The trends in High Voltage Power Management are simplify, make it more compact, reduce components, reduce costs, extremely fast switching speeds, designed-in ruggedness and low power dissipation. The largest growth market are in three main categories: ac-dc front-end supplies rated up to 1000 W; isolated dc-dc converters or bricks up to 100 W; and nonisolated point-of-load (POL) dc-dc converters handling up to 200 W. In the 1000-W ac-dc arena the cost of the supply is expected to drop from $0.10/W to $0.20/W at present to $0.08/W to $0.14/W, while density will shrink from current 3-10 W/in3 to 10-25 W/in3. Likewise, efficiency will improve by a few percent to achieve 85% to 92% over next few years. Furthermore, because of emission restrictions, the supply's PFC section would use switching frequency at or below 140 kHz. However, it could reach 400 kHz if better semiconductors, such as silicon carbide (SiC) rectifiers, become cost effective. Additionally, the PFC stage will see higher integration, as well as a move toward digital control. Plus, as power density continues to rise, these products will make more use of thermal bus schemes. IC, IGBT & MOSFET are the building blocks most commonly used.
By Doug Bailey, Power Integrations Over the last decade, the rising cost of energy and the relentlessly escalating demand for power has driven government and industry organizations to establish new standards for power efficiency in electronics devices.