Power

Vicor has introduced a 1.2kW dc-dc converter with a 61x23mm footprint (x7.3mm), the first product based its novel ‘ChiP’ packaging technology, revealed at APEC 2013. The package sits right at the top of power density capability, with the firm claiming 183W/cm3 (3kW/in3) and 131W/cm2 (850W/in2) are possible. Its manufacture is analogous to chip-scale packaging. Based around a one large double-sided ...

Freescale has announced a multi-core mixed-signal solenoid controller for fuel-injected petrol and diesel engines. “Increasingly stringent fuel efficiency standards require advanced analogue technologies. The MC33816 programmable solenoid controller embeds intelligence with four integrated cores, enabling four parallel tasks to run independently of the main system microcontroller. The result is a response time up to 16x faster than traditional architectures, thereby ...

Motion control in miniature is the aim of the HapTouch BoosterPack, which aims to add vibration feedback to user interfaces. Developed by Texas Instruments and Farnell, it is based around two TI chips: the DRV2603 (and here) resonant motion driver and newly-released MSP430TCH5E ‘haptics-enabled microcontroller’, as TI calls it. The driver includes a four-mosfet full-bridge driver for linear resonant actuators ...

Toshiba has announced a 5W wireless charging chipset. “Enhancements to the TB6865FG power transmitter and TC7763WBG receiver chipset enable faster wireless charging of mobile devices,” said the firm. The design is compliant to the Qi v1.1 specification for 3.5W power transfer, intended to be compliant to v1.1 for 5W transfer, and includes foreign object detection. Wireless charging has been dogged ...

Yuasa has added a high-capacity 12V model to its SWL family of industrial valve regulated lead-acid batteries. Called SWL4250, the battery is aimed at uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and similar high discharge rate applications. “Typically the SWL family provides up to 40% extra high-rate discharge capacity when compared with standard NPL series batteries,” said the firm. Nominal 10hr rate capacity ...

Ford has brought out a solar-powered car. The concept car, called C-MAX Solar Energi Concept, was developed by Ford, Sun Power and Georgia Tech. Ford and Georgia Tech are to test out the concept car to see if it will be a feasible product for production. The car is said to have a range of 620 miles including up to ...

Nordic Semiconductor has introduced a wireless charging software development kit (SDK) for wireless charging applications based on the Rezence standard, developed and maintained by the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP). The Rezence specification is based on the principles of magnetic resonance, and as such does not require the accessories to be placed on a “charging mat”. Bluetooth Smart is used ...

Murata has brought out a series of 86 mm wide, 460W front end power supplies. The D1U86G can achieve a minimum conversion efficiency of 92%  at 50% full load.

Linear Technology has brought out two 3.5A, 42V input capable synchronous step-down switching regulators.

Microchip has added higher levels of integration for motor-control to its dsPIC33 microcontrollers, and introduced a three-phase gate driver for brushless dc motors. Called the dsPIC33EP512GM710 family, the controllers have 12 PWM channels (6 pairs), dual 12bit ADCs, multiple 32bit quadrature encoder interfaces, and two CAN modules. “With this level of integration, the family can independently control two motors with ...