestica’s suc-

cess.”

www.ti.com

Third-Year Global Supplier Award

The leading universities in Europe for power

electronics research are ETH (Zurich),

Switzerland, Aalborg, Denmark and Aachen,

Germany, according to a recent piece of

research by the European Power Supply

Manufacturers Association (EPSMA,

www.epsma.org).

The EPSMA conducted a survey of

European power electronics research

groups, asking them questions on a variety

of topics such as the size of their research

group, their facilities/equipment, sources of

funding, published papers, and the scope of

their work. One question asked each respon-

dent who they considered to be the top five

university research groups in Europe.

The ranking obtained was:

1. ETH Zurich (Switzerland)

2. Aalborg (Denmark)

3. Aachen (Germany)

4. Delft (The Netherlands)

=5. Madrid (Spain)

=5. Nottingham (UK)

Outside Europe, a number of universities

were also mentioned who were leading

research in the power electronics field.

These included Virginia Tech. (USA) and

University of Wisconsin (USA).

A second part of the survey asked respon-

dents for their five year vision of future

trends and developments in the power elec-

tronics field. A wide range of different issues

and objectives were mentioned such as:

* Increasing power density/integration in

power converters, which in turn will drive

improved packaging and new thermal man-

agement techniques and materials.

* Shift to higher switching frequencies

enabled by new power switching devices, for

example using silicon carbide, and new

materials for magnetics and insulation.

* Displacement of analog control by digital

control enabling converters to provide exten-

sive feature sets and communicate.

* Dedicated design- and simulation-software

(circuit simulation efficiently coupled with 3D-

field simulation) will become an essential

tool in power electronics system design.

In total, around 30 research groups were

identified with a significant focus on power

electronics. Matthew Towers of the EPSMA

Secretariat commented: “The European

power electronics industry wants to attract

more high quality electronic engineering stu-

dents into the power area. Historically this

has been perceived by students as a less

attractive option than, for example, digital

design. However, it is now apparent that

many of the key developments in the elec-

tronics industry over the next decade will be

in the power sector. The EPSMA is commit-

ted to working more closely with the key uni-

versity research groups in Europe to help

promote power electronics as the most

attractive area for new EE engineering stu-

dents”.

www.epsma.org

Leading Universities in Europe

N E W S

6 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

6th International Conference and Trade Fair

on Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies

had shown practical and experimental solu-

tions in Hamburg on 25 and 26 October

2006

“Guzzler III” a vehicle was developed and

realized by a small group of students from

Offenburg University. The vehicle uses

hydrogen, feeding a fuel cell. The module

supplies electric power for the wheel hub

motor, which drives this three-wheeler, car-

bon-fiber bodywork vehicle. “Guzzler III” took

part in the Shell Eco-Marathon in France this

year, a competition for energy-efficient, envi-

ronment friendly vehicles. It demonstrated

fuel economy excellence, traveling 2614 kilo-

meters on the equivalent of one liter of

petrol. That gave the students from

Offenburg fourth place, out of 255 teams in

the competition. Hydrogen is not for free.

The competence center hydrogen- and fuel

cell technology from the University of Applied

Science in Lübeck demonstrated the produc-

tion of hydrogen and it’s storage. It will take

a while that we all get private home trainer

bikes to generate our own hydrogen.

It is a way to store generated energy. Dr.-

Ing. Roland Hamelmann watches Don Burke

generating hydrogen.

www.h2expo.de

www.kwb-sh.de

H2Expo Innovations

Primarion, a

mixed-signal

semiconductor

company that

delivers digital

power conver-

sion and power

management

solutions,

announced its

support to the Center for Power Electronics

Systems (CPES) and Colorado Power

Electronics Center (CoPEC).

These two university centers are dedicated

to the research and development of digital

power technology.

Digital power is a new, emerging technology

that will significantly benefit from advanced

research. Primarion has committed to offer

intellectual and monetary support for the

advancement of digital power research.

“There is a strong need in the industry for

intelligent, cost-effective digital solutions for

power conversion and power management,”

said Ron Van Dell, president and CEO,

Primarion. “We are committed to meeting

this demand with pioneering digital power

technologies. This pledge is evident by our

support for two centers dedicated to the fun-

damental research of digital power.”

Established in August 1998, CPES is one of

the nation’s relatively few National Science

Foundation Engineering Research Centers.

Its vision is to provide the nation with the

capabilities to become a world leader in

power electronics. The center entails a con-

sortium of five universities, including Virginia

Tech, University of Wisconsin-Madison,

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, North

Carolina AT&T State University and

University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez.

From its 1983 launch, the University of

Colorado’s power electronics group has

transformed into the Colorado Power

Electronics Center (CoPEC). CoPEC indus-

trial sponsors include leading semiconductor

and power supply companies committed to

the advancement of power management

applications.

ece-www.colorado.edu/~pwrelect/

www.cpes.vt.edu/

www.primarion.com

Advance Digital Power Technology

Davy Lo has been appointed Chief

Marketing Officer for Zetex Semiconductors’

ASSP business group, with responsibility for

the company’s rapidly expanding range of

audio, DBS, LED driver and LED power

management products.

Lo joins Zetex after spending 26 highly suc-

cessful years with Texas Instruments in sen-

ior Marketing and Sales roles based in Asia.

He was most recently Director responsible

for Marketing and Sales at Texas’ Hong

Kong office.

“This is a very exciting time for Zetex. The

company is being recognised as one of the

true innovators in analog design, and is

achieving some real technology break-

throughs – in LED driving, in LNBs and

audio amplification, not to mention of course

the effective management of power,” said

Lo.

He continued, “Zetex application specific

standard products will have a real impact on

the feature-rich, space and energy efficient

product designs of the future and will play a

very important role in the development of the

company. I look forward to the challenges

ahead.”

Well recognized in the Asia semiconductor

industry, Davy Lo was formerly the Vice

President of the Hong Kong Semiconductor

Industry Council, and Vice Chairman of the

Technology and Applications Sub-Committee

of the Hong

Kong Electronics

Industry

Association.

He also held

advisory member

roles at the

Electronics

Engineering

Department of

the City University of Hong Kong and the 3G

Wireless Technology Laboratories at the

Hong Kong Science and Technology Park.

www.zetex.com

Chief Marketing Officer

www.ti.com/swift-e 800.477.8924, ext. 1323

Software tools, free samples, evaluation modules, the new Power Management Selection Guide and

Reference Design Cookbook ll

Technology for Innovators and the red/black banner, SWIFT™ are trademarks of Texas Instruments. 1623A1 © 2006 TI

Technology for InnovatorsTM

TPS5430 Applications– Set top boxes and digital

television

– Industrial and LED lighting power supplies

– Distributed power systems for 12-/24-V bus

TPS5430 Features– 5.5-V to 36-V input

– 110-m , 5-A peak MOSFETfor high efficiency

– Fixed 500-kHz switching frequency

– 1.5% reference accuracy

– Internal compensation forfew external components

– Built-in over-current protectionand thermal shutdown

– Software tool and evaluationmodule available for a quickand easy design

– Small, thermally enhanced8-pin SOIC package

POWER MANAGEMENT

3-A, Easy-to-Use, 36-V InputStep-Down Converter

3-A SWIFT™ Devices

Specifications TPS5430 TPS54350 TPS54310 TPS54317VIN Range 5.5 V to 36 V 4.5 V to 20 V 3.0 V to 6.0 V 3.0 V to 6.0 VVOUT Min 1.22 V 0.9 V 0.9 V 0.9 VSwitching 500 kHz 700 kHz 700 kHz 1.6 MHzFrequency MaxPrice 1k (US $) $1.75 $2.05 $2.35 $2.50Package HSOIC-8 HTSSOP-16 HTSSOP-20 QFN-24

Efficiency vs. Output CurrentVOUT = 5 V

VIN = 12 V

IOUT = A

Eff

icie

ncy

%

95

90

85

800 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5

VIN = 12 V

Visit www.ti.com/swift-e to see a complete listing of SWIFT devices that support up to 14 A.

N E W S

8 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Dr. Middlebrook’s career-enhancing course,

Structured Analog Design, is now updated to

include the General Feedback Theorem

(GFT), which is the culmination of the

Design-Oriented Analysis techniques previ-

ously developed. With more and more ana-

log design moving offshore, there is an

increasing need for system integration and

test engineers. These engineers need to be

just as cognizant of Dr. Middlebrook’s

Design-Oriented Analysis techniques as if

they were doing the design themselves.

“Because I feel strongly that a much broader

range of engineers need to know how pow-

erful and useful these techniques are, I have

resumed teaching this course under the title

‘Middlebrook’s New Structured Analog

Design Course,’” stated Dr. Middlebrook.

“The new course differs from the original in

two significant ways: First, the motivation for

the development of the techniques is as

much from the perspective of an engineer

who is going to evaluate or review someone

else’s design, as it is from the perspective of

an engineer who is going to create the

design himself. Second, the GFT is fully inte-

grated into the development, and many

examples of the ICAP/4 Circuit Simulator

results are shown,” he continued.

This course is aimed primarily toward ana-

log, mixed-signal, and power supply design

engineers, although they are not the only

ones to benefit from Dr. Middlebrook’s

course. A strong point has always been

made that those who review and verify

designs of others also need to know how

designoriented results of analysis should be

presented. Only with this knowledge can

they contribute meaningfully to design

review discussions, instead of just saying to

the presenting designer, “Well, it looks as

though it’s coming along all right; carry on!”

www.ardem.com

New Structured Analog Design Course

This strategic partnership allows Cedrat to

further its presence in the market of simula-

tion software and Adapted Solutions

strengthen its international activities.

Under the terms of the agreement Cedrat

become the exclusive distributor of

Portunus, the innovative software solution in

the field of system design and analysis,

thereby completing the range of simulation

products for electrical engineering tasks

offered by Grenoble based Cedrat.

Portunus offers a combination of different

modelling approaches as networks, block

diagrams and state machines to facilitate the

investigation of systems behaviour. Possible

applications range from power supplies,

power electronic circuits and drive systems

up to controls and automotive components.

In addition to the analysis of electrical

behaviour, Portunus allows the evaluation of

mechanical and thermal properties.

Specialised in systems simulation, Adapted

Solutions supplies innovative software solu-

tions for simulating electrical and mecatronic

systems that allow both development costs

and time to market to be reduced. Working

in close collaboration with its customers and

partners, Adapted Solutions develops solu-

tions dedicated to their applications.

The aim of the CedratT Group is to propose

innovative solutions in the electrical and

mechatronic fields, from the development of

software tools to the study, conception and

production of systems. Well-known for its

FLUX software, and European leader in the

simulation of low frequency electromagnetic

phenomena, the group offers a full range of

software solutions for electrical engineering.

www.CEDRAT.com

www.adapted-solutions.com

Cedrat and Adapted Solutions

Avago Technologies announced that John

Larson III, Ph.D., will be named an IEEE

Fellow at the 2006 International Ultrasonics

Symposium in Vancouver, British Columbia.

IEEE Fellows are nominated by their peers

in numerous engineering fields for extraordi-

nary accomplishment.

In his 34-year career with Avago, beginning

with Hewlett-Packard Laboratories and

Agilent Laboratories, Dr. Larson, a Master

Scientist, has been part of and has led

diverse research and development teams

that achieved significant results in acoustics.

Today, Avago Technologies’ acoustics-based

products are embedded in millions of mobile

phones, data cards and other wireless

devices worldwide.

Among his notable contributions to engineer-

ing, the IEEE Fellow award recognizes the

breakthrough in Film Bulk Acoustic

Resonator (FBAR) devices he and his team-

mates developed as a commercial product

for cell phones. By shrinking one of the three

space-consuming components on a cell

phone board in 1998, the sand grain-size

FBAR filters made flip phones practical.

Additionally, the filters contributed to longer

talk time by extending battery life through

reduced transmit insertion loss.

Dr. Larson’s IEEE Fellow award caps

decades-long service on behalf of the organ-

ization, including the medical ultrasound sec-

tion where he demonstrated the first

echocardiogram machine in the 1980s

before his peers in the Ultrasonics,

Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control

Society. He and his team at H-P

Laboratories developed the first phased

array, echocardiographic scanners, enabling

HP to develop and market the first echocar-

diogram machine, a cost-effective, less inva-

sive method for

diagnosing heart

disease. The

machine became

a commercial

success for H-P,

and its spin-off

Agilent

Technologies,

until the product

division was sold to Philips Medical Systems

about five years ago.

Dr. Larson was also involved with the Silicon

Valley chapter of the Society for Engineering

in Medicine and Biology, serving as its vice

president and Technical Program Chairman

for a number of years.

www.avagotech.com

Prestigious IEEE Fellow Award

LEM launches the Wi-LEM (Wireless Local

Energy Meter) family of components, an

innovative solution that allows electricity con-

sumption to be monitored and reduced. By

using wireless communication, Wi-LEM

greatly reduces the time, cost and disruption

involved in deploying a sub-metering instal-

lation, increasing both the potential financial

savings and removing many of the barriers

to adopt this proven approach to reduce

energy consumption.

High lights:

# Wireless Sub-Metering Components for

Industrial and Commercial Applications

# Measures various relevant parameters for

Energy Monitoring

# Compact Size and Split-Core Transducer

Simplifies Installation

# Communications over 2.4 GHz using Mesh

Network Configuration

# Serial Interfaces RS-232 or RS-485 with

MODBUS RTU Protocol

The Wi-LEM family consists of:

Energy Meter Nodes - an assembly of 1 to 3

current transducers with its signal processing

module. They can be deployed to measure

energy consumption at any point in the

power cabinet and transmit the data.

Mesh Nodes - a repeater linking various

Nodes. They enable wireless communica-

tions throughout a large installation;

Mesh Gate - a gateway managing the mesh

network. It provides data through serial inter-

face to a PC.

By measuring active, reactive and apparent

energy plus maximum current and minimum

voltage, Energy Meter Nodes provide much

more information than a simple sub-meter.

A variety of Energy Meter Nodes – all of

which have their accuracy certified to IEC

62053 Active

Energy Class 1 and

Reactive Energy

Class 3 – are avail-

able for 120 and

240 VAC voltage

and configured for

nominal currents

from 5 to 100A. The

compact sized, split-

core transducers

can easily be

installed inside the

limited free space of

existing cabinets.

Energy Meter

Nodes take meas-

urements at 5 to 30

minute intervals and

transmit the results over the 2.4 GHz ISM

band.

The technologies make installation and com-

missioning very easy.

Mesh Nodes act as repeaters, and can be

added to the network without any need for

additional configuration or programming.

The Mesh Gate is a stand-alone wireless

network management gateway that connects

the transducer network with a PC using a

serial interfaces RS-232 or RS-485 with a

MODBUS RTU protocol. Each Mesh Gate

allows monitoring of up to 240 Energy Meter

Nodes. The 802.15.4 ZigBee-based commu-

nication standard has a proven robustness in

industrial and commercial environments.

Mesh Gate and Mesh Nodes were devel-

oped in close cooperation by Millennial Net,

leader in Wireless Sensor Mesh Network

technology.

