IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - June 2023 - 116

White Hot (continued from page 124)
APEC unofficially kicked off
with a full day magnetics workshop
(https://www.psma.com/technicalforums/magnetics/workshop),
organized
by the Power Sources Manufacturers
Association (PSMA) and
the IEEE Power Electronics Society
(PELS), the Saturday before APEC
officially started. This workshop
featured nine lecture presentations,
11 technology demonstrations, and
four student posters - making for a
full and busy day. Matt Wilkowski,
one of the workshop organizers, told
me that there were 124 attendees
from 16 different countries. Seventy
eight percent of the attendees were
from industry and the rest from
either academia or research institutions.
A survey of attendees showed
that it was well rated for content
and value. Another pre-APEC magnetics
workshop is being planned
for the Saturday before APEC 2024.
If you are planning on attending
APEC 2024,
I highly recommend
that you come a day early and spend
the money for the modest registration
fee to attend this workshop. It
is well worth your time and money.
As usual APEC started Sunday
morning with the Professional Education
Seminars. As in previous
years, there were eighteen seminars
presented in three sessions.
One of the benefits of registering
for the APEC seminars is that you
get the slides for all eighteen seminars
and can freely move from seminar
to seminar as you like. This is
different from many conferences
where one must register for specific
seminars and only get the material
for those seminars. And as usual
the APEC seminar chairs did an
outstanding job of creating the
seminar program. The seminars
covered topics in wide bandgap
device and applications, magnetics,
power supply design, gate drives,
and control. Plus, in a topic near
and dear to me, there was a seminar
on the PMBus power management
protocol that discussed at
FIG 1 APEC attendees socializing during the plenary session break. Source: Craig
Huey Photography.
length design and appl icat ions
problems and how to solve them.
The seminar presenters included
distinguished speakers such as
Professor Johan Kolar, well known
EMI expert Dr. Michael Schutten,
and signal integrity and power distribution
experts Steve Sandler and
Heide Barnes. Where else but at
APEC could you see such outstanding
contributors to power electronics
in just a day and a half?
Presentations and Exposition
The Plenary Session was held
Monday afternoon (Figure 1). As
much as I like APEC, the Plenary
Session in past years has sometimes
been lackluster with too many corporate
executives and not enough
technology. This has been changing
and this year's Plenary Session was
excellent. There was a diversity of
topics and the speakers all hit the
right balance of technical breadth
and depth. One thing I learned is
that advancements in batteries and
power electronics, specifically small
motor drives, now makes it possible
to replace gasoline engines in professional
power tools used in the
construction industry with battery
powered solutions. Since small gasoline
engines produce an enormous
116 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023
amount of carbon dioxide and other
pollutants relative to their size, this
is a nice step forward toward a
cleaner environment.
After the Plenary Session, the
Exhibit Hall opened. This year's
exposition had about 290 exhibitors
covering about 49,000 ft² (4550 m²).
The Exhibit Hall was packed with
people visiting the booths, catching
up with friends and colleagues old
and new, and grabbing a quick bite
or drink from the food stations.
Everyone, attendee and exhibitor,
was upbeat and enthusiastic. The
atmosphere was lively and the hall
filled with the low roar of countless
conversations. The exhibitors seem
to agree as the pre-sales for booths
at APEC 2024 have been strong. Any
by the way, my wife says two companies
tied for best swag - Wolfspeed
for their wolf superhero
stuffed animal and Axiom Test for
their gaily wrapped mug filled with
various goodies.
The rest of the week was filled
with technical and industry sessions.
There were 312 technical session
lecture presentations and 222
poster presentations (Figure 2).
There were about 180 industry session
presentations. As a reminder,
at APEC the technical sessions
https://www.psma.com/technical-forums/magnetics/workshop https://www.psma.com/technical-forums/magnetics/workshop
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