The PowerUP Expo is a three-day virtual conference and exhibition on power electronics, held June 27–29, 2023.
With an exhibition area, live stage and messaging center, the PowerUP Expo functions similarly to a live exhibition and conference. This technical conference will include several sessions, including keynotes, panel discussions, technical presentations and tutorials on various subjects, including significant technical trends, market demands and new application areas. The exhibition area will include virtual booths from top power electronics businesses and a Live Chat facility allowing attendees to communicate directly with booth staff.
Trends in power electronics
Wide-bandgap (WBG) devices like silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) have caused a significant shift in power electronics technologies. WBG materials exhibit properties that make them especially well-suited for uses involving high voltages and fast switching rates. WBG semiconductors have many potentials, and designers should know their challenges.
The goal of power electronics design will still be to make smaller, simpler and more functional devices. Their design will increasingly use AI and machine-learning techniques to boost performance, keep track of system health and improve energy management. Future advancements will be combined with IoT technology to produce a more connected and automated energy system and be integrated into the automotive, industrial and aerospace markets.
Motors and power control applications rely on semiconductor devices. Cost-effective and energy-efficient control solutions, test and measurement solutions and transducers/sensors facilitate the design and provide a high level of integration, as well as greater safety features and verified isolation capabilities, as efficiency standards for these applications improve. Additionally, using energy-harvesting techniques and new power semiconductors to make electrical and electronic systems work as well as possible is an important part of engineering.
Engineers, managers, academics and students worldwide can participate in PowerUP to learn about the most recent developments and applications in power electronics and build relationships with others in our community. Leaders in the industry talk about the newest developments and trends in power electronics, from components to intelligent systems.
The agenda
The event schedule is detailed below.
Day 1: Tuesday, June 27
The event’s first day will focus on tutorials, lectures, panel discussions and conference previews. Below are some notable presentations that will be given on this day.
The Ascent of GaN
Speaker: Alex Lidow, CEO of Efficient Power Conversion (EPC)
After more than 13 years of mass production, GaN-on-Si has gained widespread acceptance as the successor to the aging silicon MOSFET for voltage ranging between 40 V and 650 V. What, then, are the variables controlling the rate of growth of GaN power devices? We will dig into the experience, lessons learned from the power MOSFET and recent experiences with GaN in applications ranging from DC/DC conversion to motor drives and LiDAR in markets like space, automotive, enterprise, computing and consumer products.
Industrial drives: a new horizon for real and relevant higher-efficiency industrial drives enabled by today’s SiC
Speaker: Guy Moxey, senior director of power products at Wolfspeed
Five percent of all electricity generated is used to turn a motor, so ensuring that the motor-to-drive system is highly efficient and optimized for performance is key to better energy conversion. Regional and end-equipment efficiency regulations are commonplace to improve efficiency standards for drive systems, all accelerating year on year with a considerable focus on reducing drive losses—some even pushing for >15% loss reduction per standard level. These challenges fall on the power electronics and motor design community, whose default silicon technology has been tried and tested. However, nothing lasts forever, and everything has limitations. Passive PFC is moving to active PFC, and higher-performing inverters are a must; simply adding more silicon is proving a lacking solution. From a few kilowatts to megawatts, SiC answers these challenges across the many subsegments of industrial drives. We’ll see how, by walking through different scenarios, SiC solves these real and relevant industrial drive challenges by increasing system efficiency, increasing system power density and lowering the overall system cost of ownership.