LEM is a market leader in providing innova-

tive and high quality solutions for measuring

electrical parameters. Its core products –

current and voltage transducers – are used

in a broad range of applications in industrial,

traction, energy, automation and automotive

markets. LEM’s strategy is to exploit the

intrinsic strengths of its core business, and

develop opportunities in new markets with

new applications. LEM is a mid-size, global

company with approximately 700 employees

worldwide. It has production plants in

Geneva (Switzerland), Machida (Japan) and

Beijing (China), plus regional sales offices,

and offers a seamless service worldwide.

www.lem.com

P R O D U C T O F T H E M O N T H

10 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

First Wireless Electrical

Sub-Metering Components

Figure 1. Energy Meter Nodes - an assembly of 3 current transducers

Figure 2. Mesh Gate and Mesh Nodes

Constant-on-Time (COT) Switching Regulators from 150 mA to 3A, Switching up to 1 MHz

National‘s Regulator Portfolio is Ideal for Automotive and 24V/48V Telecom Systems

Applications: Automotive power systems, telecommunications, data communications systems, distributed

power systems and consumer electronics.

© National Semiconductor Corporation, 2006. National Semiconductor, and WEBENCH are registered trademarks of National Semiconductor Corporation. All rights reserved.

For samples, datasheets, WEBENCH design tools, and more information on National’s switching regulator portfolio, contact us today at:

power.national.com

Tel.: +44 (0) 870 240 21 71E-mail: europe.support@nsc.com

LM5010A

VOUT

VINInput 15V to 75V

2.2 µF x 2

GND150k

RON/SD

0.022 µF

SSShutdownInput

RTN SGND

VCC

0.1 µF

BST

SW

SEN1

GND

22 µF

FB

0.01 µF

47 µH

0.022 µF

75k

3k

1k

3300 pF

LM5010A Typical Application Circuit

450

400

350

3000 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Input Voltage (V)

Switc

hing

Fre

quen

cy (k

Hz)

LM5010A Output Ripple

LM5010A Switching Frequency vs Input Voltage20

mV/

div

1 µs/div

Device Output Current [A] VIN (min) VIN (max) Current Limit WEBENCH®

Enabled Packaging

LM5009 0.15 13 100 Peak MSOP-8

LM5008 0.30 13 100 Peak MSOP-8, LLP-8

LM25007 0.50 13 42 Peak MSOP-8, LLP-8

LM5007 0.50 13 75 Peak MSOP-8, LLP-8

LM2694 0.60 8 30 Valley LLP-10

LM25010 1.00 6 42 Valley TSSOP-14 (exp pad), LLP-10

LM5010 1.00 13 75 Valley TSSOP-14 (exp pad), LLP-10

LM5010A 1.00 6 75 Valley TSSOP-14 (exp pad), LLP-10

LM2695 1.25 8 30 Valley TSSOP-14 (exp pad), LLP-10

LM2696 3.00 4.5 24 Peak TSSOP-16 (exp pad)

Wherever an electronic or electric device is

put into operation, current is needed – active

current and reactive current which again

results in so-called apparent current.

This apparent current or power is an unde-

sirable factor in the grids:

On one hand it puts an additional load to the

power supply network, and on the other

hand it is a cost factor that can be avoided.

Power Factor Correction(PFC)with PFC-

capacitors has become a common practice

in most nations to reduce the presence of

apparent power. Epcos as the market leader

in LV PFC-capacitors is putting special

emphasis on power quality. The target of

PFC is to preserve electrical energy,

increase power quality (avoiding voltage

drops, cleaning of grids by reducing harmful

harmonics, protection against over voltage,

reduction of EMC distortion …), stabilization

of the power grids and reduction of costs.

On top of all this a major target for Epcos is

an active contribution for environmental pro-

tection by reducing the exhaustive cultivation

of natural resources and decreasing CO2-

emissions. Recent studies of the ZVEI have

shown alarming figures: Only in the 25 mem-

ber states of the European Community

approximately 1,725 Mio t RÖE are con-

sumed per year, with upwards tendency. As

one step to reduce this high consumption of

natural resources is the reduction of appar-

ent power, the ZVEI proposes the implemen-

tation of a minimum power factor (cos-phi)

worldwide. For example: a power factor

given with cosphi 0.95 would effect to an

electricity loss reduction of 48 TWh per year

(based on EU-countries only). Apart from

pure cost reduction this is a significant con-

tribution for climatic protection.

Conventional PFC-systems normally con-

sists of PFC-capacitors, intelligent controllers

and switching devices, typically capacitor

contactors: sufficient for standard industrial

applications. But technology becomes more

and more sensitive and claim for sophisticat-

ed solutions. Therefore Epcos is putting

more focus on so-called dynamic PFC. Fast

changing loads require “real-time” PFC.

Automotive industry, cranes, welding

machines, pressing equipment and wind tur-

bines cannot use standard PFC because

electro-mechanical capacitor contactors fea-

ture a reaction time of > 60 seconds and life

time of electro-mechanical switching devices

show a wear out after a short operation time.

In a dynamic PFC-system, the capacitor

contactors are replaced by electronic thyris-

tor-modules which allow switching times of

< 20 ms which almost means “real-time-

behaviour”. During recent years, EPCOS

has continuously enlarged its product portfo-

lio for dynamic PFC. It is not only our target

to offer all key components – we offer power

quality solutions. Therefore we offer all key

components for a proper and effective

dynamic PFC out of one hand and perfectly

harmonized:

PFC-capacitors, PFC-controller BR6000 T

and thyristor modules of the TSM series.

The self monitoring thyristor switches are

available for different voltages for capacitive

loads from 10 … 100 kvar. All modules fea-

ture compact design; they are easy to install

and maintenance free.

Another major benefit of the usage of TSM-

LC: According to the specification of stan-

dard IEC60831 a capacitor should not

undergo more than 5,000 switching opera-

tions per year – fast changing loads require

multiple of this – 100,000 switching opera-

tions per year and more. Thyristor modules

are capable to switch free from wear out and

therefore do not show negative impact on

the life cycle of the PFC-system. They avoid

transients (inrush currents!) in the grid and

result in a power quality improvement and

stabilization of the power supply.

Epcos is dedicated to power quality solu-

tions. Together with our partners it is our tar-

get to offer tailor-made solutions for all kind

of applications – high quality products with

economic pricing. Dynamic PFC is one step

– we are on the right way.

www.epcos.com

G U E S T E D I T O R I A L

12 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Power Quality an Investment

in the Future By Rudolf Müller, Executive Vice President and General Manager Business

Unit Power Capacitors, Epcos

Bodo´s Power SysBodo´s Power Systems

Free Magazin Subscription at

www.bodospower.com

for qualified readers in Europe

SEMICONDUCTORS

According to iSuppli’s latest forecast world

semi-conductor revenue will grow 7.8% to $

255.7 B this year including a 7.3% increase

in sales to the data processing market, 9.3%

PC market and 5.2% wireless. But second

half year growth is to be only 6.7%, the low-

est rate since 2001.

India Semiconductor Association (ISA)

plans to promote chip design relationships

with Europe starting with a “RAM” (RF, ana-

log and mixed signal) program. Only about

half-a-dozen firms in India are of European

design including ST, VXP and ARM, out of

over a hundred active in this field.

China’s chip design sector is attracting

attention from venture capital firms such as

Sequoia Capital famous for seeding Apple,

Cisco and Google among others.

The sale by Philips of the majority interest

in its semiconductor division has resulted in

a $ 4.19 B boost in its third quarter profits

but its decision to quit the mobile phone

business to be taken over by China’s

Electronics is bound to affect component

supply relationships for NXP which just

announced a high yield bond issue of a

record-breaking $ 4.5 B amount to refinance

debt incurred by the private equity consor-

tium which bought the business.

Matsushita is reviewing its global business

with an aim to improving operating profits

from 4.7% last fiscal year to 10% by 2011

which may include closing some of its 170

plants and improving communication among

various divisions. A plan is to be presented

in January. The firm is cooperating in mobile

phone software development with TI and

NEC which established a European quality

center in Germany.

Sharp, which currently outsources 60% of its

wafers, will go further toward the fables

model, so its European president Maximilan

Huber, while Fujitsu is investing in a

Munich-based graphics center to boost

European graphics controller sales five-fold

in the next five years from € 20 M in 2006.

Worldwide semiconductor sales are close to

$ 6 B and the fab in Mie, Japan, is to see

output increase by 85% to 15000 wafers per

month.

Hitachi is planning to increase its holding in

car equipment maker Clarion from 14.4% to

50% highlighting the pressure in an industry

more and more dependent on electronic

know-how, is working with a number of IDMs

(integrated device manufacturers) to develop

high-k gate dielectric and metal gate etch

processes for memory and logic devices.

SEZ has developed a single-wafer approach

for 300 mm under-bump metal (UBM) impor-

tant to wafer-level packaging (WLP),

believes this is more advantageous than the

batch process especially in wafer wet pro-

cessing. The firm is gaining momentum in

Asia having received multiple system orders

for its Da Vinci tools from Taiwan, Singapore,

Korea and China while

Applied Materials has completed the acqui-

sition of Applied Films Corp., a thin-film dep-

osition equipment maker, is buying back its

own stock to tune of $ 5 B in the next three

years while Philips has disposed of its

metrology systems business and Melexis

has opened an IC testing center in Bulgaria.

Soitec, the leader in SOI material, grew

sales 41.5% to € 89.7 M compared to prior

year in its second fiscal quarter, expects €

400 M for the year and is investing heavily in

Bernin, France, as well as in a new 300 mm

fab in Singapore, its third and first outside

France increasing capacity 39% to one mil-

lion wafers per year by 2008.

India’s Hyderabad could become the site of

the country’s first $ 3 B advanced fab if the

plans of SemIndia are realized with the local

government, Flextronics among others cited

as potential investors and AMD as technolo-

gy source.

In China a provincial government is backing

a 300 mm fab project called Wuham Xinxin

Semiconductor Manufacturing expected to

become operational by 2008 with initial out-

put of 12 500 wafers per month to be dou-

bled by 2009. It will be managed by SMIC

which with Hynix-ST’s Wuxi facility are the

only 300 mm fabs in China.

X-Fab’s acquisition of Malaysia’s 1st Silicon

has resulted in four fabs with a capacity of

700 000 200 mm equivalent wafers per year,

a doubling, while Siltera is partnering with

Key ASIC to offer streamlined design-to-

manufacturing services for ASICs in the

mobile and consumer electronics markets.

PASSIVE COMPONENTS

The ZVEI estimates the 2005 German pas-

sive component market at € 1.257 B, down

3.6% from 2004 with RF and piezo ceramic

components € 224 M, inductives and EMV €

370 M, resistors € 210 M and capacitors €

454 M. Present year growth is set at 2.1%

with only capacitors declining at a 1.7% rate.

Automotive and industrial applications last

year made up 70% of total, telecom 19%.

Epcos is exiting super capacitor production

affecting 35 persons at its Heidenheim plant.

It has been unprofitable while industry leader

Maxwell Technologies claims cost advan-

tages in the device’s carbon powder-based

electrode.

OTHER COMPONENTS

A recent Digital Power Forum was optimistic

about the role of digital power management

and control though IMS Research predicts

volume shipments of digitally-controlled

power supplies not to exceed $ 100 M by

2009. The 2005 merchant power supply

market was $ 13.6 B with modest growth

forecast, stronger for AC-DC and weaker for

DC-DC.

Vicor’s new strategy to confront Far East

competition is to customize their US-made

products for niche applications while Tyco

sees automotive applications as a growth

market requiring extensive system design

know-how, has licensed Astec Power its iso-

lated converter patents. Delta, the world’s

N° 1 supplier, had record August sales of

$ 296 M.

THE LENNOX REPORT

ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS INDUSTRY

M A R K E T

14 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

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Almost every company associated with or

trying to associate with the powering of note-

book PCs is claiming that they will see

increased opportunities as a result of the

large-scale Sony battery recalls. These

claims come from a diverse cross-section of

the industry including other lithium-ion cell

makers, companies with alternative battery

chemistries, micro fuel cell proponents and

battery management IC suppliers. While

some companies surely stand to gain, the

marketing propaganda that has resulted

from these recalls is often conflicting and

misleading. So let’s step back and ask two

questions–“What happened?” and “What are

the long-term implications?”

Laptop battery recalls using Sony cells have

topped 9.6 million battery packs including

packs used by Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Toshiba,

Sony and others. The direct financial impact

to Sony is approaching half a billion US dol-

lars. Laptop sales, especially in North

America, have slowed down during the last

half of 2006. While this might be attributed to

consumers waiting for Microsoft Vista, the

slowdown has primarily been associated

with concerns related to the battery recalls.

It isn’t exactly news that the lithium-ion bat-

tery chemistry isn’t exactly the most stable

battery chemistry available. This certainly

wasn’t the first lithium-ion battery recall and

this recall will not be a game changer.

Despite the press coverage to the contrary,

lithium-ion batteries are serviceable and

companies ranging from medical device

makers to consumer electronics companies

have determined that it is safe enough for

their purposes. Sony’s recall of 2.4Ah and

2.6Ah lithium-ion cells concerned a manu-

facturing deficiency–not necessarily the

instability of the chemistry. That said, the

chemistry’s volatile nature did add to the

problem, but if manufactured correctly, there

would have been no Sony laptop battery

recall.

Thus far, the industry’s focus has been

aimed at the short-run implications for bat-

tery makers and the longer-term implications

for alternatives to lithium-ion batteries. In the

short-run, many people assume that Sony

will cede significant share to other lithium-ion

makers, possibly even to commodity battery

producers in China. In the longer-term, the

default assumption appears to be that alter-

native chemistries or micro fuel cells will take

advantage of this misstep and begin to pen-

etrate the market. However, both of these

assumptions are somewhat flawed. The fact

that several companies are vying for a larger

piece of this market isn’t surprising given

that lithium-based battery packs generate

US$6.0 billion in revenue in 2006. As seen in

figure 1, revenue in this market is expected

to rise to $7.3 billion by 2011.

The primary short-term impact thus far has

been a mild shortage of lithium-ion cells.

This has resulted in rising prices and has

created difficulty for second and third tier

OEMs who have not secured long-term

sourcing contracts. Even those with solid

sourcing capabilities, the reduced availability

of lithium-ion cells has translated into elon-

gated lead times, which could hamper note-

book PC’s and similar application’s growth.

However, these mild shortages are expected

to recede by the second quarter of 2007. So

there will be no long-term price spike or neg-

ative externality on the application markets

that these cells power.

Sony has temporarily lost some market

share as a result of the recalls. However,

this will likely be only a transitory shift while

Sony ensures OEMs that the manufacturing

deficiencies have been overcome. When all

is said, two things will enable Sony to main-

tain share. First, very few companies could

have sustained the US$429 million cost of

the recall without folding or passing the cost

onto the OEMs. For instance, a recall of this

size could very easily have bankrupted

Chinese manufacturers of commodity lithi-

um-ion cells. So OEMs will stay with Sony

because of the financial support that Sony

provided following the recalls. Secondly, bat-

tery sales and market share eventually come

down to price, volume production and estab-

lished distribution channels. Sony has per-

formed well in these key characteristics and

as a result, their key accounts will continue

to use Sony batteries.

