5 Power Trends Will Pay Off Soon

Improvements at the micro level of power management have been slow but steady over the last few years, but the real action in power management is at the macro, big-picture level, where a number of long term trends are starting to make their mark.

Over the past few years, we've seen a market rebound, a move towards IGBTs at the expense of bipolar transistors, and a continuing consolidation in semiconductor suppliers.

Design-wise, we've seen a move towards lower voltages and higher switching frequencies, exemplified by the Intel FIVR (Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator) which made its appearance in the Haswell core in 2013 and supplies 1.1V to the rest of the IC with 90% efficiency at a switching frequency of 140 MHz. All in a 22 nm process, no less.

Regulations Worldwide Drive Energy Efficiency Improvements

The last few years have been relatively quiet in the US -- in 2014, for example, only 129 "Public Laws" (laws affecting society as a whole) were passed by Congress and signed by the president. But fear not - regulatory agencies also issued 3541 rules (27 per law) that also have the force of law.

Numerous regulations and updates cover energy efficiency across a broad spectrum of applications including refrigeration, consumer AC-DC power supplies, power distribution transformers, commercial HVAC systems, electric motors, and more. New standards are also being developed to cover computers and servers, portable air conditioners, and reflector lamps. In a worldwide trend, state and local governments have their own sets of regulations. For example, the 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive established a set of binding measures to help the EU reach its 20% energy efficiency target by 2020. Under the Directive, all EU countries are required to use energy more efficiently at all stages of the energy chain, and member countries were required to transpose the directive's provisions into their national laws by 5 June 2014.

Such directives are driving power management changes including increased use of BLDC motors, more sophisticated power supplies, solar panel research, introduction of new lighting technologies, and on and on.

The moral of the story: Before starting your next product design or update, take a closer look at the Code Of Federal Regulations: 175,496 pages as of the end of 2013. Probably pushing 200k today.

New Battery Chemistries Move Close to Commercial Introduction

The incursion of battery power into areas previously dominated by corded devices - or internal combustion engines - has been a consistent trend in power management over the last decade. Li-ion batteries, first introduced in the early 90s, still rule the roost, but they require precise control of charging and temperature to avoid fires caused by thermal runaway. Meanwhile, progress has been slow in developing commercially-viable batteries using other chemistries such as lithium-sulphur, zinc-air, and sodium-oxygen. Issues include availability and cost of the raw materials, stability or safety of the chemical combination, manufacturability, reversibility of the electrochemical reaction, dendrite formation, and operating temperature range.

The rest is here:
5 Power Trends Will Pay Off Soon