Power
The future is bright for high voltage
High voltage power solutions are driving some of the world’s most impactful innovations – and high voltage is a growth area for XP Power as it boosts its global capabilities. We spoke to Maynard Floyd, XP Power’s director of product management for high voltage products, to find out more
Why is high voltage on the radar? High voltage is an enabling technology. It touches all our lives and is a critical technology for the modern world. High voltage power supplies are predominantly used for ionization, high voltage biasing, accelerating and steering a beam of ions or electrons; for example, in low power applications they could be used for species selection for applications such as ion implantation and mass spectrometry. In high power applications, they are used for material manipulation such as precision welding and additive manufacturing.
What kind of applications are enabled by high voltage power solutions?
High voltage power solution units (HVPSUs) allow us to develop tools that facilitate a better understanding of the world around us. They impact markets such as healthcare, materials research, analytical equipment and security. The semiconductors that drive our laptops, phones, white goods, watches and cars are all made possible because of high voltage processes such as ion implantation and lithography. The screens on electronic devices such as laptops, phones, and notebooks have been through a sputtering or deposition process powered by high voltage. The anti-glare coating on your glasses, the reflective material on your car headlamps – even the metallic coating inside crisp packets and milk cartons is all the result of a high voltage or radio frequency process. When we travel, as part of the security
Figure 1: A reliable, efficient high voltage power supply is necessary for applications such as semiconductor manufacturing
process, our bags are sometimes swabbed and then the swabs are analyzed in a mass spectrometry device to identify any substance traces. Mass spectrometry applications need a power supply delivering high voltage with minimum ripple and noise. There is a very broad range of uses for mass spectrometry applications, from monitoring the air quality on the International Space Station to the Olympic Committee analyzing athletes’ blood and urine samples to check for doping.
In which markets is high voltage making an impact? A more recent market is additive manufacturing where titanium powder is usually used as the medium to print incredibly fine, complex geometries. This has really taken off in the medical industry where bones can
be scanned and printed for hip replacement procedures, skull replacement surgery and many other requirements.
All ten Formula 1 teams are using additive manufacturing to produce parts for their cars. This allows ultra-rapid prototyping as they can re-design, modify or tweak a component, print it, and get it into the wind tunnel for an immediate evaluation of the change. High voltage also enables high precision, low volume production and part creation in all types of materials, and complex shapes are constantly researched and used by F1 teams. There are around 100 printed parts on an F1 car and, as additive manufacturing technologies advance, we will see stronger and stronger utilization from F1 teams.
What kind of HV capabilities is XP Power able to offer?
XP Power entered high voltage initially with the acquisition of high voltage companies –
Figure 2: The new FT series ad- dresses challenges engineers face with limited high voltage integra- tion experience and compressed project timelines.
EMCO High Voltage in 2015 and Glassman High Voltage in 2018. At the lower end (less than 30W), the portfolio includes a suite of miniature, programable PCB and surface mount modules that have a voltage range from 100V and run up to 25kV. Towards the upper power end, we have a portfolio of products from 15W up to 25kW in a single enclosure with fully regulated and programmable voltages from below 1kV up to 500kV.
The larger unit products use air as the isolation medium. The advantage of this is that our products are lighter and offer a lower cost of ownership by being easier to maintain and service. They are also more environmentally friendly than other solutions utilizing silicon or oil encapsulant. The acquisition in January 2022 of FuG Elektronik GmbH, near Munich, and Guth High Voltage GmbH, near Stuttgart, complements and expands the XP Power portfolio in terms of both technology and power range. FuG and Guth bring encapsulation knowledge and cooling expertise as well as high performance, low ripple precision products into the portfolio, expanding XP Power’s offering to include enclosed power up to 600kW and voltages up to 500kV.
What does the future hold for XP Power in the high voltage market? We see a very bright future in high voltage. In addition to bringing our global engineering teams together to collaborate on technology know-how and increasing our already high standards, XP Power is committed to investing in technology. By offering our customers higher performance products, we are enabling them to develop market-leading technologies and we’re confident that we are offering the lowest cost of ownership and highest reliability in our field of expertise.
https://www.xppower.com/ 50 February 2023 Components in Electronics
www.cieonline.co.uk.uk
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