Partnership Aims to Advance Digital Power

Nov 8, 2006 3:24 PM

Primarion (www.primarion.com), a mixed-signal semiconductor company that delivers digital power conversion and power management solutions, announced its support to the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) (www.cpes.vt.edu/) and Colorado Power Electronics Center (CoPEC) (http://ece-www.colorado.edu/~pwrelect/). These two university centers are dedicated to the research and development of digital power technology. Primarion has committed to offer intellectual and monetary support for the advancement of digital power research.

“There is a strong need in the industry for intelligent, cost-effective digital solutions for power conversion and power management,” said Ron Van Dell, president and CEO of Primarion. “We are committed to meeting this demand with pioneering digital power technologies. This pledge is evident by our support for two centers dedicated to the fundamental research of digital power.”

Although larger companies have been supporting power electronics research at the universities, Primarion hopes that its support for CPES and CoPEC will set an example for other small-sized companies. “We want to set a benchmark that even though you may be a small player, because you’re working on cutting edge technology, you should work closely with the universities, ” said Deepak Savadatti, vice president of marketing at Primarion.

Established in August 1998, CPES is a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centers. Its vision is to provide the nation with the capabilities to become a world leader in power electronics. The center is a consortium of five universities, including Virginia Tech, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, North Carolina AT&T State University and University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. 

“The advent of digital control will result in numerous, innovative power management solutions that enable cost-effective, system-level optimization under dynamic input and load change,” said CPES Director Dr. Fred C. Lee. “It is quite feasible to contemplate a system design that performs prognosis/diagnosis of a system’s health—as well as self-tuning, adaptive control and reconfiguration—to achieve robust, reliable and energy-efficient operation. Primarion’s participation and support will significantly strengthen our research efforts in system architecture and digital control.”

From its 1983 launch, the University of Colorado’s power electronics group has transformed into the Colorado Power Electronics Center (CoPEC). CoPEC industrial sponsors include leading semiconductor and power supply companies committed to the advancement of power management applications.

“CoPEC is focused on the use of silicon to improve the performance, size, and cost of switched-mode power supplies,” said Robert W. Erickson, director of CoPEC. “The research has led to new digital controller techniques and has enabled substantial increases in power controller sophistication and capabilities. We are pleased and excited to collaborate with Primarion in this research.”

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