The report synthesizes presentations and discussions from a workshop held earlier this year at APEC 2003, capturing the exchange of ideas and future needs as seen by the participants and their companies. The meetings were attended by many of the industry's most influential members representing end-users, power supply manufacturers, component suppliers and academia. The workshop is held every three years, in order to qualify and update projections.

The nearly 400-page report focuses on the future of power supply products including five-year forecast metrics and trends on:

• ac-dc supplies (≤1000W)
• Isolated dc-dc brick converters (≤100W)
• Nonisolated dc-dc converters (≤200W)

The report takes the reader through the power supply value chain, beginning with an overview of the power supply industry, leading through associated components, manufacturing, marketing, selling and consumption. This leads to a set of summary tables for various power supply families, comparing today's state of affairs with future trends for such criteria as:

• Cost, size, I/O voltages, reliability and efficiency
• Topology and switching frequencies
• Analog control types and the emergence of digital control
• Component types
• Packaging issues

The appendix includes 15 presentations from notable companies representing both demand-side (users), supply-side (manufacturers) of power supplies, as well as component manufacturers. Marketing viewpoints and ongoing university research are also represented. Associated with these presentations are transcribed notes from the lively discussions that often followed the presentations thus offering the reader detailed insight into comments and debates among leading industry representatives.

This project was coordinated by the organization and member companies of the PSMA, whose mission is to integrate the resources of the power sources industry to more effectively and profitably serve the needs of power sources users, providers, and PSMA members. The report is available in both hard copy and electronic download.

For more information, visit www.psma.com.

Want to use this article? Click here for options!
© 2007 Penton Media, Inc.