IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2017 - 4

From the Editor

by Ashok Bindra

generating standards
Is a long Process

o begin the new year, Prof.
Alan Mantooth of the University of Arkansas took up the
baton from outgoing IEEE Power
Electronics Society (PELS) President
Prof. Braham Ferreira, whose twoyear term ended in December 2016.
In those two years, Prof. Ferreira has
done a tremendous job in extending
the Society's global reach, driving
new initiatives, and setting the stage
for its growth around the world. It
was a pleasure working with Prof.
Ferreira, whose support and guidance helped the magazine flourish. I
look forward to working with Prof.
Mantooth, who has briefly outlined
his vision for the Society in his first
"President's Message" in this issue of
IEEE Power Electronics Magazine.
Prof. Mantooth is also actively
involved in the standards process at
the IEEE as well as cybersecurity for
power electronics.
Interestingly, this issue of IEEE
Power Electronics Magazine focuses
on standards in power electronics. It
is a difficult and complex issue, one
that is not so easy to interpret and
implement as there are so many organizations and multiple standards. As
a result, engineers often struggle to
adopt the correct standard. We invited
Prof. Peter Wilson of the University of
Bath, United Kingdom, who is also the
PELS director of standards, to shed
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2016.2644058
Date of publication: 7 March 2017

IEEE PowEr ElEctronIcs MagazInE

their requirements are having on ac-dc
some light on this complicated topic.
power conversion designs. In addition
In his article, "Standards in Power
to presenting details of a few efficiency
Electronics," Prof. Wilson attempts to
programs, the article also describes inaddress commonly asked questions
novative power integrated circuits that
from practicing engineers. Besides
enable conformance to new and proidentifying important standards orgaposed efficiency requirements.
nizations around the world, the article
The article "How
also describes how
GaN Power Transisstandards are develtors Drive High-Perforoped. He provides a
It was a pleasure
mance Lidar," by John
flow diagram that
working with Prof.
Glaser of Efficient
graphically takes you
Ferreira, whose
Power Conversion
from the first stage in
support and guidance
Corp., provides some
the process, which
helped the magazine
background inforis the development
flourish.
mation on the lightof an idea, to the last
detection-and-ranging
step when the stan(lidar) instrument,
dard is published.
including its inner workings. He then
However, the process must be reviewed
discusses laser diode drivers and the
and updated after ten years; updates
benefits of using GaN FETs in this appliused to be required every five years.
cation. Moreover, he argues why eGaN
In addition, this article discusses
FET characteristics are more desirable
the role of the PELS Standards Comfor this design. Measured performance
mittee in the development of the Inis presented to support the discussion.
ternational Technology Roadmap for
The article "Generation-After-Next
Wide-Bandgap Power SemiconducPower Electronics," by Robert Kaplar,
tor (ITRW). As per the article, the
Jason Neely, Dale Huber, and Lee Rashrole of the ITRW is to establish some
kin of Sandia National Laboratories,
of the key criteria in a framework
reviews recently developed optimizaof metrics for wide-bandgap power
tion methods for designing converters
semiconductors, in the context of
to operate at the limits of performance.
power electronic systems, to enable
Several developing technologies are
specific technical work and standards
discussed that are expected to greatly
activities to be undertaken.
increase power converter densities.
In the second article on this topic,
These include recently developed
Rich Fassler of Power Integrations
ultrawide-bandgap semiconductor dediscusses different types of efficiency
vices, complementary balance of the
regulations that have emerged in the
system components including compact
last decade and the major impact

z March 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2017