In the long run, the companies that will make

the largest strides as a result of this recall

will be battery management and power man-

agement IC makers. Notebook computer

makers that took advantage of the more

advanced battery management and charging

circuitry were able to remain above the fray

of the recall. For instance, Hewlett-Packard

has not recalled any notebook battery packs

even though they use the same Sony battery

cells. According to Ted Clark, senior vice

president and general manager of the

Notebook Business Unit at HP, the “battery

solutions provided by HP are unique and are

designed with a number of HP engineered

safety features that are in addition to what is

typical in the industry.” Mr. Clark further

states that, “we have the proper charging

and circuit protection in place to prevent an

overheating episode.” In other words, HP

uses more, or at least more advanced, bat-

tery charging and battery management ICs

than its competition. While this likely adds

cost to the system, HP must be glad that

they added the extra silicon. In the next

notebook PC design cycle, other companies

will likely follow suit, which will be a boon for

the battery management IC market.

M A R K E T

16 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Portable Power Shaken-Up by

Battery Recalls

Battery Management IC Makers Emerge As Winners

While recent laptop lithium-ion battery recalls have created ripples within the portablepower market, the long term effects will have greater impact on the battery management

IC market than the alternative battery or micro fuel cell markets.

By Jeremiah P. Bryant, Managing Research Analyst,Darnell Group

Alternative battery technologies and fuel

cells may gain increasing publicity, but there

will be no mass move to micro fuel cells,

phosphate or zinc-based batteries as a

result of this recall. “Safer” batteries already

exist. Lithium polymer is a more stable bat-

tery chemistry than lithium-ion; however, it is

rarely used in notebook PCs.

There are two reasons why alternatives will

not make strides stemming from the recalls.

First, notebook PC makers cannot use the

“safety” of the product as a product differen-

tiator. The companies’ legal departments

would not allow them to advertise, “This

notebook comes with a safer battery,”

because it implies that the previous batteries

were knowingly unsafe, which opens the

OEMs up to increased litigation. As a result,

since they cannot use the primary advantage

of these alternatives as a differentiator, they

will not pay a premium. Secondly, lithium-ion

18650 cells are a commodity product that

has reached a price point that these alterna-

tives cannot yet match. The recalls brought

safety concerns to the forefront for a little

while, but they will not be the game changer

that persuades notebook PC makers to pay

a premium for new chemistries.

If micro fuel cells or alternative chemistries

are going to make strides, they must reach

price parity. Safety concerns will not trump

price when a manufacturing deficiency, not

inherent instability, was to blame.

Alternatives must offer notebook PC makers

differentiation they can use, such as greater

energy density or faster recharge rates, if

they are going to make significant in-roads in

the power pack market.

Since proper battery management can sig-

nificantly reduce the likelihood of battery

malfunction, there will be little need to shift

towards alternative battery or fuel cell tech-

nologies. When all is said and done, price,

not necessarily having the safest possible

battery, will determine who maintains control

of the portable power pack market.

www.darnell.com

M A R K E T

Figure 1: Worldwide Lithium-ion and Lithium Polymer Power Pack Revenue.

Bodo Arlt: What end markets will drive

Connectors technology ?

Pierre Amouyal: All markets related to the

integration of electronic functions in LV elec-

trical equipments are potentially customers,

which means virtually every segment of mar-

ket nowadays. Every PCBoard must receive

power through dedicated connectors; and

this is a growing market

Bodo Arlt: What is ABB Entrelec position

beside the wide range of standard con-

nectors ?

Pierre Amouyal: The strengh of ABB

Entrelec range is to have matching answers

to any kind of customer needs, from the

most basic and standard product, to the

most specific tailor-made connector, a wide

variety of solutions found in our portfolio

Bodo Arlt: What are the technologies that

can offer innovation for leadership ?

Pierre Amouyal: ABB Entrelec has been

specialized in connection technologies for

more than 50 years, and rely on all types of

existing well-known technologies, as well as

true innovative technologies such as our

exclusive ADO system, a state-of-the-art

insulation displacement connection that has

proven its efficiency.

Bodo Arlt: Is it more in standard prod-

ucts, or is it part of custom connector

technology ?

Pierre Amouyal: Our customers can find

this ADO System® technology both in the

standard products range, and also in more

customized solutions

Bodo Arlt: What makes ABB Entrelec differ-

ent from traditional connector suppliers ?

Pierre Amouyal: We are not only a connec-

tion technology specialist , but also a com-

pany of the ABB group, a well known and

world class leader in so many LV automation

or power equipments. It brings to ABB

Entrelec a real edge in knowing and under-

standing our customer’s expectations.

Bodo Arlt: How much is ABB Entrelec

involved in motion applications using the

advantage of high power connectors ?

Pierre Amouyal: Once again, ABB group is

a world class leader in motors, and all relat-

ed motion applications; our internal coordi-

nation network, in R&D, in sales and market-

ing, will bring a key advantage to position

ABB Entrelec in these applications.

Bodo Arlt: What will be the target to intro-

duce new products ?

Pierre Amouyal: It will be market driven.

Our goal is to be more active in this connec-

tors business, first with a stronger presence

in all markets that need standard products

through our ABB sales network, present in

more than 200 countries. Second with a tar-

geted OEM approach to build up strong

technical collaboration with large customers

that need customized solutions.

Bodo Arlt: Do you expect a revolution in

connector technology ?

Pierre Amouyal: We expect more an evolu-

tion than a revolution. The connectors busi-

ness has always been very conservative and

is more driven by constant evolutions, stimu-

lated by a strong and steady competition

among the technology leaders. ABB Entrelec

has also participated to this evolution with

the ADO System

Bodo Arlt: Who are your competitors you

believe will stimulate the race for leader-

ship ?

Pierre Amouyal: As far as technology lead-

ership is concerned, the best in class is

probably Phoenix. They have a really strong

marketing, and a very coherent strategy for

product developments. But we have also to

take more and more into consideration that

our markets are price driven, and in this area

we must face competitors who attempt to

have a price leadership. This threat also pre-

vents ABB Entrelec from taking it for grant-

ed, and this stimulates our imagination for

performance and innovation.

Bodo Arlt: Are you ready for 2007 ?

Pierre Amouyal: We are exhibiting this year

in Electronica for a very simple reason: 2007

is the launching of a new range of standard

products which completes our portfolio with

a very competitive offer. This will activate our

plan to spread out in many new countries

and finding new customers, and also consol-

idate our historical positions with many OEM

customers. So, yes, we are ready !

www.abb.com

V I P I N T E R V I E W

18 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Interview on Connector

Technology with

Pierre Amouyal, Senior Vice President

By Bodo Arlt, Editor BPSD

Pierre Amouyal

Senior Vice President

Head of Prodact Management, Product

Planning

Business Area Low Voltage Products

Automation Technology Products

Devision France

I N F I N E O N T E C H N O L O G I E S offers a broad range of leading-edge power

semiconductors for standardized and application-specific industrial applications such

as industrial drives, renewable energies, transportation, power supplies and medical

instruments. Our proven chip expertise combined with many years’ package know-how

enable our customers to select the right solutions for their applications.

www.infineon.com

Efficient POWER for your applications

The Integrated Gate Commutated Thyristor (IGCT) has been devel-

oped to a reliable and efficient device and has gained wide market

acceptance since its introduction, a decade ago. In many high power

applications, such as Medium Voltage Drives (MVD), Power Quality,

Static Breakers and others, the IGCT is well established. IGCTs are

normally employed in voltage or current source inverters in two or

three level topologies as one device per function although there are

also examples of series connections for higher voltage. Thanks to its

low losses, it has been regarded as the preferred technology for very

high power conversion (typically above 2 MW). The main strengths of

the IGCT can be summarised as follows:

• low losses

• voltage scalability

• compact package

• high power capability

• compact integration of the FWD (reverse-conducting devices).

The IGCT, unlike the IGBT, has a thyristor structure and generates

low on-state losses. Furthermore, since it turns off like an IGBT, it

requires no voltage snubber, unlike the GTO - a combination that has

proven unbeatable for very high power applications. Today, the IGCT

is available in current and voltage ratings starting at 4500 V, at a few

hundred amps, to 6500 V and 4000 A. The product range includes

asymmetric, reverse-conducting (integrated anti-parallel diode) and

reverse-blocking (symmetric) types.

Power electronic equipment manufacturers are constantly seeking to

improve the cost and performance of their systems. By increasing the

power capability of the semiconductor switches, the cost and size

may be reduced while improving performance and allowing more

flexibility in system design. SOA determines the current and voltage

boundaries within which the IGCT may safely be operated and as

such, is an important and limiting parameter for power devices and

their applications. The possibility of scaling the current capability of

the IGCT linearly with device area has been limited by the uniformity

of the gate current distribution over large areas. Therefore, the maxi-

mal permissible power density for large area devices has been

restricted to 200 – 300 kW per square centimetre of IGCT active

area, while the performance of small-area devices has been shown

to reach 1.5 MW/cm2. In this article, results are shown from ABB’s

new HPT product line for 4.5, 5.5 and 6.5 kV devices with 5.5, 5.0

and 4.0 kA turn-off ratings, respectively. HPT IGCTs attain twice the

power density of present devices – over 600 kW/cm2 – without trad-

ing off any of the other desirable IGCT features, such as low losses.

The IGCT wafer consists of a massive parallel connection of thyristor

segments, each surrounded by the gate metallization that contacts

the p-base of the thyristor. At turn-off, the anode current is commutat-

ed from the cathode segments to the gate thereby interrupting the

regenerative pnp-npn thyristor action. The process must be fast in

order to operate the IGCT safely because the commutation has to be

completed before anode voltage appears. This is commonly referred

to as the “hard drive limit”. To achieve this, a very high di/dt is neces-

sary which imposes high demands on impedance minimization in the

circuit connecting gate and cathode – i.e. the housing and gate unit.

For ABB’s 91 mm HPT wafer, shown in Figure 1, the 2700 thyristor

segments are laid out concentrically in ten segment rings. The gate

contact divides the segment rings into two regions – five inside and

five outside the gate contact. In Fig. 2, a cross-sectional drawing of a

wafer in its housing shows the path of lateral current flow during turn

off. It can be seen that the gate impedance (resistance and induc-

tance) is ring-position dependent, resulting in an uneven SOA loading

of the segment rings, the load being larger in the centre and at the

periphery of the wafer. As the thyristor goes through its meta-stable

state during turn-off, electron emission from the cathode segments is

completely cancelled, initially in rings close to the gate and finally in

those at the wafer periphery. Current redistribution to segments in

gate-remote locations can, therefore, not be completely avoided. The

distances across the wafer surface and hence the remoteness of the

H I G H P O W E R S W I T C H E S

20 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

High-Power Technology (HPT)

IGCTs with outstanding current handling capability

To improve performance, reduce the size and cost of power electronic systems and allowmore flexibility in designing power electronic applications, the development trend in highpower semiconductors continues to be one of increasing current and voltage capabilities.

In this article, the high Safe Operating Area (SOA) of a new range of High-PowerTechnology (HPT) IGCTs with voltage ratings from 4.5kV to 6.5kV is presented.

By T. Wikström, M. Rahimo and E. Carroll, ABB Switzerland Ltd, Semiconductors

Figure 1: A 91 mm HPT IGCT wafer with approximately 2700 cathodesegments organized into ten segment rings. The gate metallizationcovers the rest of the wafer and surrounds all segments. The gate-contact ring separates the five peripheral segment rings from thecentral rings.

segments from the gate contact, scale with the square root of the

wafer area. This is approximately also the scaling in current handling

capability that can be achieved by simply increasing the device area.

Unlike SOA, cooling and surge-current capabilities do increase with

device area in a linear fashion. As a result, SOA has traditionally

been the limiting parameter in high-power applications, which is the

motivation for ABB’s current efforts to extend it through the HPT

development.

In developing the previous (intermediate) generation (“Gen II”) of

asymmetric IGCTs, work was focussed on improving the gate circuit

and enhancing local SOA (equivalent to increasing the SOA of a sin-

gle segment). Local SOA improvement for Gen II essentially consist-

ed of reinforcing the p-base conductivity, which lowered the gain of

the npn transistor of the classical pnp-npn transistor pair (thyristor)

making it easier to turn off (but harder to turn on). The ultimate limit

of this strategy was determined by degradation of the classical thyris-

tor properties.

For the current HPT generation, the gate drive improvements from

Gen II were matched to innovative improvements in the vertical wafer

design. As a result, the trade-off involving reduction of npn gain was

no longer required, which led to even better turn-on properties than

those of the first generation (Figure 3) while dramatically increasing

SOA.

A consequence of the SOA being limited by the intra-wafer distances

is that a lower capability at 25°C, compared to 125°C, is normally

observed. This contrasts with other devices not subject to current

redistribution at turn-off and is the result of higher charge-carrier con-

centration at elevated temperature which ensures that the npn tran-

sistor blocks before charge can be swept from the pnp transistor thus

increasing the margin for safe operation with increasing temperature

(i.e. it is a pnp transistor and not a thyristor, which turns off and sus-

tains voltage). In Fig. 4, the maximum controllable current for three

4.5 kV IGCT generations is compared. The second generation

achieved good results at 125°C but since the large-area effects still

dominated the SOA, the overall rating was reduced at 25°C and the

device was, hence, only marginally better than Gen I. With the new

HPT wafer technology, the “cold limit” was eliminated. Consequently,

the overall capability was increased by 3 kA compared to Gen I and

by 2 kA compared to Gen II. In Figure 5, SOA waveforms from 25°C

and 125°C measurements are shown.

For a circuit designer it is, of course, desirable that the components

of his system not be destroyed should his equipment inadvertently

experience an overload or fault condition whereby the SOA limits of

the components are exceeded. With the new HPT IGCT, we are able

to present a self-clamping feature that allows precisely that at turn-

off. As shown in Figures 6 and 7, when the IGCT is stressed beyond

its specified limits, the inductive voltage overshoot is clamped by the

HPT IGCT itself without failure. Although it is not advisable to rely on

overstressing the device, having this capability represents an extra

21www.bodospower.com

H I G H P O W E R S W I T C H E S

Bodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Figure 2: Cross-sectional view of a GCT. The white arrows mark theanode current flow at turn-off, showing the need for substantial lateralcurrent flow for commutation of the current to the gate. This is thebasic mechanism leading to a non-uniform distribution of gate cur-rent.

Figure 3: Waveforms comparing the turn-on under very high di/dt(6kA/µs) for Gen I (red) IGCT to the HPT IGCT (blue). With the newtechnology, turn-on properties improved even over Gen I.

Figure 4: The SOA capability of the last three generations of 91 mm,4.5kV IGCTs at 25°C and 125°C. The new HPT technology has led toa change in how the SOA is limited; previously, the cold SOA was lim-iting – with HPT, SOA is high temperature limited (as with IGBTs).

Figure 5: The SOA waveforms at 125°C (red) and 25°C (blue) for the4.5kV HPT IGCT. LCOMM=5µH, Lσ=300nH, CCLAMP=20µF,RCLAMP=0.6Ohm

level of safety should such operating conditions arise. Moreover, an

increased margin between normal operation and SOA failure limit

increases the overall reliability of the system.

Comparing the 6.5 and 5.5 kV HPT IGCTs, the HPT platform main-

tains excellent SOA with increasing voltage (historically, higher volt-

age devices suffered from lower SOA in kW/cm2 than their lower volt-

age counterparts). In Figures 8 and 9, SOA waveforms are shown. In

the 6.5kV IGCT SOA measurement of Figure 9, the peak power

slightly exceeds that of the 5.5 kV devices with a power density of

700 kW/cm2, an excellent benchmark for the HPT IGCT.

