PSMA Announces its 2009 Power Technology Roadmap

This year a new method of gathering the data was implemented in order to assure inputs from a wider range of participants. The end result is this report which offers a consolidated view of the latest trends in power management, control and power delivery technologies.

The roadmap was based on many inputs from the industry. Two major users of power supplies discussed their roadmap for computing trends. Six component suppliers provided trends on semiconductor ICs, power semiconductors, magnetic materials, inductive wiring, and capacitor technologies. The report also includes technology presentations on expected influence of digital power control and management technologies, advanced packaging trends on dc-dc converters, and an extensive review of university research now in progress around the world for dc-dc power conversion. Finally there were three market perspective presentations on communication infrastructure, power component market trends and the very important review of world-wide energy-efficiency standards. The heart of the report is a set of tables for each of four selected product segments with detail trends on general requirements, circuit design, components, and packaging/assembly techniques.

Carl Blake, co-chair of the organizing committee, noted that, It was a challenge to choose the set of products for the roadmap that would best represent the interests of PSMA members and we decided to use the same four product sets used in the 2006 roadmap as the most representative: ac-dc front end power supplies, external ac-dc adapter supplies, dc-dc bus converters, and nonisolated dc-dc converters.

Aung Thet Tu, co-chair of the organizing committee also commented, This report presents a big picture look at the industry's needs, the gaps that exist in filling those needs and the opportunities for success that filling those gaps offer.