Bidirectional SiC and GaN Switch Technology
Speaker: Victor Veliadis, executive director & CTO of PowerAmerica
There are numerous mass-volume power applications in which it is necessary to control the flow of bidirectional power. Today, monolithic bidirectional SiC and GaN power semiconductor switches are not commercially available. Instead, back-to-back (anti-series) connection schemes of unidirectional power devices are typically used, resulting in a 4× penalty in chip area and high cost. However, various monolithic SiC and GaN bidirectional concepts are being investigated, including dual-gate bidirectional GaN switches and back-to-back connected SiC MOSFETs and JFETs. In this talk, the semiconductor technology of SiC and GaN bidirectional switches will be reviewed, including their operating principles and their lateral and vertical geometry configurations. Promising monolithic bidirectional devices reported to date will be presented, and the key bidirectional switch applications of solid-state circuit breakers and current-source inverters will be discussed. As SiC and GaN devices approach mass commercialization propelled by insertion in electric vehicles and consumer electronics, respectively, fabrication of SiC and GaN MBD switches is becoming economically viable, enabling their wide adoption in key volume applications.
Panel Discussion about SiC & GaN Solutions: Recent Developments and the Next Challenges to Overcome
Panel discussion with industry experts, moderated by EE Times editor Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio
The global WBG landscape has been marked by growth and increasing industrial acceptability. Companies are developing an extensive portfolio of devices that promise benefits in a variety of applications for industrial, automotive and consumer markets, among others, as technology continues to evolve. WBG semiconductors like SiC and GaN are giving the right input to the market by providing new answers to the problems that designers face in an era in which the watchword is “efficiency.” This panel discussion will bring together experts in the field of WBG semiconductors to analyze their potential in power systems. Our panelists will explore the current issues facing engineers in multiple application contexts that need high reliability, as well as the barriers that still need to be overcome for wider adoption and, consequently, to generate improved performance and cheaper costs that will benefit the industry overall.
And much more! Agenda
Day 2: Wednesday, June 28
The second day’s theme is WBG semiconductors and their applications in power electronics. Below are some notable presentations that will be given on this day.
WBG Solutions Drive Decarbonization
Speakers: Johannes Schoiswohl, business line head of EPIC, and Adam White, division president of power & sensor systems, both at Infineon Technologies
Decarbonization and digitalization are two defining challenges of our times. A strong commitment to reducing the impact of climate change and to shaping a future worth living—for ourselves and for generations to come—is necessary. One example: Digitalization is driving the growing need for data centers, fueled by digital lifestyles like streaming and gaming, working from home, remote education, digital healthcare and the like. This growing demand for data-based services is driving increased energy consumption in the data centers themselves. Experts predict a 146-fold increase of data in just 15 years. By 2025, generated data will even reach a staggering amount of 175 zettabytes. Advanced power semiconductor solutions, enabled by WBG, are a key lever to reduce cooling efforts and minimize energy loss in data centers via improved system architectures. WBG solutions contribute greatly to achieving net-zero goals by enabling the benefits of higher energy efficiency and hence support the decarbonization effort. Beyond data centers, the consumer, industry, telecom and infrastructure, solar and automotive markets will benefit from the use of more efficient WBG-based system solutions.
GaN & SiC: Accelerating Revolutions
Speaker: Stephen Oliver, vice president of corporate marketing and investor relations at Navitas Semiconductor
Today, GaN and SiC are driving the WBG revolution, with a predicted 30% market share seized from legacy silicon by the end of 2028. Acceleration also plays a role in next-generation systems, with faster-switching frequencies (kilohertz to megahertz) and switching speeds (dV/dt, volts per nanosecond). As power component blocks become easier to use, time to market is reduced and market adoption of new topologies is accelerated. Accelerating revolution also factors into market transitions, especially in global electrification, with the change from ICE to EVs, coal/gas to solar/wind and energy storage, gas furnaces to heat pumps and low-efficiency (~60%) AC motors to high-frequency BLDC motors reaching up to 90%.
Market Dynamics of Automotive SiC Revolution for Electrification
Speaker: Pietro Scalia, senior director of automotive traction solutions at onsemi
The ongoing automotive market electrification revolution is pushing to increase power and efficiency to enable extra miles and performances at a lower cost. The higher maturity of WBG technology and increased performance of SiC devices are boosting the adoption of onsemi’s EliteSiC components by EV market disruptors and incumbent OEMs and Tier 1s in inverter applications, and they are accelerating the migration to the 800-V bus architecture. This scenario has a clear run to secure long-term supply chain capacity and high-quality SiC substrate. The economy of scale drives the effort to develop and offer larger-diameter single-crystal wafers, improving defectivity and screening methodology to improve the yield. All of them are viable approaches to optimize the cost of materials while increasing performance and providing a solution to the huge growth of market demand for these power devices.
