8 JUNE 2024IN MYPINIONIN MYPINIONINNOVATIONS IN PASSIVE COMPONENTS FOR POWER DENSIFICATIONBy Peter A. Blaise, Senior Director Application Engineering, KEMET Electronics CorporationWhy is power densification an important target for converter designers? The power-conversion circuits supplying energy-intensive systems such as data center servers and the increasingly smart vehicles moving on our roads need to be able to handle more power but in a smaller space. It really is as simple as that. As we demand more from these systems, they must do more work in the same or less time. By definition, that means more power. But space is at a premium, in data centers just as it is in vehicles. Building larger circuits to handle the extra power is usually not an option. In fact, there is pressure to significantly reduce size while increasing both power and energy efficiency. Hence, power densification is an overriding goal for designers. Coupled with this is increasing efficiency to mitigate increased heat dissipation thermal challenges. It is also important for conserving energy as the world becomes more dependent on generating electricity from renewable sources. The Wide-Bandgap Effect on Power-Systems DesignAmong the options available to help achieve power densification, wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductors have quickly achieved mainstream adoption. Before the pandemic, for example, the EV upstarts were the major proponents of WBG semiconductors in the automotive space. Things have now changed, and established brands are moving quickly to ensure comparable performance in their forthcoming all-electric product portfolios.WBG technologies - silicon carbide (SiC) in particular, as well as gallium nitride (GaN) and others - enable significantly increased power-conversion efficiency, especially when switched at a frequency significantly above the range suitable for their silicon counterparts. They can also operate reliably at higher temperatures, which alleviates thermal-management challenges and can reduce the size, weight, and complexity of any cooling system. Faster switching also enables much smaller circuits to handle the same or greater power. Specifically, operating the switch at a higher frequency allows smaller associated components like capacitors and inductors to manage and smooth the flow of energy in the input and output circuits. This Peter A. BlaiseThe ideal is to minimize the core loss without compromising the core's magnetic permeability, which is the basis of its ability to resist changes in current within the circuit and to store energy in the magnetic field
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