Power Conversion for Reduced Cost, Volume, and Weight - and Increased Efficiency

Written by Ray Maroon, Consultant/Principal, Volt Amp Consulting, Inc. - Tuesday, March 16 2010

Industry and consumers are increasingly aware of the benefits of efficacious use of metered power, as costs and cost trends increase. Making the right choices for power converter design can produce rapid investment payback in applications such as for LED illumination and automotive electric vehicles, and can be optimized for low total cost of ownership (TCO).

The right power converter design choices may also be enabling for aerospace and other mission critical applications where otherwise larger than necessary burdens of size and weight would impose high penalties upon design of those propulsion systems, and reduce efficaciousness of mission-tasked power utility.

One right choice is to cost-effectively design for high conversion efficiency, producing subsequent reduction in package cooling requirements, and leading to smaller package volumes, reduced package weight, and reduced manufactured cost of package. Another right choice is to cost-effectively design for reduced maximum working voltage magnitudes in secondary circuits, producing subsequent reduction in insulation and isolation requirements especially for secondary circuits that may now qualify as SELV, leading again to reduced package volume, reduced package weight, and reduced manufactured cost of package.