Panel Discussion: SiC and GaN Power Devices’ Reliability and Quality
Panel discussion with industry experts, moderated by EE Times editor Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio
WBG semiconductors have helped improve the performance of power systems and cut down on the cost of their parts. Failure rates at the parts-per-billion level are necessary to compete in markets with stricter standards. The primary reliability issues that face WBG semiconductors like SiC and GaN, as well as the corresponding quality standards for high-performance designs in several mission-critical applications, will be covered in this panel discussion. Topics including material quality, thermal management, high-power operation, qualification testing and long-term performance will be covered by each panelist.
And much more! Agenda
Day 3: Thursday, June 29
The event’s third day will focus on power conversion and managing design trends in low- and high-power applications. Below are some notable presentations that will be given on this day.
Power Adapter Intelligent Power Sharing: Power Efficiency
Speaker: Mark Drucker, CEO of Silanna Semiconductor
Power adapters with multiport power sharing are devices that allow multiple electronic devices to be charged or powered simultaneously. These adapters typically have multiple output ports, each capable of delivering power to different devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops or other USB-powered consumer electronics, smart-home, IT and industrial equipment products. The power-sharing feature of the SZPL3002A buck converter IC is designed to efficiently distribute power among multiple devices connected to the charger or adapter. When a single low-battery device is plugged in, the PD controller communicates with the device to determine whether it will receive full power. When multiple devices are additionally connected to the SZPL3002A for charging, the PD controller communicates with each device to establish their power needs and dynamically adjusts the power output accordingly.
Silicon never fails to surprise: the case for superjunction MDmesh
Speaker: Filippo Di Giovanni, innovation and key programs manager of the power transistor macro division at STMicroelectronics
Silicon has been the main material in manufacturing semiconductors. It has been used for decades and has become pervasive in everyday life, in practically everything we touch. Despite being so well-established, engineers and designers still find ways to improve it and continue to invent ways to deploy the array of microprocessors, sensors, MEMS and power devices, allowing it to be used across a large spectrum of applications. Special design efforts and creativity in high-voltage power transistors have led to MDmesh technology based on superjunctions. Thanks to unique process steps, including trench, that have been successfully debugged in power transistors, new-generation MDmesh MOSFETs can still evolve to yield even more advanced versions. These new iterations match requirements for increased performance and cost targets in the automotive and industrial sectors. Despite the recent development and industrialization of WBG technologies, silicon-based power devices and WBG semiconductors can co-exist and deliver great value to end users who can count on more product options.
How Advanced Power Technology Makes Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Tests Possible
Speaker: Patrick Le Fèvre, chief marketing and communications officer and technology evangelist at Powerbox
During the past two years or so, in one way or another, the world population has been affected by the Covid-19 virus, and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test has entered into our daily lives. At this point, we could quite easily question what a power supply has to do with PCR, but behind the scenes, the power supply industry and the latest digital power technologies have contributed greatly to making the PCR process efficient and accurate. What do power electronics engineers have to consider when powering such applications, and why is power electronics so important?
Panel Discussion: Technical Trends with Power Conversion
Panel discussion with industry experts, moderated by EE Times editor Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio
Innovative power management devices improve power-factor correction and lower standby power consumption to offer energy-efficient solutions across all industrial, consumer and automotive applications. Almost all devices rely on some form of power conversion, whether it’s changing the voltage of a DC battery or converting AC mains electricity to DC. Power-conversion topologies need to be innovative and fresh to meet increasing performance and efficiency criteria. In this panel, the speakers will share their thoughts, next challenges and new technology (such as WBG solutions) to support power conversion in different applications and markets.
And much more! Agenda
