Power
Ultracapacitor Touts Flat Prismatic Cell Design
April 6, 2010 10:42 am | Product Releases | CommentsTecate's PowerBurst Type PC5 ultracapacitor – offered under a license agreement with Maxwell Technologies – is engineered to provide extended power availability during dips, sags, and outages in the main power sources as well as to relieve batteries of burst power functions.
Chassis Mount DC-DC Converter Suits Harsh Environments
April 5, 2010 7:17 am | Product Releases | CommentsCalex Manufacturing Company introduced its HCM Series high power density chassis mount DC/DC Converters. These 150 Watt rugged, encapsulated DC/DC converters are suitable for harsh industrial and COTS military applications. All 10 models in the series offer a
AA Battery Clip Includes SMD Leads, Two Spring Arms
April 5, 2010 7:05 am | Product Releases | CommentsMPD’s BK-53 surface mounting AA battery clip uses two spring arms to capture and hold a AA battery in place. These arms are said to make it easy to insert and remove a AA battery because of the desirable access afforded. Normally used in pairs, the clips are
DSCs Support Complex Digital Power Applications
April 2, 2010 10:09 am | Microchip Technology Inc. | Product Releases | CommentsMicrochip Technology Inc., expanded its 16-bit dsPIC Digital Signal Controller (DSC) portfolio for digital power-conversion applications. Eight new dsPIC33F ‘GS’ Series DSCs provide up to four times the memory, compared to Microchip’s existing SMPS and digital power conversion families. Additionally, these DSCs can
One-Amp Voltage Regulators Support Sub-1 V Rails
April 1, 2010 8:20 am | On Semiconductor | Product Releases | CommentsON Semiconductor introduced five CMOS linear voltage regulator families. The NCP69x families are optimized for use in low current consumption portable battery-powered and ‘always on’ applications such as cable modems, satellite receivers, digital-set-top boxes and electricity meters. The NCP690, NCP691, and NCP692 are
Superconducting Power Lines to Enhance Electrical Grid
April 1, 2010 6:49 am | News | CommentsVenkat Selvamanickam, director of the Applied Research Hub at the University of Houston, is developing a technology with high temperature superconducting wires that promises to revolutionize the way power is generated, transported and used.
Thermoharvester uses Waste Heat to Power Wireless Industrial Sensors
April 1, 2010 5:00 am | News | CommentsMicropelt has collaborated with Royal Dutch Shell to prove the concept of converting waste heat into a sustainable, maintenance-free power supply for wireless sensor devices.
Scavenging Energy Waste to turn Water into Hydrogen Fuel
March 30, 2010 10:17 am | by by Jill Sakai, www.news.wisc.edu | News | CommentsMaterials scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have designed a way to harvest small amounts of waste energy and harness them to turn water into usable hydrogen fuel.
GAO Finds Incompetence and Fraud in EPA Energy Star Program
March 30, 2010 3:43 am | by by Susan Kraemer, cleantechnica.com | Blogs | CommentsWhile much of the Energy Star program is sound, and has led to real quantifiable energy savings over time, over the last four years, alarm bells have been sounding on the increasingly lax certification process.
25W Encapsulated DC-DC Converter Suits Railway Environments
March 29, 2010 11:53 am | Product Releases | CommentsAbsopulse’s FLP 09R DC/DC converter series is designed for low power railway requirements. With a height of 20 mm, this 25 W unit is suitable for applications with stringent space restrictions.
What’s Smart about the Smart Grid?