HPT, the next generation of IGCTs scheduled for a 2007 market intro-

duction, has achieved a number of significant improvements. Firstly,

it now allows a 50% increase in SOA with respect to the presently

commercialised products. Secondly, it allows SSCM which has been

extensively described in connection with IGBTs over the past two

years but is presented here for the first time in relation to IGCTs.

SSCM is the definition of ruggedness for Turn-off Devices and is ulti-

mately the guarantor of reliability. Thirdly, the HPT IGCT now demon-

strates a negative temperature coefficient of ITGQ which means that

the turn-off current at rated maximal junction temperature is the low-est current which the device can turn-off for a given set of conditions.

Finally, the turn-on waveforms have now been improved to allow still

lower turn-on losses and higher di/dt. The object of HPT develop-

ment was primarily one of increased turn-off current for increased

inverter ratings and this has been met, meaning that this latest gen-

eration of IGCTs has now moved its limitations from SOA to thermal

management – which must become the next area of focus.

www.abb.com/semiconductors

22 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Figure 6: Current and voltage waveforms at turn-off for high voltageand stray inductance. This condition leads to the over-voltageexceeding the static breakdown voltage but does not result in failureas the HPT IGCT clamps the voltage and absorbs the circuit energy.This mode of operation is referred to as Switching Self-ClampingMode (SSCM) as first presented for SPT IGBTs.

Figure 9: SOA Waveforms for the 6.5 kV HPT IGCT. IT=6500A,VD=3750V, T=25°C, LCOMM=2.2µH, Lσ=300nH, CCLAMP=11µF,RCLAMP=0.64Ohm.

Figure 8: SOA Waveforms for the 5.5kV HPT IGCT. IT=6800A,VD=3300V, T=125°C, LCOMM=2.2µH, Lσ=300nH, CCLAMP=11µF,RCLAMP=0.64Ohm.

Figure 7: Locus of the current and voltage during the SSCM eventshown in Figure 5.

H I G H P O W E R S W I T C H E S

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Key features:

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T H E 2 E D 0 2 0 I 1 2 - F I is a two channelDriver IC offering a reliable and cost-effective solution for driving IGBT power stages which provides air and creepage distances up to 900 Vlink voltage. The IC is included in a PG-DSO-18 package. Important protection features are alreadyintegrated.

Key features:

IEC 61000-4-4 compliant

Tolerant to negative transient voltage

Matched propagation delay for both channels

3.3 V and 5 V TTL-compatible inputs

UVLO, shutdown and interlock inputs

Floating channel designed for direct supply

and bootstrap operation

Conventional power factor correction systems consist of a power fac-

tor controller and power capacitors. They are connected to the power

line via electromechanical capacitor switching contactors. However,

due to the discharge time of the capacitors, resetting times are

longer than 60 seconds.

New applications are increasingly calling for technologies that

respond in real time. Here dynamic PFC systems such as electronic

thyristor modules are replacing slow electromechanical switches. As

well as shorter response times, longer service life is an important

advantage of dynamic systems, because thyristors are not prone to

mechanical wear. Dispensing with mechanical capacitor contactors

eliminates a further problem: high inrush currents. The thyristor mod-

ules switch the capacitors at the zero crossing of the current, thus

avoiding inrush currents that can be as high as 200 times the rated

current.

Dynamic systems open up new applications and offer a host of

advantages:

# Reduction of reactive power and lower energy costs in power dis-

tribution systems, even with rapidly changing loads

# Switching times shorter than 20 ms

# Reduced capital expenditure for new plant (power distribution sys-

tems, transmission systems, cable cross-sections, etc.) thanks to

avoidance of peak currents

# Stabilization of line voltage, e.g. no voltage dip during welding

# Prevention of flicker

# Smooth, transient-free switching

# Longer service life of PFC system and equipment connected

Dynamic power factor correction is used in welding equipment,

industrial presses in the automotive industry, wind parks, cranes, lifts,

and main motor starting compensation, where it makes the soft

starter redundant.

When a low-voltage power capacitor is connected straight to a power

line without damping, the effect on the capacitor is similar to that of a

short circuit. Capacitors connected in parallel and charged capacitors

in particular cause extremely high inrush currents. To avoid adverse

effects on power quality and capacitor service life, the inrush currents

must be adequately damped.

An inrush current 157 times higher than the rated current is shown in

Figure 1. This was caused by capacitors connected in parallel with a

conventional motor contactor. The effect on the power line voltage is

shown in Figure 2: voltage transients that can have serious conse-

quences such as insulation breakdown, damage to other loads or

malfunctions in data systems and instruments. Although the extreme-

ly high inrush current can be avoided by using special capacitor

switching contactors with leading and precharging resistors, a certain

pulse current is inevitable Figure 3.

T H Y R I S T O R S

24 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Power Factor Correction

Dynamic progress

A change in technology is taking place in power factor correction. Static PFC systems arebeing progressively replaced by dynamic systems that offer new technical advantages and

economic benefits.

By Rudolf Müller, Dipl.-Ing., Product manager for PFC power capacitors at EPCOS.

Figure 1: Capacitor inrush current for contactor circuitAn inrush current 157 higher than the rated current results in servereline pollution (e.g. voltage dips), trips fuses and causes severe wearof contactor contacts.

Figure 2: Voltage transients caused by current peaksTransients can cause flashover or insulation breakdown and endan-ger the installation. They can also cause malfunctions in data sys-tems and instruments.

This problem can be remedied with thyristor modules that permit any

number of switching cycles and offer short switching times for rapidly

changing loads. As the capacitors are switched at current zero cross-

ing by the thyristor, high inrush currents are avoided.

The thyristor switches the capacitor virtually without delay, as shown

in Figure 4. As soon as the controller signal is applied to the thyristor,

the current starts to flow through the capacitor and increases from

zero to the peak value without any inrush current. As no inrush cur-

rent peaks occur, no dangerous voltage transients are generated

either.

The test curve shows how the initial sinusoidal current is distorted.

This is caused by harmonics upstream. For this type of harmonic

contamination, a dynamic power factor correction system with PFC

capacitors combined with inductors should be used to avoid over-

loading the capacitors.

One typical application of dynamic PFC is found in the steel industry.

Presses and welding equipment are operated in parallel with the

power line. Fast switching times are inevitable due to the fast load

changes. Thanks to several dynamic PFC systems, de facto real-time

control has been achieved. The design of the dynamic system has

resulted in significant reduction of reactive power. Capital expenditure

for the low-voltage power supply (new busbar system, new trans-

former, low-voltage main distribution board, etc.) was thus reduced

substantially.

Reduction of reactive power in the power supply is shown in Figure

6. The curves of the current with and without PFC are shown on the

right and left respectively. The oscillogram Figure 5 shows that no

inrush current peak occurs, but merely a slightly rising current with-

out any harmful effect on power quality or the capacitors.

One-stop shopping for dynamic PFC

EPCOS offers a comprehensive range of products for dynamic power

factor correction with two types of thyristor module. These include

TSM-C modules that can handle reactive powers of 25 and 50 kVAr,

the new dynamic power factor controller BR6000-T, PhaseCap PFC

capacitors, and complete dynamic PFC systems. The self-monitoring

TSM-C thyristor module is a dynamic electronic switch that can

switch on PFC capacitors free of transients in a few milliseconds

Figure 7.

It is distinguished by:

Ease of assembly: the thyristor module can be used like a capacitor

switching contactor; complete intelligence is integrated into it

Self-monitoring for capacitors handling up to 50 kVAr

25www.bodospower.com Bodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Figure 3: Contactor configuration with and without damping resistors.Current flowing through a PFC capacitor for a reactive power of 12.5kVAr with a rated current of 18 A at 400 V without damping resistors(left) and with damping resistors (right).

Figure 4: Capacitor current switched by thyristorThe thyristor switches the capacitor virtually without delay. The cur-rent rises from zero to the peak value without any inrush currentpeak, so no dangerous voltage transients occur.

Figure 5: Capacitor current after switch-onThe oszillogram clearly shows that no current peaks or transientsoccur, as the thyristor switches the capacitor at zero crossing.

Figure 6: Current consumption with and without power factor correc-tionCurrent-time diagram for an industrial load. Peak current consumptionis reduced by two-thirds.

T H Y R I S T O R S

No harmonics generated because complete sine wave switched

Fast response times of less than 7 ms

Continuous self-monitoring of voltage, capacitor current and thyristor

switch temperature

Cascading output

Alarm output on each module

Control and error message display

The dynamic PFC controller BR6000-T Figure 8 is the result of ongo-

ing development of the BR6000 series, to which new functions have

been added. It was specially developed to control the thyristor mod-

ules for dynamic switching and corresponding power factor correc-

tion. A typical configuration with a BR6000-T is shown in Figure 9. In

this example, the PFC controller drives a TSM-C thyristor module,

which controls PFC capacitors combined with inductors. Thanks to

the fast processor, short switching cycles are achieved. In addition to

the switching time of less than 40 ms, the BR6000-T offers very fast

setting of the power factor by simultaneous switching of several

stages. Various parameters can be adjusted for perfect matching of

the PFC controller to different thyristor modules.

Another innovation makes it easy to couple two power factor con-

trollers. For example, two power feeds can be supported with one

coupling switch. This can also be done without a controller interface.

The BR6000-T is available with six or 12 transistor outputs and one

alarm terminal.

A text-based, menu-

driven display makes

the PFC controller

very easy to use.

The new features

permit intuitive oper-

ation. Self-explana-

tory symbols and

supporting text in the

respective user lan-

guage make han-

dling simple.

Summary

Dynamic power factor correction with thyristor modules offers signifi-

cant advantages over static solutions with capacitor switching contac-

tors:

# Short switching times of less than 7 ms

# No current peaks, therefore no dangerous transients

and line pollution

# Lower installation requirement for distribution

at the low-voltage level

# EPCOS offers one-stop shopping for dynamic

power factor corrections:

# Processor-controlled PFC controllers with up to 12 outputs

# Fast-switching thyristor modules

# PCB-free PFC capacitors with integrated overload protection

# Inductors for damping PFC capacitors

# Consultancy and installation service

www.epcos.com

26 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

T H Y R I S T O R S

Figure 7: Switch-on graph of TSM-C moduleThe delay between activation and switching on the module is lessthan 7 ms.

Figure 9: Circuit diagram of dynamic PFC systemPFC controller BR6000-T is combined with a thyristor module. Thecontroller can drive up to 12 modules for control in stages. This mod-ule shown here operates with PFC capacitors with inductors.

Figure 10: Dynamic power factor correction in the steel industry. Theautomotive components supplier Tower Automotive operates pressesand welding equipment in parallel with the power line.

Figure 8: Control panel of PFC BR6000-Tfrom EPCOSA text based, menu-driven display makesthe PFC controller very easy to use.

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Current-mode control has become the con-

trol method of choice in high-performance

converter designs. The main reasons for

designers to choose current-mode control

over voltage-mode control include better

loop response, line voltage feed-forward,

inherent current limiting and simplified con-

trol loop compensation. Some years ago,

power converter vendors found a use for

bolting a microcontroller (MCU) alongside

the analogue part of the design. In a first

stage, the MCU was simply tasked with per-

forming functions such as monitoring, data

logging and interfacing to the outside world.

Next, the MCU began to be used for more

intrusive tasks such as generating reference

voltages, soft-start algorithms and power

sequencing. These designs are commonly

referred to as processor-assisted converter

designs. Now, the latest designs are moving

towards fully processor-controlled convert-

ers, in which the control loop is implemented

in an algorithm, executed by the processor.

The advantages of such implementations

over analogue PWM-based converters

include independence of thermal drift, age-

ing, and component tolerance. These are the

familiar advantages of changing from an

analogue to a digital system. Processor-con-

trolled systems also offer the ability to indi-

vidually tune the converters in software rou-

tines instead of designing for production tol-

erances; and the designer can implement

system knowledge in the control algorithm to

improve performance.

On the other hand, the well known draw-

backs of digital versus analogue design,

such as quantisation errors and processing

delay times, also apply here, and must be

included in the error budget and stabilisation

analysis respectively.

A basic block diagram of a processor-con-

trolled converter is shown in figure 1. The

PWM block used is a microcontroller periph-

eral, which operates completely differently

from an analogue PWM controller, as illus-

trated in figure 2. In an analogue PWM con-

troller, the duty cycle is generated by com-

paring an error voltage (generated by an

internal error amplifier) to a ramp voltage,

making a comparator change state on

match. This approach implies an infinite res-

olution on duty cycle. In a digital system

however, the duty cycle is calculated and the

processor times the on and off times, so the

duty cycle is of limited resolution due to the

limited number of timer steps (quantisation

errors).

The analogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

used to measure output voltage and possibly

other system parameters such as inductor

current in current-mode converters is also of

limited resolution, introducing a second fac-

tor of quantisation errors. As an example,

take a converter design with a 1% output

voltage accuracy specification. To be able to

measure a 1% output voltage deviation, the

minimal ADC resolution needed would be n

bits, where

2n=Vout/ÎVout or n=log2(Vout/ÎVout) =log2(1/0.01) = 6.64, rounded up to 7 bits.

However, this resolution should be consid-

ered as the effective number of bits (ENOB)

needed in this converter design, which

measures the entire data acquisition system

from input to resulting data values, and

includes the analogue front end. Analogue

components in the measurement path, such

as filters and channel-selecting multiplexers,

introduce noise and distortion into the signal

chain, making the least significant bits of the

ADC useless. They also lead to a higher

ADC resolution specification. In a noisy envi-

ronment such as a power converter, this can

have a serious impact on the ADC specifica-

tion.

P O W E R M A N A G E M E N T

28 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Processor-Controlled Power

Conversion

Control loop is implemented in an algorithmPower converters have traditionally been designed around an analogue pulse width

modulation (PWM) controller. Two types of control schemes for this architecture have emerged:voltage-mode control, in which the duty cycle is directly adjusted by the error on the output volt-age; and current-mode control, in which the duty cycle is adjusted by limiting the current in the

power switch or inductor to a value determined by the voltage error.

By Mario Aerden, TSM, Future Electronics (Belgium)

Figure 1. Block diagram of a processor-controlled converter.

Vin Power stage magnetics Vout

PWM ADC

Microcontroller

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P O W E R M A N A G E M E N T

30 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Another aspect that must be considered is

the fact that the least significant bit taken

into account reflects the minimum change in

output needed before the feedback control

loop sees an output error and starts reacting.

Since the control loop algorithm has a limit-

ed bandwidth, the output voltage will further

change and the output voltage error will

therefore be larger than the least significant

bit. In a real-world design, a 12- or 14-bit

ADC will be needed to achieve the 1% out-

put voltage accuracy.

The theoretical number of PWM states need-

ed to achieve the desired resolution on the

output is 2n+1, for which an n+1 bit counter is

needed to generate the PWM signal. The

rate at which this counter is clocked (usually

the system clock) sets the maximum number

of bits that can be generated in a fixed time

interval (the PWM period):

clock rate = switching frequency*2n+1; ormaximum switching frequency = clockrate/2n+1

If the PWM resolution is not sufficient, the

control loop dithers between available values

to achieve the desired result, causing ripple

currents and unpredictable control loop

behaviour. Therefore, the PWM resolution

should be chosen at least one bit more than

the ENOB of the measurement to have

enough available output states. A low PWM

clocking rate leads to low switching frequen-

cies, demanding larger converter

magnetics. Hence the need for high

resolution PWM and high clock fre-

quencies in microcontrollers used

for power converter designs.

