News
Power supplies for new LED applications fit into high-margin markets 12/15/2009
IC vendors eagerly anticipate that the huge market for LED bulbs to replace incandescent and CFL (compact-fluorescent-light) bulbs will drive the demand for ac/dc power-management ICs. The largest bulb-replacement market of all, the replacement of 60W light bulbs, will have razor-thin profit margins and most likely go straight to Asian manufacturers.Coated optical fibers promise uniquely flexible PV cells 12/3/2009
One of the big practical issues with silicon solar cells is where to put them. Their conversion surface is also their collecting surface, so you end up with a huge flat panel facing the sun. This scenario limits the configurations in which designers can deploy the panels. Now, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found an alternative.China’s proposed ban of rare-earth metals would affect hybrid cars, CFLs 11/26/2009
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is proposing a total ban on exports of terbium, dysprosium, yttrium, thulium, and lutetium and a restriction on neodymium, europium, cerium, and lanthanum to a total of 35,000 tons a year, which is far below global needs. Many of these metals are vital to energy-efficient technology.Power-converter IC targets dimmable LEDs, needs no optoisolator 11/12/2009
The large installed base of dimmable-lighting switches dictates that most new lighting technologies, including LED lights, should support dimming, and the myriad disparate specifications for dimming switches requires these lights to meet a wide range of characteristics.Microcontroller for power meters thwarts tampering 10/6/2009
Government agencies and utilities are pushing to move the global power infrastructure to a smart grid—a transition that will rely on the installation of intelligent power meters in residences and businesses.In-Depth
Integration in the other direction 1/21/2010
Building your system with separate dice or separate chips may be a smart alternative to using SOCs.Determine your IC's transient thermal behavior to prevent overheating 1/6/2010
Use Spice to determine the thermal time constants of the IC package.The Hot 100 Electronic Products of 2009 12/15/2009
EDN’s editors offer up their annual list of the year's 100 most significant amplifiers, CPUs, ICs, LEDs, microcontrollers, vector network analyzers, and more.Battery-charger IC drives energy efficiency 12/4/2009
The IC Insider looks at Freescale Semiconductor's latest SMARTMOS 10 dc/dc converter and how it drives a circuit with an ultra-low input voltage.Microinverters and power optimizers: Power conversion migrates down to the PV panel 12/3/2009
Alternative forms of power have become increasingly popular as utilities react to rising fuel prices and government mandates. Photovoltaic cells usually receive most of the attention as solar-energy cost drivers, but the ac/dc inverter design is equally important to overall system efficiency and cost.Experts
New power-supply efficiency numbers herald a new era in power management 11/17/2009
GUEST OPINION: The EDN article "Industry standards lead push toward energy-efficient computing" discussed the new Platinum power requirements for high-efficiency ac/dc power supplies. But have we reached the point of diminishing returns by pushing efficiency requirements too high?Understanding power-over-Ethernet power allocation 8/10/2009
GUEST OPINION: Along with power-over-Ethernet's growing popularity has come growing demand for intelligent and efficient POE power allocation and management. In response, today's POE silicon suppliers have made sure that real-time power management is an integral part of virtually every enterprise-grade midspan and switch. Still, confusion about power-allocation best practices persists.Can’t see the forest ... 6/25/2009
Analog design is all about trade-offs, so system-design expertise is vital to any company offering analog chips.Voices: Avnet LightSpeed’s Cary Eskow: illuminating energy-efficient design 11/27/2008
Cary Eskow is director of LightSpeed, the solid-state-lighting- and LED (light-emitting-diode)-business unit of Avnet Electronics Marketing. A 28-year Avnet veteran, he leads Avnet’s national team of illumination-focused engineers experienced in thermal, drive-stage, and optics design and has worked closely with LED manufacturers, advanced analog IC,Voices: National Semiconductor’s David Anderson 7/10/2008
EDN's Paul Rako talks with David Anderson, National Semiconductor's chief technologist for power management, about his long and distinguished engineering career, his company, and the present and future of power management.DesignIdeas
