It’s the time of the year again when the power electronics industry convenes to show off the latest technologies and products in the ever-expanding world of power. This year’s Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC), taking place at the Anaheim Convention Center through Thursday, March 21, will once again offer a wide range of educational and technical sessions as well as a comprehensive array of exhibits.
Monday’s plenary session at this year’s APEC reflects the increasingly important role of power electronics in emerging disruptive technologies, such as robotics and energy storage. The session will kick off with “The Future of Power Electronics in Robotics Applications,” by Peter Weaver, president of industrial power control at Infineon Technologies. Weaver will discuss how advances in areas such as power control algorithms and smart motor drives are enabling power electronics to advance robotics technology as Industry 4.0 deployment continues.
In the same plenary session, Seth Sanders, chief scientist and co-founder of Amber Kinetics, will discuss the energy storage landscape in a presentation titled “Flywheel Energy Storage: A Utility Scale Energy Solution for the 21st Century.” Sanders will discuss established and emerging energy storage technologies, with a focus on advancing flywheel energy storage to meet utility-scale challenges. Sanders will attempt to debunk myths that flywheels are only suited for short-term applications, by discussing how these devices can be economically designed to meet multi-hour, energy shifting applications.
With increasing concern over clean energy, electric fuel cells have generated interest as an alternative to electric battery and hybrid-electric technologies for vehicles. In a presentation titled “Power Electronics; Enabling Zero Emission Powertrains and Fuel Cell Engines,” Abas Goodarzi, president and chief executive officer of U.S. Hybrid Corporation, will discuss advances in power electronic technologies that are enabling fuel cell engines and zero emission vehicles. These developments, along with advances in vehicle control and autonomous driving, will enable commercially-viable, clean energy vehicles.
Also on Monday, Rikky Muller, co-founder of Cortera Neurotechnologies, will examine the power challenges in a completely different area: medical electronics. In her presentation titled “Improving Healthcare through Power Electronics: Opportunities in Powering Medical Devices,” Muller explores various powering modalities of medical devices, including emerging technologies for remote powering of implantable devices utilizing electromagnetic power or ultrasound. Such devices are expected to enable continuous monitoring of nervous system functions and deliver bioelectronics medicine to treat a wide range of diseases.