The microcontroller peripherals

needed for power conversion

designs are very similar to the ones

found in MCUs targeted at motor

control applications. However, care

must be taken when selecting such

an MCU. Motor control applications

typically use switching frequencies

in the range of 20kHz to 50kHz.

Switching frequency requirements

in power converter designs go up

much higher; 100kHz to 500kHz

are very common, and some con-

verters are even designed with

switching frequencies in the MHz

range.

This increases the requirements on

peripheral performance, such as

ADC conversion times, as well as

on processing performance. DSP

cores with extended peripheral

sets, such as the Freescale 56F8300 series,

have proved to be the most suitable.

Peripheral features such as hardware-shut-

down of the PWM for overcurrent protection,

and complementary PWM outputs with dead-

time insertion for half-bridge control, are also

very useful for both motor control and power

conversion applications. Another feature of

interest is the synchronisation of ADC and

PWM, to be able to exactly time the meas-

urement during the PWM period.

The control loop is usually a standard PI or

PID algorithm, which can be used for both

voltage- and current-mode control loops. The

design of the Proportional, Integral and

Differential constants determines the system

frequency response, which is equivalent to

tuning the loop gain and phase shift in ana-

logue converter designs. To ensure stability,

a minimal phase margin of 45° and a mini-

mal gain margin of 3dB are taken as a gen-

eral guideline.

Figure 2. Analogue PWM versus microcontroller PWM.

Duty cycle value programmed

Counter value

Vset +

Vramp -

TOFF TON

0

1

Vset

time

time

time

time 0

1

Analogue PWM controller Digital PWM controller

TOFF TON

Figure 3. 56F 8345 / 56 F8145 Block Diagram – 128 LQ FP

In digital designs, however, an extra factor of

delay (calculation delay, sampling and con-

version delays), causing an extra phase lag

must be taken into account. A fixed time

delay is equivalent to a linear phase lag in

the bode plot:

ω*tdelay=2πf* tdelay in radians or 360°*f* tdelayin degrees

In a digital control system, the Proportional,

Integral and Differential constants in the

algorithm can be altered depending on the

operating conditions to improve system per-

formance. In a universal input-voltage-rated

off-line switcher for instance, the input volt-

age can be measured to be either 110Vac or

230Vac and the control loop parameters can

be chosen accordingly, whereas in an ana-

logue design, the designer must cope with

the complete input-voltage range specifica-

tion when tuning the control loop.

System knowledge can also be incorporated

in the design by adding a feed-forward block

in the control loop, improving overall per-

formance in areas such as transient

responses to line or load changes. Ideally,

the feed-forward block is modelled to have

the inverse of the system’s transfer function.

In practice, an observer is often used in the

feed-forward block to calculate the parame-

ters of the used model from measurements.

Current-mode control can be interpreted as

a basic form of feed-forward of the input volt-

age, because the rate of change of current

through an inductor is proportional to the

voltage over the inductor. In a processor-

controlled converter however, a more

sophisticated feed-forward block can be

implemented, since the designer has the

potential to model the system in software.

As for the software implementation, the con-

trol loop is usually executed in an interrupt

routine, where the interrupt is fired from a

timer to ensure a fixed timing of the control

loop algorithm. Most MCU development

environments include such a standard PI

and/or PID algorithm in their software

libraries.

Additional processing power can be used to

implement extra features in the main loop in

which timing is not critical. These are not

limited to adding functionality to the convert-

er. By implementing monitoring functions,

such as ambient temperature sensing, and

appropriately adapting the control loop, the

overall reliability of the converter can be

greatly improved. This can be done by sim-

ply limiting the output power of the converter

at elevated temperature, but more sophisti-

cated techniques, such as implementing

models for system components such as

power MOSFET switches over temperature,

are also possible.

With this approach, the optimal switching fre-

quency with regards to overall losses, being

a combination of conduction and switching

losses, can be calculated at the measured

operating temperature, and the control loop

can be adapted accordingly.

Such features are especially beneficial in the

higher-power converters, where the cost of

the converter is mainly determined by the

size of the heatsinks and by the measures

that need to be taken to remove the dissipat-

ed heat.

www.futureelectronics.com

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Four sizes Power terminals good for 450 A Flexible pin-outIGBT’s and MOSFET’s from world class manufacturers Low and high voltage

For industry, transportation and automotiveWe design and manufacture to your needs.

9937

The same principles also apply to heavier

vehicles on our roads, such as trucks and

buses. Public transportation such as trains

and trams also stands to benefit from adopt-

ing a hybrid power train approach. In case of

buses and trucks pollution and fuel con-

sumption can be reduced, as well as cutting

noise. In case of trams and trains primary

energy demand can be reduced significantly,

allowing longer, more or higher performance

vehicles on an existing track.

The obvious energy storage device might be

a rechargeable battery, but in fact they have

some serious limitations for this kind of appli-

cation. Batteries are heavy, large in size,

have a limited charging rate and potentially

high maintenance. They also can suffer

degraded performance at low temperatures.

Recently, newer designs have looked at

another energy storage component – the

ultracapacitor. Ultracapacitors, or double-

layer capacitors, provide high charge accept-

ance, high-efficiency, cycle stability, and

excellent low-temperature performance.

Ultracapacitors for heavy transportation

applications

Heavy transportation vehicles place particu-

lar demands on energy storage devices:

they must be very robust and reliable, with a

long lifetime and low maintenance require-

ments. They must be able to operate effi-

ciently under harsh conditions, and they

must be able to deliver high peak currents.

They must also be able to work on a high

duty cycle and cope with frequent deep dis-

charging. Finally, they must be straightfor-

ward to integrate into a vehicle design.

Maxwell Technologies has addressed these

issues with its HTM BOOSTCAP ultracapaci-

tor module for ultracapacitor-based braking

energy recuperation and torque assist sys-

tems in transportation applications.

Operating at 125V, the new module can

store more energy per unit volume, deliver

more power per unit volume and weight and

last longer than any other commercially

available ultracapacitor solution.

The HTM module is based around 2.7V

BOOSTCAP MC3000 Power cells rated at

3,000F which have a very low internal resist-

ance, which results in excellent efficiency

during charging and discharging. Up to 12

modules may be linked in series to deliver a

total of us much as 1,500V. Balancing inter-

connectivity between modules is fully inte-

grated within the module and requires no

additional hardware, to help with system

design.

A key factor in the energy storage system is

thermal management. With efficient cooling,

higher continuous currents are possible with-

out compromising reliability. The dimensions

and design of the 125V module were chosen

for best efficiency and cooling behavior

when operated at very high currents of up to

150A continuous and 750A peak. This com-

pares to a maximum continuous current of

90A with Maxwell’s 48V ultracapacitor mod-

ule, an increase of 70%. This means that a

much higher charge/discharge power can be

delivered.

The module design ensures that there is

only a 3°C temperature rise above ambient

at maximum continuous current. The layout

of the module results in a very stable tem-

perature distribution over all cells in the

module, and this results in greater reliability

and longer life. Integrated temperature moni-

toring is achieved with six thermistors.

C A P A C I T O R S

32 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Energy Storage for

Hybrid Power

Heavy Transportation

The hybrid electric car is today a familiar concept, and can already be seen on Europe’sroads. There are clear benefits of having an electric motor working with an internal com-bustion engine, with an energy storage device allowing start-stop operation and the re-use of energy absorbed when braking. Fuel consumption and pollution are both lower,

and the car can also have a stronger performance at low speeds where the electric motorhelps the main engine.

by Adrian Schneuwly, Maxwell Technologies

Figure 1: HTM module

In addition to managing high current, the

module is built to withstand the harsh envi-

ronments and extremely demanding duty

cycles that are typical with heavy transporta-

tion applications. The HTM module is

designed to perform reliably through one mil-

lion or more deep charge/discharge cycles,

which equates to 150,000 hours or more

than 15 years of operational life. It is under-

going extensive testing against rigorous

transportation industry standards

Proprietary material science and packaging

technology are reducing manufacturing cost,

so that the price of the modules competes

favourably with other energy storage

designs. The HTM module is sealed from the

elements in a rugged, splash-proof, IP 65-

compliant, aluminium chassis, and weighs

less than 50kg.

Application examples

As well as braking recuperation, energy stor-

age can also be used to help meet peak

power demands. Combination with batteries

is also an option if high power and pure

electric driving is required.

Ultracapacitors have been proven over a

number of years in transportation applica-

tions worldwide. In one example, ISE

Corporation has used Maxwell’s ultracapaci-

tors in its hybrid electric buses, which oper-

ate e.g. in the US cities of Elk Grove and

Long Beach.

The systems have functioned reliably at tem-

peratures from –25°C to 45°C. The

response of the drive system is significantly

better than that of a standard

bus and fuel economy is

improved through the efficient

capture of more braking energy.

Preliminary data indicates the

average fuel efficiency of a bus

with an ISE ultracapacitor-based

hybrid-electric drive system is

significantly better than a bus

with a competitive battery-based

hybrid-electric drive systems

and a bus with a standard drive

system.

In this application, there were

several key advantages of ultra-

capacitors as compared to bat-

teries. Firstly, they function well

in cold weather, down to –40°

Celsius, whereas without heat-

ing, batteries do not operate

well below 0° degrees Celsius.

Secondly, they are extremely

safe because a pack with equal-

ization is discharged over night.

Thirdly, they have a long life

cycle, basically built to last the time of the

machine into which they are incorporated.

This means that they are maintenance-free

which ultimately results in costs-savings.

Fourthly, they are more efficient than batter-

ies; up to 95% as compared to an average

of below 70% for batteries in this application.

Ultracapacitors are also very environmental-

ly-friendly as they are 70% recyclable and

do not include any heavy metals which are

detrimental to the environment. Lastly, and

maybe most importantly, ultracapacitors offer

up to 10 times the power of batteries and in

terms of acceleration of a vehicle, this plays

an important role.

As well as transportation, the new HTM

module is well-suited to industrial applica-

tions including cranes, which can also bene-

fit from rapid energy storage through braking

energy recapture. This allows them to use a

smaller diesel engine, reducing fuel con-

sumption and emissions. There are also

multiple other diesel powered or fully electric

heavy duty vehicle applications that can uti-

lize the peak power provided by ultracapaci-

tors, such as large construction vehicles and

equipment.

Maxwell’s ultracapacitors have also been tri-

alled in light rail applications. In Germany, a

prototype vehicle developed by Bombardier

Transportation has been in passenger oper-

ation since 2003, and has demonstrated the

potential for energy savings of up to 30% as

compared to a modern regenerative light rail

vehicle. Used to store energy from braking,

the ultracapacitors go through somewhere

between 100,000 and 300,000 load cycles

per year in a typical light rail vehicle – which

means that batteries would be unsuitable for

this application. Ultracapacitors are also

lighter than a comparable battery.

www.maxwell.com

33www.bodospower.com Bodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

C A P A C I T O R S

Figure 2: ISE NewFlyer bus in Long Beach

Figure 3: Bombardier MITRAC EnergySaver, light rail application

Portable products are fuelling the race

towards more sophisticated functionality in

smaller form factors leading to ever increas-

ing demands on power densities of on board

power converters and batteries. Important

factors for the battery are system run time

on a single charge, the time taken to

recharge, low self discharge and the number

of charge discharge cycles it is capable of

before it comes to the end of its useful life.

The proliferation of portable devices has

reinforced the need for small batteries with

high volumetric and gravimetric energy den-

sities. This has led to lithium-ion and lithium-

polymer becoming the most popular battery

chemistries.

The increasing problems concerning the

recall of Li Ion battery packs by battery sup-

pliers has highlighted the need for protection

measures within the packs. In a correctly

designed battery pack there are a number of

levels of protection. Some are within the

individual cells and the others form part of

the battery protection circuit that protects the

battery pack as a whole. The requirement

for high energy density in mobile computing

applications means that parallel/series com-

binations of Lithium Ion cells are used. The

preferred chemistry uses a cobalt based

positive electrode to maximise energy densi-

ty but this is achieved at the expense of

safety of the battery.

Within the cell a separator membrane is

designed to perform a reset-table over tem-

perature function. Other forms of protection

within each cell are pressure relief vents that

acts to relieve minor over pressure within the

cell, a non reset-table over pressure cut out

that permanently open circuits the battery in

the case of extreme over pressure and and

a self reseting thermal interrupt to prevent

overcurrent or overcharging. Contamination

within the cells when being manfactured can

cause some of these safety mechanisms to

become inoperative. The recent recalls of

Lithium Ion batteries were due contamination

issues.

The major difference between in the con-

struction of a Lithium Ion Prismatic cell and a

Cylindrical Lithium Ion cell is the material

used for the positive electrode. The Lithium

Ion Prismatic cell has a positive electrode

made from manganese dioxide which has a

three dimensional spinal structure. The

spinal electrode is inherently safer but this is

at the expense of a reduction in capacity.

The Lithium Ion battery has a cobalt elec-

trode that results in the greater energy den-

sity. Over charging a cobalt electrode

Lithium Ion cell can cause a safety risk

because metallic lithium is produced, where

as an overcharge in a spinal cell only causes

overheating. Small spinal packs are used in

lower power consuming devices such as

mobile phones because the lower energy

requirement allows lower energy density to

be traded against improved battery safety.

The lithium Ion Polymer (Lithium Polymer)

cell differs from the other two Lithium Ion

batteries in that the electrolyte is in the form

of a gel instead of a liquid impregnated in a

separator. The similarities in Lithium-ion and

lithium-polymer chemistries allow the same

B A T T E R Y M A N A G E M E N T

34 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

MOSFET based Battery

Protection Systems

Board real estate is critical in portable equipment

The proliferation of portable devices within the connected-consumerage places ever-increasing demands on both efficient power manage-ment as well as battery protection that guarantees safety through the

life-time of the product.

By Ashfaq Afzal, Product Marketing Manager, NXP Semiconductors andDes Beckford, Senior Applications Engineer, NXP Semiconductors

Figure 1 Schematic circuit for a typical Lithium battery pack for a cell phone using eitherTSSOP8, bare die form, or nanoPAK based protection MOSFETs

PMWD20UN

35www.bodospower.com Bodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

charging methods to be used. The batteries are charged by firstly

applying a constant current followed by a constant voltage. At the

beginning of a full charge cycle when the terminal voltage is low, the

battery is charged at a constant current with a value of 0.5C or less

until the terminal voltage of the cell reaches a value of 4.20Volts.

The charger then switches to constant voltage mode and will main-

tain this voltage across the battery terminals until the charge current

reaches 0.03C at which point the charge is terminated, at this point

the battery is fully charged.

