IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2021 - 4

From the Editor
by Ashok Bindra
Utilizing Energy Harvesting
to Power IoT Devices
he Internet of Things (IoT) is
growing rapidly and so also
the need to power electronic
devices that enable IoT. Concurrently,
the emerging 5G network is
further improving the performance
of connected devices to further
drive the growth of IoT in emerging
applications. Billions of connected
devices must be powered reliably.
Collectively, the load on utility
power will be huge. Although, batteries
would have been the clear
choice, battery life today is limited
to about two years or less, and
devices operate for >10 years. In
other words, replacing batteries
multiple times during the life span
of an IoT device is not practical.
Thanks to energy harvesting (EH)
advances, connected IoT devices/
sensors are now harnessing the
power of clean and renewable
energy sources, such as solar,
wind, thermal, RF and vibration to
name a few, to create self-powered
IoT devices.
In the September 2021 issue of
T
tifies some power IoI/5G related initiatives,
like the PMSA EH and IEEE
5G roadmap, that promise to deliver
EH solutions and tackle the powering
challenges of billions of connected
IoT devices.
In the second feature " Meeting the
IEEE Power Electronics Magazine,
cover feature article " The Virtuous
Circle of 5G, IoT and Energy Harvesting, "
by Mike Hayes and Brian Zahnstecher,
presents stake holders creating
an ecosystem for generating next
generation EH solutions for IoT connected
devices. Plus, the feature idenDigital
Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2021.3099911
Date of current version: 13 September 2021
Power and Magnetic Design Challenges
of Ultra-Thin, High-Power Density 48 V
DC-DC Converters for Ultra-Thin Computing
Applications, " Michael de Rooij
and Quentin Laidebeur examine the pros
and cons of various non-isolated topologies
and show how the topology impacts
the choice of the power transistors and
magnetics, specifically the inductors,
because these two components account
for the bulk of the losses in a converter. It
presents an ultra-thin 48 V to 19 V threelevel
synchronous buck converter that
can deliver up to 250 W into the load with
peak efficiency of over 98%. The authors
conclude that the choice of a three-level
converter topology ensured that the required
inductance for the converter was
reduced by 70% when compared to a
standard buck converter operating under
similar conditions.
The third feature " Heterogeneous
Integration: A Promising Technology
to Future Integrated Power Conversion
Electronics " by Fanyi Meng, Chenfei
Wang, Ziheng Liu, Kaixue Ma, Don
Disney, and Kiat Seng Yeo, reviews the
traits and principles of power conversion
electronics from both circuit and
mathematical aspects. In this article,
the coauthors highlight the progress
of heterogeneous integration-enabled
4 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z September 2021
power conversion electronics. The
article then goes on to describe some
prominent research highlights from
both commercial practices and academic
frontiers and provides insight on
these case study applications.
It is well known that solar photovoltaic
(SPV) systems are associated
with low energy conversion efficiency.
Consequently, there is a need for an
efficient maximum power point tracking
(MPPT) technique. In the fourth
feature " Maximum Power Point in a
Single Step-A Novel Method for PV
Industry " Sreedhar Madichetty, Sukumar
Mishra, and Avram John Neroth
disclose a hardware-based technique
that deploys periodic sweeps to trace
the dynamic I-V curve to determine
the maximum power point in a single
step. The coauthors describe a GaN
based additional hardware module
used to determine the single step
MPPT. The cost of building this 4.6 kW
lab scale module is only USD $60.00,
which is quite small considering an
increase of 10% in energy efficiency of
the SPV system.
Finally, the feature " Virtual APEC
2021 Illuminates Emerging Technologies
and Trends " by yours truly brings
latest advances in electronic components
to power systems, including energy
storage to electrification of automobiles
and transportation.
Columns, Society News and More
It is with sadness I have to inform you
that on 16 May 2021, PELS past president
IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2021
