Power Electronics Europe April/May Issue 2022

https://hiro-microdatacenters.nl , www.vicorpower.com COVER STORY 27 www.power-mag.com Issue 2 2022 Power Electronics Europe is allows HIRO to apply a unified approach from data centre power distribution to ~1 V point-of-load power supplies on PCBs, while accommodating both new 48 VDC designs and legacy 12 VDC systems. Innovation in packaging, topologies and architectures enables the ever-increasing density and power efficiency essential to data centres. Conventional alternatives such as custom discrete solutions or off-the-shelf power supplies were unable to meet the design requirements including form factor, scalability, flexibility and high efficiency. Discrete solutions require considerable power system design effort while off-the- shelf designs are bulky and lack the flexibility needed to adapt to different environments. Vicor modules offer reliability, high power density, flexible cooling, high conversion efficiency and a wide choice of products for different DC voltages and power requirements. These products assist HIRO in designing compact, efficient, solid state EMDCs that can survive outside a conventional, environmentally managed data centre building. Bringing Europe closer to the edge The continued mobilization of our smart, connected world is an enormous undertaking. Edge computing is the critical bridge to enable faster computing and realizing what new ideas are possible. HIRO, Vicor and PCB Design Ltd. are three important drivers of this movement, working together to push the technological boundaries. Today their partnership will lead to impactful enhancements in the areas of Smart City, Smart Hospital, Smart Manufacturing and Robotics, and Smart Supply Chain. Tomorrow they will power the newest world-changing ideas. Vicor will unveil three new approaches for powering xEVs at the premiere global automotive engineering event, World Congress Experience in Detroit on April 5-7. Proven Vicor solutions using high density power modules and new power delivery architectures, deliver up to a 50 % reduction in power losses. The three topics are: Eliminating the 12V Lead Acid Battery: An inventive power architecture that replaces the 12V battery with a “virtual battery,” saving space and weight, and replacing legacy technology; DC Charging Station Compatibility: Higher-voltage primary batteries (800 V) create a 400 V charging station incompatibility that can be solved with onboard charging using compact, efficient and bidirectional power modules; and the Impact of Miniaturized Power Modules on Electrification: Power-dense modules combined with innovative power architectures deliver unprecedented design flexibility, scalability and space-savings for xEV development. As the automotive industry aggressively moves toward full electric vehicles, power system design engineers are grappling with how to design significantly higher power delivery networks. EV’s require up to 20x more electrical power than a traditional internal combustion engine vehicle which requires proportional size and weight increase for the power electronics. To meet those challenges, Vicor emphasizes the need for lightweight, compact systems offering flexibility so power components can easily scale and be reused across fleets. “Innovation is needed in the form of new architectures and topologies that provide maximum performance today and can also be reused and reconfigured for the future, “Integration is important. If you look at one of our modules that has 200 individual components inside, it’s a lot easier to qualify one module than it is 200 components. And so integration has a lot of merits,” said Patrick Wadden, VP of Vicor’s Automotive Business Development unit. “Our power modules such as the BCM6135 which handles 2.5 kW of power help engineers to create high density power delivery networks for EV, PHEV, HEV and BEVs that are lightweight, efficient and offer an easily scalable platform." Automotive Applications Demand Highest Power Density Figure 3: Vicor DCM 48 VDC – 12 VDC power modules: contributing to HIRO energy-efficient EMDC designs