Lithium Ion battery cells have an extremely low self-discharge. A

contributor to the self discharge of the Lithium Ion battery is the bat-

tery monitoring circuit that is needed to provide the second level of

protection. The protection circuit prevents the cell voltage from

exceeding a predefined level on charge and below a predefined level

on discharge. The pack temperature is also monitored and back-to-

back mosfets in the power line provide a reset-table electronic cut

out of the charge or discharge if a fault condition is detected. The

thresholds are set to lower levels than those within the cell because

all of the electronics protections are designed to self reset once the

fault has been cleared. The gate source leakage current (Igss) of

the protection mosfet contributes towards the quiescent current of

the protection circuit, therefore a mosfet with as low a gate leakage

current as is possible should be chosen. The NXP Semiconductors

PMK30EP quotes a maximum value of Igss of 100nA although typi-

cally values of less than a fifth of this are measured on actual

devices.

MOSFETs for Cell Phone Battery Pack

Figure 1 shows a typical protection circuit used within a lithium bat-

tery pack containing a safety IC and two back-to-back n-channel pro-

tection MOSFETs, such as the common drain PMWD20UN in

TSSOP8 package. Because board real estate is critical in portable

equipment, this has led to a demand for smaller and smaller foot-

prints. It follows, that as the batteries get smaller, the individual com-

ponents within the protection boards will have to follow the same

trend. The key requirement from battery pack manufacturers is to

have the lowest RDSon in the smallest package to maximise battery

life. With this in mind, NXP offers a battery pack protection solution

with three options: TSSOP8 outline, bare die form and nanoPAK. The

nanoPAK range from NXP Semiconductors reclaims more board

space by eliminating the leads whilst enhancing thermal performance

to provide an advanced solution in today’s space constrained and

power hungry portable applications. The nanoPAK alternative

addresses the low thermal impedance requirement as the die attach

pad is exposed to provide a direct, low-resistance thermal path to the

substrate on which the device is mounted, which means the thermal

path is via a large copper pad rather than the leads.

MOSFETs for Notebook Battery Pack

Notebook battery packs consist of a number

of cells connected parallel/series. The series

connection is used to provide a higher volt-

age, whilst the parallel connection provides

higher capacity. The protection devices with-

in a notebook battery pack are two p chan-

nel MOSFETS such as the PMK30EP from

NXP. Similar to the cell phone battery pack

operation, one MOSFET enables the charg-

ing of the pack, while the other MOSFET

enables discharging. When both MOSFETs

are off, the cells are isolated from the exter-

nal environment to protect the battery.

www.nxp.com

B A T T E R Y M A N A G E M E N T

Figure 2 Schematic circuit for a typical Lithium battery pack for notebook using either SO8 ornanoPAK based protection MOSFETs

www.we-online.com

EMC Components

Inductors

Transformers

RF-Components

Press-Fit Technology

WERI Connectors

Fastener Technology

Magnetically shielded and

non-shielded Power Chokes

for switching regulators

Recommended by leadingIC-manufacturers

REFERENCE-DESIGNS

DELIEVERYEX STOCK

SAMPLES &BELOW MOQ

more than you expect

A diode-OR circuit, as shown in Figure 1, is

often the accepted solution to combining the

inputs to a single output. If the two power

sources are identical, a diode-OR circuit is

not a bad solution, but it may not be the best

option if the two power sources have differ-

ent voltages (e.g., 12V and 24V).

If increased power capability is the goal via

power sharing of two different sources, a

diode-OR circuit will have hard time balanc-

ing the currents of the two sources. Slightly

different voltage drops in diode-OR circuit

can produce large current imbalance

between the two power sources, which may

overload one power source while preventing

the second source from providing any power

to the load. To remedy the imbalance, cur-

rent-balancing resistors may be required,

which results in additional power loss and

decreased system efficiency.

This simple load sharing diode-OR circuit

requires current sharing resistors in order to

balance the currents of two sources. The

added resistors present a heat dissipation

problem and related efficiency hit in high

power circuits.

An efficient and space-conscious solution is

to use an active current sharing circuit in the

form of a power converter. A power convert-

er can provide both load current balancing

and regulation, precluding the need for

another regulator.

The circuit discussed here is a boost con-

verter, but the underlying design principle

can be applied to other topologies—such as

buck, boost, flyback and SEPIC—to satisfy

various input and output specifications.

130W to 260W Base Station Boost

Converter With Dual Power Source

Figure 2 illustrates an active current sharing

boost converter that can deliver 130W of

output power from a either of two redundant

12V power sources, or 260W by load shar-

ing the two 12V power sources. The circuit

can also generate 260W from single 12V

power source if inputs A and B are tied

together.

The centerpiece of the design is the LT3782

current mode PWM controller. Current mode

operation ensures balanced current sharing

between the two power sources, even if the

sources have different voltages. Current bal-

ancing improves efficiency of the entire sys-

tem by allowing each power source to oper-

ate at lower power level where the efficiency

is typically higher. The current balance is

achieved by choosing appropriate values of

the two current sense resistors, RCS1 and

RCS2 in Figure 2, to provide relatively more

power from the supply with higher output

power rating. For example, the currents can

be programmed to provide 25% of output

power from a 5V source and 75% from a

12V source.

This 95% efficient, 28V base station power

converter can operate from redundant power

sources.

The circuit in Figure 2 can be powered from

either input A or input B. The only condition

P O W E R M A N A G E M E N T

36 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Dual Input Boost Converter

Shares Power from Two Inputs

Current mode operation ensures balanced current sharing

Multiple power sources are often used by high power applications for load sharing (for high power) or redundancy (for high availability).

By Goran Perica, Linear Technology

Figure 1. Diode-OR circuit

Figure 2. Powered from either input A or input B

is that at least one of the inputs is greater

than 10V, which is required for biasing of

PWM controller circuit U1. Diodes D3 and

D4 provide the diode-OR function for biasing

of controller U1. The bias power for con-

troller U1 can also be provided by a sepa-

rate power source. In that case, theoretically,

the circuit could regulate with inputs down to

0V. In practice, the lowest required input

voltage depends on the control circuit’s max-

imum duty cycle and output voltage. The cir-

cuit in Figure 2 can produce 28V of output

voltage from 2V input. However, the higher

input current at 2V input will result in lower

available output power.

The converter in Figure 2 peaks at 95% effi-

ciency when operating from two inputs.

The efficiency of this converter (Figure 3) is

high enough that it can be built entirely with

surface mount components, without the

need for heat sinks. In a 130W, redundant

supply application, the power dissipation of

8.4W should be relatively easy to manage;

but for 260W application, the circuit’s power

dissipation of 17W needs more attention. A

well laid out large multilayer PCB with some

forced airflow should be sufficient to keep

the components cool.

The simple switching power converter shown

here can be used to boost one of two redun-

dant supplies, or it can be used to combine

the supplies for high power output. Either

way, the result is an efficient and compact

circuit, better than a diode-OR circuit, which

would dissipate additional power.

www.linear.com

www.bodospower.com

Figure 3. High efficiency allows surfacemount components, without the need forheat sinks.

Your EmbeddedDrive Solution

Tyco Electronics, Power Systems is one of the market leaders

in the field of Power Modules and Solid State Relays for

applications such as motor drives, power supplies, welding

machines, and soft starters. The product portfolio includes

standard IGBT and rectifier modules in PIM, Six Packs, H- and

half bridge configuration as well as IPM and PFC solutions

covering a wide range of up to 600V/600A and 1200V/450A.

flowPIM 0+P

Main features:W PIM module with

PFC stage, PFC shunts,

DC capacitor

W Up to 200kHz PFC switching frequency

W Clip-in PCB mounting

Applications:W Pumps

W Fans

W Air conditioning

Tyco Electronics Power Systems Finsinger Feld 1 85521 Ottobrunn, Germany Tel.: +49 (0)89 6089 830 Fax: +49 (0)89 6089 833 em.customerservice@tycoelectronics.comwww.em.tycoelectronics.com

Power Module with PFC Stage

By using transfer-molded package with DBC

substrate, power density can be increased

and various circuit topologies such as 3-

phase inverter, SRM drives and power factor

correction can be implemented in one pack-

age. Also advanced and application-needs-

matched power chips and driver ICs improve

performance and reliability of the system.

This paper presents state-of-art technology

implemented in the SPM from the viewpoint

of device, package and system configura-

tion.

Companies that serve the home appliance

and low-power industrial market are increas-

ingly moving away from vertical integration

of their manufacturing to focus on their core

competencies, such as brand development,

customer service, and logistics. Integrating

discrete power semiconductors and drivers

into one package allows them to reduce the

time and effort spent on design, ensuring

they have a solid power electronics section

in their appliance. This integration enables

these companies to accelerate their products

time-to-market, bringing innovation to their

end customers faster.

One aspect driving the need for innovation is

the existence of longer term energy saving

initiatives, which are forcing the adoption of

inverter drive technology. Different types of

appliances use different drive solutions, so

each type of system has different power

stage requirements, in terms of both circuit

topology and power levels. This article

shows a number of examples where different

devices can be successfully integrated into

one module to satisfy these diverse needs.

From 1999, when the SPM(Smart Power

Module) series was first developed, to the

present, Fairchild has developed various

SPM series with the power range of 50W

~7kW in consumer appliances and low

power general industry applications [1]. This

article will detail the SPM design concept

and its implementation of semiconductor

(power devices and control ICs), package

and system technology.

Power Devices

As a result of IGBT technology improve-

ments, the series of SPM has been able to

be upgraded since the unveiling of its first

version into the industrial market.

With the introduction of sub-micron design

rule, the reduction of chip size is accelerated

while the current density significantly

increases. A better trade-off performance

relationship between the turn off loss and

on-state voltage drop while ensuring the

adequate SOA has been realized in the lat-

est version of IGBT chips. Figure 1 shows

how much improvement has been made for

IGBT technolo-

gies. It is appar-

ent that V5

IGBT will deliver

exceptional

device perform-

ance, which

enlarges power

capacity with the

smaller pack-

age.

Need for low

power loss oper-

ation often

requests fast

switching speed,

which results in

an increased recovery current and high

dv/dt. It attributes to large EMI (electromag-

netic interference), high surge voltages and

motor leakage currents. During the develop-

ment of SPM series, the EMI problem has

been taken into account and the gate drive

was optimally designed to control switching

loss of the integrated IGBTs at the cost of

the high switching loss. Thanks to the low

on-state voltage drop of IGBT, total power

loss can be remained the same while realiz-

ing low EMI characteristics. The typical dv/dt

characteristics of SPM are shown in Figure

2. The turn-on and turn-off dv/dt is lower

than 5kV/us under its rated current.

In addition, for better ESD protection, poly

silicon back-to-back diodes between the

gate and emitter are employed with the suffi-

cient clamping voltage. The ESD level of

HBM 2.5kV and MM 300V is obtained with

chip area 2350 x 2350 um^2. Employing the

integrated protection diodes, all SPM prod-

ucts meet the industrial standard ESD level.

M O T I O N C O N T R O L

38 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

State of the Art of Smart Power

Modules

Transfer-molded package with DBC substrate

Intelligent power modules with transfer-molded package are a current trend in low power motor drives both in consumer appliances and general industrial applications.

Fairchild SPM(Smart Power Module) covering power range of 0.05 ~ 7kW has established its dominant position thanks to its compactness, functionality, reliability and

cost-effective performance.

By Dae-Woong Chung and Bum-Seok Suh, SPM R&D Group,Fairchild Semiconductor

Figure 1. IGBT improvement in SPM building.

Driver ICs

HVIC and LVIC are designed with minimum

necessary functions especially suitable for

the inverter drives of consumer appliances

due to cost effectiveness. Design considera-

tions include chip downsizing by fine process

technology, active-high interface for direct

drive by a 3V feed micro controller, low

power consumption, increased noise immu-

nity, good stability against temperature varia-

tion and so on.

One feature of HVIC is its built-in high volt-

age level shifting function which enables the

PWM input from micro controller to be direct-

ly transferred to high side power device as

shown in Figure 3. In addition, by using

external charge reversing capacitors, SPM

can be driven by a single control supply.

On the other hand, HVIC is sensitive to

external noise since its signal is transferred

by pulse signal and SR latch [2]. High dv/dt

switching of driven IGBT, especially, is the

most dangerous type for this kind of pulse

driven HVIC. Assuming the parasitic capaci-

tance of the LDMOS seen at the drain is CM

and the on-dv/dt of high side IGBT is dVS/dt,

CM must be charged with the large current,

CM*dVS/dt, for the LDMOS drain voltage to

follow the fast changing VB voltage which is

coupled to VS by bootstrap capacitor CBS.

The large charging current makes excessive

voltage drop on R1 and R2 to abnormally

trigger the S-R latch.

M O T I O N C O N T R O L

39www.bodospower.com Bodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Figure 2. Switching dv/dt characteristics. (Vpn=300V, Vcc=15V, 25deg, 20A rated current)

0 5 10 15 201.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5 HS ON HS OFF LS ON LS OFF

dv/d

t [kV

/us]

IGBT Collector Current, Ic [A]

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To overcome noise

sensitivity, noise can-

celler with unique

topology has been

developed as shown

in Figure 3 [3]. The

V/I converter converts

the level shifter’s out-

puts to the current

information. For the

common-mode noise,

which has high dv/dt,

the V/I converter

gives same outputs.

Whereas, the V/I con-

verter outputs are dif-

ferent from each

other for normal oper-

ation, as only one of

two LDMOSs oper-

ates at a normal level

shifter operation. Thus, it is not difficult to

determine whether the V/I converter output

is due to noise or not. Once the noise can-

celler recognizes a common-mode noise

intrusion, it absorbs the current outputs of

the V/I converter. Then, an I/V converter

reconstructs the voltage signal, which swings

between VB and VS supply rails from the

current outputs of the V/I converter. Finally,

the amplified signal is sent to the S-R latch.

Another merit of V/I and I/V conversion is

that the allowable negative VS voltage is no

longer governed by the threshold level of the

circuit. Owing to its unique topology,

Fairchild HVIC demonstrates good noise

immunity against high dv/dt noise up to

50V/nsec and allows an extended negative

operation up to VS=-10V @ VBS=15V

approximately.

LVIC takes responsibility of all protection

functions and its feedback to micro con-

troller. Its protection circuit monitors control

supply voltage, LVIC temperature and the

IGBT collector current with external shunt

resistor, and interrupts the operation of the

IGBTs at fault situations. The related items

should be independent of temperature and

supply voltage. As an example, Table 1

shows the detection voltage level of over-

current protection in LVIC.

The fault signal is used to inform the system

controller if the protection functions have

been activated. The fault signal output is in

an active low open collector configuration. It

is normally pulled up to 3.3V to 15V via a

pull-up resistor. When a fault occurs the fault

line pulls low and all the gates of the lowside

IGBTs are interrupted. If the fault is caused

by over current, the output asserts a pulse

and is then automat-

ically reset. The pre-

ferred low signal

time duration

depends on its appli-

cations. For exam-

ple, several millisec-

onds are preferred in

home appliances,

but one or two times

of IGBT switching

frequency is pre-

ferred in an industri-

al application. SPM’s

LVIC offers external

capacitor to set this

time duration

according to various

demands.

Bootstrap diode

In addition to basic three-phase inverter

topology, more integration is one of chal-

lenge to semiconductor companies. The con-

straint is not technical issue but limited cost

and package size. From this point of view,

bootstrap diode seems to be good candi-

dates for the integration. Actually there have

been several products in the market which

has built-in bootstrap diode, but its approach

is slightly different in technical viewpoint.