March 26, 2010 1:39 pm | by Paul L. Schimel PE, Senior FAE, International Rectifier (www.irf.com) | Articles | CommentsThe statistics vary, but all seem to be in agreement that nearly 30 to 40% of the present load base on the grid is caused by induction motors
Extender for Ultra PoE Doubles Cabling Distance in Security Systems
March 25, 2010 2:19 pm | Phihong | Product Releases | CommentsPhihong USA has developed a four-port, PoE extender that accepts ultra-power PoE and extends the reach of data and Power-over-Ethernet to 200 me, doubling the
Test Contactor Presented as Kelvin Ready
March 25, 2010 8:16 am | Analog Devices, Inc. | Product Releases | CommentsJohnstech International Corporation announced the release of its “Configurable Kelvin” Pad ROL 200K Series Contactor. Suitable for testing high power and precision analog devices that require
SMT Metal Battery Holder Eases Replacement
March 25, 2010 5:39 am | Product Releases | CommentsRenata is offering the SMTMxxxx Series of battery holders that will house various lithium manganese dioxide bare cells, including the CR1225, CR1632, CR2032, CR2025, CR2325, CR2430, and CR2450. This holder provides
Kit Invites Energy Harvesting and Wireless Exploration
March 24, 2010 2:05 pm | Product Releases | CommentsEchoflex Solutions introduced the EEK200C Evaluation Kit. The kit enables integrators and OEMs to explore EnOcean wireless energy harvesting technologies within the context of their own buildings. Encapsulated in the kit are the
T-Splitter Suits Industrial Applications
March 22, 2010 11:00 am | Product Releases | CommentsBinder-USA has announced the release of a T-shaped splitter for the Series 870 7/8” connectors. The T-splitter is used to connect several devices for a power supply or a bus connection. Designed for DeviceNet applications, the 7/8” connectors are
Energy 102 - Heat Engines
March 18, 2010 5:38 am | Blogs | CommentsThere is no question the overwhelming majority of ‘mechanical’ energy utilized in this country has as its source the output of Heat Engines, i.e. devices that convert stored solar energy in fossil fuels to ‘mechanical work’.
New York State Funds new Battery Research at Cornell
March 16, 2010 10:03 am | by Anne Ju, Cornell Chronicle Online | News | CommentsThe New York State Energy Research and Development Authority recently announced a total of $8 million in research grants to help develop or commercialize energy-storage projects.
Brainstorm: Batteries
March 11, 2010 4:34 am | by Edited by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Articles | CommentsWhat is the next breakthrough in battery technology?
Enhancement-Mode Power Transistors use GaN Technology
March 9, 2010 5:50 am | Product Releases | CommentsEfficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today introduced a family of enhancement mode power transistors based on Gallium Nitride on Silicon technology.
Five-Watt DC-DC Converters Provide Wide 2:1 Input Range
March 5, 2010 9:26 am | Product Releases | CommentsMicroPower Direct’s LF500RW Series of SMT 5 W DC/DC converters provides a wide 2:1 input range, tight line/load regulation, output power/overload protection and low noise operation. Twenty-one models operate from wide 2:1 inputs of
Simplify Power Designs with an Innovative MOSFET Package
March 4, 2010 10:32 am | by Hawk Lee, Jingen Qian & Kim Norton, Vishay | Articles | CommentsA major challenge facing power engineers today is how to overcome a reduction in board space for the power circuitry in commercial electronic products. A quick walk through any electronics retail store will reveal that personal computers have become smaller and even miniaturized which is a trend for many other types of electronic devices.
MOSFETs Provide Efficient Operation for Battery-powered “Green” Products
March 4, 2010 9:33 am | by Kevin Turchin, FAE Manager, ROHM Semiconductor | Articles | CommentsPortable products increasingly rely on a single 3.7V Li-Ion battery for the energy source. For these and other low-voltage applications, lower gate voltage power MOSFETs improve the efficiency for extended battery life and reduce the heat dissipation involved in switching the loads. In addition, they simplify the design of numerous control functions by allowing direct control / drive.
Coping with the Smart Grid
March 4, 2010 7:39 am | Articles | CommentsThis year at APEC I moderated a rap session on dealing with the Smart Grid. It had a standing-room-only crowd, and demonstrated how much interest exists on both the technical and political issues involved.
Power Resistors Deliver 20 W to 600 W with Low Inductance
March 4, 2010 6:26 am | Product Releases | CommentsTT electronics IRC’s MHP Series power resistors feature power ratings from 20 W to 600 W in industry standard TO-220, TO-247 and SOT-227 transistor-style packages. The resistors provide
