The most significant technological challenges facing the powe r industry today are energy conservation, and technological development and improvements in the face of a highly competitive, cost-focused environment.
Conservation of energy is a hot topic worldwide, being driven by the realization that supplies of coal, oil, and natural gas—the generators of electricity—are finite. Consequently, manufacturers and end users of electronic devices and systems are becoming painfully aware that the power supply in their system is not 100% efficient and that the dissipation of heat is costly.
With that macro view as an ever-present backdrop, the challenges facing the power industry are substantial, but so are the opportunities.
No matter where a company stands in the ecosystem of power companies, low cost is inevitably a consideration.
While, as in the past, nearly every application is somewhat different than any other, many bricks have become commoditized. Many footprints and power levels have become standard (e.g., POLA, DOSA footprints), so the focus on innovation is often on cost reduction. Seeking ways to reduce costs has been a major factor stimulating the consolidation and mergers in the power industry that have occurred in recent years. Cost reduction is also a key underlying reason for the flight of manufacturing capacity to Asia.
Incidentally, the manufacturing flight to Asia involves not just power products, but end user products as well. Although the tradeoffs inherent in remote management of design resources may cause some heartburn, this is probably good news for the Asian community. It should also be mentioned, that manufacturing in Asia creates a very long pipeline for domestic customers, which creates its own set of challenges.
HIGH VOLUME OPPORTUNITIEST h e s e f ewe r , l a r g e r companies located in a low-cost manufacturing environment have a tendency to garner the highvolume opportunities, putting further margin pressure on the remaining companies focused on the commoditized bricks. Some of these companies have initiated alliances with other companies to develop mutually beneficial standards or to collaborate in the design and release of products with specific advancements or flexibility enhancements.
Neither the alliances nor the new product introductions, however, go far enough toward addressing power designers ’ needs for products that precisely satisfy their application. They must frequently resort to compromise by having to use a standard product, or to face the prospect of having to pay in time and dollars for a precise fit.
Vicor sees these developments as opportunities. The company is using internally developed technologies that allow it to meet the challenges. Here are two examples: a unique set of automated power design tools, and a new power conversion technology.
First of all, the need for conversion products with wide ranges of input voltage, output voltage, and output power—not to mention pin style, baseplate, and environmental grade variations— almost guarantees that any suite of standard products, on matter how large, will result in compromises.
Consequently, Vicor developed an online suite of advanced power design tools called PowerBench that enables power designers to specify and verify the performance and attributes of custom power design solutions in real time, resulting in very short design and manufacturing cycle times. The comprehensive tool suite avoids the need for a designer to work around the constraints imposed by off the shelf, commoditized power supplies.
A second element in the Vicor approach to power industry challenges is the commitment to new technological solutions to meet the changing needs of the marketplace. One such solution is the application of our Factorized Power Architecture to infuse the brick products with unique mechanical a n d t h e r mal management f lexibilities, while enhancing their power system capabilities. Advanced density, efficiency, and cost effectiveness will help Vicor meet the challenges of the power industry.