One of them is using high voltage junction

termination area on the HVIC as a bootstrap

diode. Its application is limited to the small

power rating under 100W since this

approach shows large forward drop voltage

and poor dynamics. Around 400W, the dis-

crete FRD is used as a bootstrap diode but

due to its limited package size, there is no

series resistor (RBS) and therefore need

special treatment for large charging current

particularly at the initial charging period.

Most popular one for over 400W applications

is the combination of discrete FRD and dis-

crete resistor. The only demerit of this

approach is its large space and correspon-

ding cost-up.

In SPM development, newly designed boot-

strap diode has been adopted and its design

target is small chip size and moderate for-

ward voltage drop in order to have equiva-

lent effect of series resistor 20 Ohm. As

shown in Figure 4, its voltage drop charac-

teristics is equivalent to the series resistor

and general FRD. By virtue of this special-

ized bootstrap diode, more integration is

accomplished while keeping the cost-up as

its minimum.

M O T I O N C O N T R O L

40 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Figure.3. High-side driver configuration.

VILVIHIN

I-Vconv

NoiseCanceller

V-Iconv

CM

High Voltage Junction Termination

S

R

Q

VCC

INPUTDETECTOR

EDGE PULSEGENERATOR

HIGH VOLTAGELDMOS

COM

VS

VB

HO

CBS

DBSRBS

VBUS

R1 R2

Table 1. Over-current detection level of LVIC (0.5V typ).

13.5V 15V 16.5V

-25 492mV 492mV 492mV25 495mV 495mV 495mV

100 496mV 496mV 496mV

-25 491mV 491mV 492mV25 497mV 497mV 496mV

100 499mV 499mV 499mV

-25 492mV 492mV 491mV25 495mV 495mV 495mV

100 497mV 496mV 496mV

-25 502mV 501mV 501mV25 503mV 503mV 503mV

100 502mV 501mV 501mV

#3

#4

devicesupply voltage

degree C

#1

#2

European Headquarters - The Netherlands. Tel: EU +31 (0) 35 5380684 • D +49-4101-803-230 • UK +44-1908-263663

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Package

The principal factor of developing SPM’s

package was to improve cost-to-perform-

ance ratio while improving package reliability

like thermal cycling and power cycling. It

resulted into transfer molded package tech-

nology, which had been used for ICs and

LSIs products, to be used in power module.

Comparing to a conventional power module

with a plastic or epoxy resin case, the SPM

has relatively simple structure: power chips

and ICs are mounted on the copper lead

frame, the substrate material is attached to

the frame, and finally molded into epoxy

resin.

Thermal dissipation is important issue in

package design because it determines the

limit of power capability of the module. And it

has strong trade-off relationship to the isola-

tion characteristics. Transfer molded SPM

series are using several kinds of isolation

substrate according to its power rating and

applications as shown in Table 2. By virtue

of flexible substrate availability, 600V 3A to

30A power rating can be implemented in

Mini-DIP SPM while maintaining PCB foot-

print and price competitiveness as shown in

Figure 5.In addition to higher reliability and

thermal performance, patterning flexibility is

another merit of DBC(Direct Bonded

Copper) substrate. It makes it possible to

provide derivative products for versatile

application such as power factor correction,

switched reluctance motor, where only DBC

is changed and other package element is

maintained.

There were a few technical issues to be

overcome for DBC high productivity: multi

chip mounting and joining technology with

DBC substrate and lead frame were devel-

oped using screen printing, multi chip mount-

ing and conveyor belt reflow and flux clean-

ing process. Solder void near zero was

acquired by reflow profile condition increas-

ing temperature slope between melting

zones and optimized solder material and

screen print mask design. The copper thick-

ness of DBC substrate was optimized by fit-

ting package warpage by both simulation

and experiment.

Synthetic technology including power device,

driver IC, packaging and system optimization

is required in SPM design under cost con-

straint. For actual mass production, assem-

bly and testing are also of big importance.

Today, the SPM has positioned itself as

strong inverter solution in low power motor

drives, which will be accelerated more and

more.

Reference

[1] S.I. Yong and B.S. Suh, “Smart Power

Module – Powering the Motion”, Power

Systems Design Europe, Sep., 2004, pp. 12-

17.

[2] J.B.Lee, B.C. Cho, D.W. Chung and

B.S.Suh, “Design of a High-side Gate Driver

using a Mini-SPM”, IPEC 2005

[3] Jong-Tae Hwang, “High Noise Immunity

High-Side Gate Driver IC”, Power Systems

Design Europe, May 2005, pp.24-28.

www.fairchildsemi.com

42 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Figure 4. Forward drop voltage of built-in bootstrap diode.

Table 2. Package substrate for SPM series

Thermal resistance@ die area =

4000x4000 um^2Full pack Epoxy, 500um 150% Tiny-DIP SPM

IMS Epoxy, 100um 110% SIP SPMCeramic Al2O3, 1mm 100% (reference) Mini-DIP SPM

Mini-DIP SPM, DIP-SPM, PFC-SPM, SRM-SPM

DBC type II AlN, 0.635mm 40% Mini-DIP SPM, DIP-SPM

Substrate Isolation Layer Applied to

DBC type I Al2O3, 0.635mm

70%

Figure 5. SPM product family’s thermal resistance between junction and case according to dif-ferent current rating.

M O T I O N C O N T R O L

2007Call for Papers

12th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications

2 - 5 September 2007Aalborg, Denmark

http://www.epe2007.com/

AALBORG

The Korean Institute of Power ElectronicsJournal of Power Electronics (JPE)

The Consumer Electronics (CE) Market in

general and especially the segments that

have a need for storing big amounts of data

have become one of the fastest growing

electronic market segments today. Typical

consumer applications which use small form

factor hard disk drives for storage are

portable MP3 and video players, digital cam-

eras, portable game consoles and – in the

near future – mobile phones. In 2006 ship-

ments of disk drives with 1.8” form factor

and below have amounted to 30M units.

Being a long-term leader in disk drive and

system-on-chip solutions, STM has recog-

nized the potential of this market segment

and is designing ICs specifically optimized

for small disk drives.

A recent example is the L7208 hard disk

drive (HDD) Motor Controller. Announced by

STM a month ago, it is a compact and highly

integrated device designed for 1.8 inch and

sub-1.8 inch drives used in portable con-

sumer electronics products. Drawing from its

experience as the market leader in HDD

motor controller devices and its accumulated

know-how, STM is well positioned to profit

from the predicted strong growth in this up-

and-coming market segment.

However, besides being one of the most

promising market segments for HDD manu-

facturers, the CE segment also poses its

own unique challenges. That’s where the

L7208 shows its real strength.

The first challenge for every portable system

is battery life. An electronic system in a

portable device needs to be supplied by a

battery; and for such a system to function as

long as possible, it is mandatory to maximize

the battery life. This can be achieved by

either improving the battery capacity itself or

by reducing the power consumption of the

electronic system - or both. For manufactur-

ers of electronic systems

in CE applications low

power consumption is the

highest priority. STM has

recognized this trend also

in HDD applications and

has chosen a multi-

pronged approach.

First, the L7208 is boast-

ing extremely high effi-

ciency regulators reduc-

ing the needed power

during normal HDD oper-

ation. At the same time

different idle and sleep modes help to

reduce power consumption even further

when the HDD is not used in the application.

In one special sleep mode all functions of

the electronic system can be shut down and

only a tiny amount of logic is kept alive to

monitor possible user commands that

require to wake up the system. In addition,

the voice-coil driver can operate in both lin-

ear and PWM (pulse-width modulation)

modes, enabling further significant power

savings.

A fourth feature that is extremely useful in

portable battery-operated devices is the pos-

sibility to work with a variable supply voltage.

While a battery supplies energy to the sys-

tem, its voltage is slowly decreasing, even

long before the battery is fully de-charged.

The L7208 is fully functional at supply volt-

ages from 5.5V down to 2.7V and thus

extends the ‘mileage’ of one battery charge

significantly.

Equally important as low power consumption

is a small package size in CE applications.

Understandably, space has a premium in

systems that are trying to fit e.g. complex

multimedia functions, HDD storage, and cell

phone functionality into the size of a candy

bar.

Taking this into consideration, the L7208 is

packaged in STM’s proprietary ultra-thin

UFLGA package with only 0.55mm height.

The L7208 further reduces the space

required for the overall HDD electronics by

integrating all of the circuits needed to con-

trol and drive the HDD spindle motor and

voice coil actuator – including all the neces-

sary power FET devices –and most of the

external passive components. As a bonus, a

low external component count also means

lower overall system cost and increased sys-

tem reliability.

The third challenge for portable small form

factor HDD systems is to safely park the

read/write head on the ramp when the exter-

nal power supply is lost. In 3.5” and 2.5”

drives the rotational energy stored in the

spinning disk can be exploited to move the

head away from the data area to a safe

position by using the spindle motor as a gen-

erator. However on 1.8” and 1” drives the

disks are much smaller and their rotational

energy is not sufficient to move the heads.

That’s why the L7208 uses a high voltage

capacitor as energy storage to supply the

needed voltage when the external supply

fails and the integrated constant-voltage

retract function can safely park the head.

M O T I O N C O N T R O L

44 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

Highly-Integrated Hard-Disk

Drive Motor Controller

Maximizing battery life in portable consumer products

Ultra-thin hard-disk drive Motor Controller integrates all necessary power FETs and isoptimized for 1.8 inch and sub-1.8 inch consumer equipment drives

By Steffen Grahlmann, STMicroelectronics

The L7208 includes ST’s respected Smooth

Drive® pseudo-sinusoidal digital-drive tech-

nique for minimizing acoustic noise from the

spindle motor, an important feature for CE

applications where quiet operation is essen-

tial, and a free-fall sensor interface.

The class AB output stage has zero dead

band and minimal crossover distortion, and

the power FETs can deliver up to 0.5A peak

current. The voice-coil section includes a 14-

bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for cur-

rent commands and a sense-amplifier gain

switch.

In addition to the Smooth Drive feature, the

spindle motor section includes circuits for

spindle current limiting, start up position

sensing and spindle braking during power

down. A dedicated analog-to-digital converter

(ADC) compensates for power supply varia-

tions with no external components.

The L7208 is register controlled, and con-

nects to the host system through a serial bus

running at up to 50MHz. Auxiliary functions

integrated on the chip include an internal

isolation FET, a 10-bit ADC, programmable

linear regulator, programmable positive and

negative switching regulators, a shock sen-

sor circuit and monitors for all voltage levels.

The chip is produced using ST’s field-proven

Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) technology,

which combines digital circuits, precision

bipolar analog circuits and high-efficiency

power FETs on the same piece of silicon.

The current BCD6 process allows for a

strong reduction in the area density of digital

circuitry. Logic density is typically 15000

gates/mm2. Because of this process advan-

tage, ST is using digital power processing

techniques and replacing most analog cir-

cuitry with digital logic, thus achieving very

low die sizes.

Aside from a reduction in chip size, digital

designs also offer shorter design cycle times

and significantly improved performance. The

possibility of using automated design tools is

what results in shorter design times. It is

possible to completely simulate the device

before starting the silicon design phase by

transferring the VHDL description of the digi-

tal circuit into an FPGA in order to emulate

the chip. Furthermore, it is possible to simu-

late and run the application using the FPGA

in a customer’s board. Once the functionality

of the chip is approved, the silicon design

phase starts. Debugging of digital logic is a

lot easier than analog circuitry, and scan-test

techniques may be applied as well.

The Smooth Drive solution is a well estab-

lished digital technique developed by ST

to control a HDD’s spindle speed. Since

the implementation of the Smooth Drive is

mostly in digital logic, the used die size -

even for its complex functionality - is mini-

mal. No external components are required

by this digital system, leading to a robust

solution with low system cost.

In many motor-control systems today,

torque ripple creates a rate of change in

the angular acceleration. This excites the

mechanical assembly’s structural reso-

nances and generates acoustic noise. It

becomes especially apparent in disk

drives where the spindle motors are driv-

en by six-step switched waveforms with

the step commutations producing torque

ripple. However, ST’s Smooth Drive logic

applies three sinusoidal currents, spaced

120° apart, in the motor winding. The step

commutations do not show up, resulting

in zero torque ripple. A constant torque

eliminates torque ripple, making it easier

to follow the tracks in HDDs. It also signif-

icantly reduces the acoustic noise gener-

ated by the motor. The noise reduction

comes from a decreased mechanical

vibration which, in other approaches, is

generated by the changes in torque.

ST’s Smooth Drive concept uses a digital

approach to controlling the output cur-

rents. The sinusoidal output current is

formed by using amplitude modulation

and a pulse-width converter. In order to

produce a really sinusoidal output current,

a conversion table is stored in the memo-

ry of the control logic. This table contains

specific voltage profiles for every motor,

resulting in sinusoidal currents. To gain

the relevant individual values of the con-

version table, every motor-type’s charac-

teristics are sampled and then stored.

The sinusoidal driving approach used in

the Smooth Drive technique also allows

reduced EMI. It is widely known that, due

to high-order harmonics, sudden changes

in the current produce EMI. Using a sinu-

soidal driving approach instead of the six-

step mode significantly decreases EMI.

ST’s HDD motor controller family also

includes the L7207, which is firmware

compatible with the L7208 and is

designed both for the 5V drives made for

mobile applications such as laptop com-

puters, and for 12V desktop computer

drives.

www.st.com

www.bodospower.com

M O T I O N C O N T R O L

Smaller lines/spaces

Combines power andlogic on one DBCsubstrate

Lower assembly cost

Minimizing of thermalstress, due to closeCTE to silicon

Excellent thermalconductivity

Applications:

High density power circuits,large area die packaging,...

Applications:

Lower power drives,automotive, DC-DC,...

Smaller module size

Fineline DBC

Substrates

AlN DBC

Substrates

email: ec-info@electrovac.comhttp://www.electrovac.com

Electrovac curamik GmbH

46 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

N E W P R O D U C T S

Designers of small, compact or portable

electronic equipment trying to pack lots of

functionality into their layouts for printed cir-

cuit boards (PCB’s) will find the new low-pro-

file DR331-5 Surface Mount Inductor from

Datatronic Distribution, Inc., offers outstand-

ing EMI protection performance and reliabili-

ty in a miniature package.

The tiny DR331-5 surface mount inductor

stands a mere 1-mm (0.39 inch) tall and is

only 6.70 (w) -x- 5.60 (l) mm (0.263-x-0.220

inches). These inductors are ideal for a

wide range of portable, compact and minia-

ture devices, such as PDAs, mobile phones,

portable hard drives, medical appliances,

bar code scanners—wherever high-den-

sity circuit board design is a require-

ment.

To protect critical circuits from the dan-

gers of EMI, the DR331-5 surface mount

inductor features a wide inductance

range from 1.2 to 330 uH, +20 percent.

The DCR range is 0.08 to 15 ohms max-

imum, and the current rating is 2.1 to

0.13 amps. They operate over a wide

temperature range from -40 to +85ºC,

making them suitable for use in many

rugged environments.www.datatronics.com

Low-Profile Surface Mount Inductors

STMicroelectronics introduced a single

chip (Combo IC) which integrates a

Power Factor Corrector (PFC) with a

half-bridge controller and all the relevant

drivers and logic for an electronic ballast

IC for fluorescent lamps. Combining

these functions on a single IC allows

ST’s new L6585 to generate more light

from less energy, while ensuring full

compliance with safety and power con-

sumption regulations.

