As countries and consumers around the world strive to reduce their CO2 emissions the automotive and transportation sectors have experienced a significant amount of change in terms of consumer habits, technology changes and governmental regulations. All of these factors are shifting more focus to more efficient and powerful electrically powered vehicles. Even though internal combustion engine (ICE) driven vehicles are projected remain the drive of choice for the next 5-10 years there is an accelerating...
The traditional power converters used for photovoltaic (PV) applications use an inductor to achieve the power conversion. Micrometals high performance Iron and Alloy Powder Cores are widely specified for DC-DC voltage converters in PV systems because of their smaller size, better efficiency and superior magnetic properties. Solar panels utilizing photovoltaic (PV) cells produce DC (36V~>50V DC) power, while wind powered generator produces variable frequency AC power, AC power is first rectified and filtered...
One of the most prevalent uses for inductor cores is as an energy storage component in switch-mode power supplies, like those that power PC’s or network computer systems and servers. In non-isolated switch-mode power supplies, a single inductor is used in place of transformer and energy storage component. Micrometals Iron Powder and Alloy Powder Cores have become a standard in the power supply industry for their exceptional reliability, inductive tolerances and performance. Our cores are called out...
The lighting industry has experienced some rather large shifts in the past 10 years. For a century the incandescent bulb was the standard for lighting but as the manufacturing capabilities for fluorescent bulbs improved the use of incandescent bulbs waned, but was still prevalent. But today both of those lighting methods have been dramatically overtaken by the prevalence of Light Emitting Diodes (LED). Today, LED’s are available in a wide variety of standard shapes, color levels, and intensities. LED&rsquo...
Motors are widely utilized in household, commercial and industrial applications from moving gas and liquids, as in fans and pumps, to powering hand tools and heavy equipment. Automotive industry is also increasingly using traction motors for powering wheels. In many cases, an adjustable speed is required to accommodate changing needs. This is accomplished with a motor controller / motor drive in which a DC-AC converter chops up a DC input signal into discrete steps to create a custom AC waveform, with the...
Public transportation such as commuter and rapid transit trains, trams, and busses may derive primary power from a high voltage AC (up to 25kV/60Hz) or DC (600-1500VDC) power line in the form of an overhead line or a third rail. High Voltage AC line power is first stepped down and rectified to produce DC. Power from a high voltage DC link is then converted to 3-phase AC power for powering traction motors and auxiliary AC power for powering equipment such as air-conditioning compressors or fans. Further rectifica...
In the event of a power outage, critical systems require reliable backup supplies to resume operation seamlessly. Uninterrupted power supply (UPS) kicks in to supply this need. UPS are used in home offices, data centers, and in various medical, commercial and industrial environments. During normal AC line condition, UPS takes available AC line power, convert to DC power to charge a high capacity battery. When input power is interrupted, battery engages an inverter to provide regulated AC power. UPS may also...
Class D amplifiers typically use a low-pass LC type filter to attenuate the switching noise in the output waveform while passing the audio signal to the loudspeaker. So it is important that engineers design and specify the correct L-C filter values in addition to choosing the correct LC components for the amplifier to minimize losses and harmonic distortion. Class D Amplifier uses pulse width modulation technique to sample audio signal level for amplification. Audio input is typically compared to a high...