The L6585 one-chip solution, in fact, is

the first on the market to enable EOL

(End-of-Life) detection in either ”lamp-to-

ground” or ”block capacitor-to-ground” bal-

last configurations. For the first time, manu-

facturers can choose how to design their

application to simplify board qualification and

easily pass ballast security tests.

Unlike previous solutions that require a

Combo IC and several external components

to feature EOL detection and the specific

protections required by the new types of flu-

orescent lamps, the L6585 ensures all these

necessary functions, thus eliminating the

need for external circuits, drastically reduc-

ing design time and complexity, dramatically

lowering costs, and increasing reliability.

The L6585 IC offers independently program-

mable pre-heating and ignition duration as

well as the half-bridge frequencies for each

operating phase. As a result, this one IC can

serve many different lamp types.

www.st.com/lighting

One-Chip Electronic Fluorescent Lamp Ballast

International Rectifier has introduced the

IRF6641TRPbF Power MOSFET featuring

IR’s benchmark DirectFET package technol-

ogy paired with IR’s latest 200V HEXFET

MOSFET silicon technology to achieve 95

percent efficiency.

IR’s new 200V DirectFET device is designed

for use in isolated DC-DC converter designs

operating from a universal input range (36V

to 75V). With its extremely low typical 10V

RDS(on) of 51 milliohms and reduced gate

charge, the IRF6641TRPbF is ideally suited

as a synchronous rectifier MOSFET in

high frequency, high efficiency DC-DC

converters powering high current loads,

the latest generation of intermediate bus

converters, DC motor drives, and even

48-volt inverters used to convert power

from wind turbines. It is also suitable for

synchronous rectification in high current

AC-DC converters used to power com-

puters and telecom servers operating

from a 48-volt universal input voltage

range.www.irf.com

200V DirectFET up to 95% Efficiency

Avago Technologies introduced its first

series of transmissive photointerrupters for

office automation and vending machine

applications. With the addition of the AEDS-

93XX photointerrupter series, Avago

becomes a “one-stop supplier” of motion

control solutions for manufacturers of print-

ers, scanners, and vending machines that

use both devices.

In inkjet printers and all-in-ones, optical

encoders are used to indicate the position,

direction and speed of the printhead, while

photointerrupters can provide functions such

as indicating whether there is paper in the

print path. Other applications for this non-

contact detection capability include card

detection in ATM machines, bill detection in

vending machines, and a wide variety of

other edge and position detection applica-

tions such as door sensors.

Avago’s AEDS-9300 and 9310 photointer-

rupters feature a small lead-free and RoHS-

compliant package, and are specified for

operation over the -25 C to +85 C tempera-

ture range. The dimensions and electrical

characteristics make them drop-in replace-

ments for similar interrupters from other

manufacturers.

Transmissive Photointerrupter

www.avagotech.com/motioncontrol

N E W P R O D U C T S

47www.bodospower.com Bodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

The A3992 from Allegro MicroSystems

Europe is a DMOS full-bridge microstepping

PWM motor driver integrated circuit

designed for the pulse-width-modulated

(PWM) current control of bipolar microstep-

ping stepper motors.

The new device uses a serial interface and

includes features such as overcurrent pro-

tection, synchronous rectification for low

power dissipation, programmable mixed, fast

and slow current decay modes, and low ‘on’

resistance DMOS outputs in a thermally effi-

cient surface-mount package.

The A3992 is capable of continuous output

currents up to ±1.5 A and operating voltages

up to 50 V. Internal fixed ‘off’ time PWM

current control timing circuitry can be

programmed via the serial interface to

operate in slow, fast and mixed decay

modes.

The desired load current level is set via

the serial port with two 6-bit linear digi-

tal-analogue convertors in conjunction

with a reference voltage. The six bits of

control allow maximum flexibility in

torque control for a variety of step meth-

ods, from microstepping to full-step

drive. Load current is set in 1.56% incre-

ments of the maximum value. www.allegromicro.com

DMOS Microstepping PWM Motor Driver

Efficient, miniature devices provide high cur-

rent switching for power management in

portable applications. Toshiba Electronics

Europe (TEE) has launched two new small

signal, high-efficiency p-channel MOSFETs

that combine high current switching function-

ality with low ON-resistance, low voltage

operation and ultra-compact form factors.

The new MOSFETs address requirements of

mobile phones, portable navigation systems

and other handheld devices, which are con-

stantly offering new functionalities that even-

tually lead to an increase in total power con-

sumption. This increasing load to the battery

calls for intelligent power management solu-

tions requiring very efficient MOSFETs for

load switching.

The SSM6J51TU and SSM3J120TU have

dimensions of just 2.0mm x 2.1mm x 0.7mm,

fitting on SOT-363 and SOT-323 footprints

respectively. These MOSFETs in UF6

(SSM6J51TU) and UFM (SSM3J120TU)

packages are ideal

for high-perform-

ance load switching

and power manage-

ment applications in

mobile phones or

other battery-pow-

ered applications

with severe PCB

space constraints.

Both of the new

MOSFETs will oper-

ate with gate-

source voltages

(VGS) down to just

1.5V and are rated

for DC drain and

pulse currents of up to 4A and 8A, respec-

tively. With a VGS of 1.5V, typical ON-resist-

ance (RDS(ON)) is just 60m?, falling to

below 40m? in the case of a VGS of 2.5V.

This level of performance, combined with a

maximum gate threshold voltage Vth of 1V,

make these MOSFETs ideally suited to main

power switch applications.

www.toshiba-components.com

Ultra-compact MOSFETs

Absopulse Electronics’ PFC622 is a 500W,

ruggedly constructed 6U x 220mm x 16HP

plug-in (Eurocard) module designed for shal-

low-depth applications in industrial and other

heavy-duty environments. It is rated for 24V

or 48Vdc applications and accepts a power

factor corrected universal input of 90V to

264Vac (47…420Hz). Other input/output

configurations are available upon request. A

built-in redundancy diode allows for parallel

connection or N+1 redundancy.

The PFC622 utilizes asynchronous technolo-

gy for the PFC-input stage and half-bridge

topology after the input stage. The power

factor is corrected to a minimum of 0.97 at

full load for the entire input range in compli-

ance with EN6100-3-2. It is filtered to meet

EN55022 Class A EMI requirements as a

minimum and, with additional (optional) filter-

ing, will meet Class B EMI.

This plug-in module features a module fail

alarm with an opto-coupler output, output rip-

ple/noise of less than 1% peak-to-peak,

combined line/load regulation of less than

±1% from zero load to full load, active inrush

current limiting and overvoltage protection.

Minimum efficiency is 80% at full load.

www.absopulse.com

Plug-in Module with PFC

N E W P R O D U C T S

48 www.bodospower.comBodo´s Power Systems - December 2006

ABB Entrelec 17

APEC 39

Berquist 41

Coilcraft C3

CT Concept Technologie 5

Curamik 45

Danfoss Silicon Power 31

EMC 27

EPE 43

Fairchild C2

Fuji Electric 15

Infineon/eupec 19

Infineon 23

International Rectifier C4

LEM 3

Micrel 9

National Semiconductor 11

PCIM China 13

PCIM Europe 29

Texas Instruments 7

Tyco Electronics 37

Würth Elektronik 35

ADVERTISING INDEX

Linear Technology Corporation announces

the LT3012 and LT3013, micropower LDOs

with input voltage capability up to 80V. The

LT3012 and LT3013 feature low dropout volt-

age of only 400mV while delivering up to

250mA of load current. The wide adjustable

VOUT capability from 1.24V to 60V makes

them ideal for automotive, 48V telecom

backup supplies and industrial control appli-

cations. Additionally, their very low quiescent

current as low as 40uA (operating) and 1uA

(shutdown) make them an excellent choice

for battery-powered memory “keep alive”

systems that require extended run times.

The LT3013’s Powergood flag feature is pro-

grammable and indicates output regulation.

For high voltage applications that require

large input-to-output differentials, the LT3012

and LT3013 offer a very compact and ther-

mally effective solution. The thermally

enhanced DFN and TSSOP packages pro-

vide thermal resistances comparable to

much larger conventional packages.

The LT3012 and LT3013 operate with very

small, low cost ceramic output capacitors.

They are stable with only a 3.3uF output

capacitor, compared to older regulator

devices of comparable output current and

high voltage requiring 10uF to more than

100uF. These tiny external capacitors can be

used without any necessary series resist-

ance as is common with many other regula-

tors. Internal protection circuitry includes

reverse-battery protection, current limiting,

thermal limiting, and reverse-current protec-

tion.

www.linear.com

250mA Micropower LDOs

The Fluke 430 Series of 3-phase

power quality analysers, now avail-

able from TTi (Thurlby Thandar

Instruments), help to locate, predict,

prevent and troubleshoot problems in

power distribution systems quickly

and safely.

Featuring full IEC 61000-4-30 Class

compliance, expanded memory and

measurement capability, plus a user-

configurable logging function, these

easy-to-use handheld tools have

many innovative features, including

the ability to show power waveforms

in great detail with on-screen display

of trends and captured events, even while

background recording continues.

The latest model in the family is the Fluke

435, which features 0.1% voltage accuracy

and a GPS time synchronisation option,

making it fully compliant with the IEC 61000-

4-30 Class A standard. The instrument also

has double the memory capacity of

earlier models, as well as a user-con-

figurable logging function which allows

it to be set up easily for any test con-

dition with memory for up to 100

parameters on all four phases (a total

of 400) at user-defined intervals.

Users can easily view logged data and

generate reports with the new Fluke

Power Log software included with the

unit.

The Fluke 435 also features mains

signalling capability that enables users

to measure interference from ripple

control signals at specific frequencies.

www.tti-test.com

Handheld Analysers for Power-Quality

New C5506 DSP enables New Markets

through USB Connectivity and

Generous On-Chip Memory at an Affordable

price

Continuing to drive innovation in low power

audio/voice applications, Texas Instruments

announced the lowest-power addition to its

line of ultra low-power programmable digital

signal processors (DSPs). The new

TMS320C5506 DSP requires just 0.12 mW

of power in standby mode and includes

other power-efficient features that make it

the lowest-power processor in its class. A full

128 KB of on-chip memory makes for

greater programming ease, and a full-speed

USB 2.0 interface supplies cost-efficient

wired connectivity. Among the many high-

volume applications that can benefit from the

C5506 DSP’s low-power, memory, connec-

tivity and affordability are touch screen con-

trollers, USB headsets, cordless phones and

hands-free car phone kits.

www.ti.com/c5506pr

Extended Battery Life in Portables

®

21 Napier Place, Wardpark North, Cumbernauld Scotland G68 0LL+44/1236/730595 Fax +44/1236/730627

Only Coilcraft offers such a broad range of highcurrent, low DCR power inductors.

They’re perfect for Point of Load and VoltageRegulator applications. Or any place you needmaximum current handling in minimum space.

Several models are rated up to 100 A rms.Others have powdered iron cores for maximumsaturation current and minimum thermal aging.

If you’re doing POL or VRD,check out our

SLC, MVR, MLC or SER.

Still others offer 5% DCR tolerance, makingthem ideal for current sensing applications.

As always, you can get free evaluationsamples from our web site with just aclick of the mouse. We ship same day!

Check out our full line of POLand VRM magnetics ASAP. Visitwww.coilcraft.com/POLd

And get samples NOW!

RoHSCOMPLIANT

SLC75300.05 - 0.4 µH

Up to 50 A6.7 x 7.5 mm3 mm high

SLC76490.04 - 0.1 µHUp to 100 A7.5 x 7.6 mm5 mm high

MLC12000.36 - 4 µHUp to 37 A

10.5 x 11.2 mm4.1 - 6.1 mm high

MLC15000.5 - 4.5 µHUp to 32 A

13.2 x 13.8 mm3.9 - 6.5 mm high

SER13600.33 - 10 µHUp to 48 A

13.1 x 12.9 mm5.8 mm high

SER15900.3 - 1 µHUp to 50 A

16.3 x 15.8 mm10.2 mm high

SER20000.3 - 2 µH

Up to 100 A19.6 x 20.1 mm

8.6 -14 mm high

SLC10490.08 - 0.15 µH

Up to 61 A6.9 x 10.2 mm

5 mm high

MVRT0.25 -0.56 µH

Up to 35 A9.8 x 11.5 mm5.1 mm high

MVRC0.36 - 2.3 µH

Up to 36 A9.8 x 11.5 mm

4.7- 7.8 mm high

DeadtimeCircuitry

andLogic

HV LevelShifters

UVLO

UVLOLO

HO

IN

DT

COM

TOLOAD

Up to 600V

VS

VBVCC

VSS

Delay

SD

THE POWER MANAGEMENT LEADER

IR SETS THE STANDARDFOR 600V ICs

For more information call +44 (0)1737 227215 or +49 (0) 6102 884 311 or visit us at

www.irf.com/product-info/hvic

Rugged, Reliable, Highly Integrated

IR’s 600V ICs for motor control, lighting, switch-mode power supplies, audio, and flat-paneldisplay applications deliver more features andgreater functionality to simplify your circuitdesign and reduce risk.

IR’s latest-generation high-voltage IC technologydelivers superior protection and higher fieldreliability in an intelligent, monolithic driver IC.

Our new ICs are offered with single or dual inputs,under-voltage lockout protection, and fixed orprogrammable deadtime for half-bridge drivers.

Features:• 3.3V logic compatible input

• Drive current up to 2.5A

• SO-8 package available*

• Separate COM and logic ground*

• UVLO protects VBS*

*select models

HALF-BRIDGE DRIVER ICs

Part Number Pin Count Sink/Source Current (mA) Comments

IRS2103(S)PBF 8 290/600 UVLO VCC

IRS2104(S)PBF 8 290/600 Input logic for shutdown; UVLO VCC

IRS2108(S)PBF 8 290/600 UVLO VCC & VBS

IRS21084(S)PBF 14 290/600Programmable deadtime;UVLO VCC & VBS

IRS2109(S)PBF 8 290/600Input logic for shutdown;UVLO VCC & VBS

IRS21094(S)PBF 14 290/600Input logic for shutdown; programmable deadtime;UVLO VCC & VBS

IRS2183(S)PBF 8 1900/2300 UVLO VCC & VBS

IRS21834(S)PBF 14 1900/2300Programmable deadtime;UVLO VCC & VBS

IRS2184(S)PBF 8 1900/2300Programmable deadtime;UVLO VCC & VBS

IRS21844(S)PBF 14 1900/2300Input logic for shutdown; programmable deadtime;UVLO VCC & VBS

INDEPENDENT HIGH- AND LOW-SIDE DRIVER ICs

Part Number Pin Count Sink/Source Current (mA) Comments

IRS2101(S)PBF 8 290/600 UVLO VCC

IRS2106/IRS21064(S)PBF 8 / 14 290/600 UVLO VCC & VBS

IRS2181/IRS21814(S)PBF 8 / 14 1900/2300 UVLO VCC & VBS

High-voltagewell

High-sidedrive stage

Low-sidedrive stage

600V half-bridge gate drive ICwith integrated UVLO protection

Deadtime/shoot-through protection

Programmabledeadtime

Input logicfor shutdown