At the heart of every electric car is the battery. It should be compact and as powerful as possible - and above all safe. This places great demands on production. Researchers from Fraunhofer IPA are demonstrating what this could look like in the future at the Center for Digitized Battery Cell Production (ZDB).

Data processing ICs—such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), systems on a chip (SoCs), and microprocessors—continually increase their reach into telecommunications, networking, industrial, automotive, avionics, and defense systems. One common thread throughout these systems is ever increasing processing power, resulting in corresponding increases in raw power requirements.

Nexperia, a specialist in essential semiconductors, announced its entry into the high-power Silicon Carbide (SiC) diodes market with the introduction of 650 V, 10 A SiC Schottky diodes. This is a strategic move for Nexperia, already a supplier of efficient power Gallium Nitride (GaN) FETs, to expand its high-voltage wide bandgap semiconductor device offering.

Audi is already developing high-voltage batteries for plug-in hybrids in Neckarsulm. Now, development of complete high-voltage battery portfolios for fully electric vehicles is being predominantly settled at that location and gradually expanded for that purpose. Additionally, a battery center for testing high-voltage storage technologies will go into operation by 2023.

Toyota announced that it will invest approx. USD3.4 billion in automotive batteries in the U.S. through 2030. Specifically, the investment is for developing and localizing automotive battery production, including those for battery electric vehicles, and is part of the global total of approx. USD13.5 billion set aside for investment in battery development and production.

Penn State researchers have found a way to improve lithium-ion batteries for faster charging, higher energy density, and longer life cycles with the hope of preparing for next-gen technologies like eVTOL flying cars and robotic assistants.

The very first electric bus equipped with KAORI CO₂ brazed plate heat exchanger has been operated by the public transport company in Europe since 2019. After ten years of intensive tests, KAORI’s patented CO₂ brazed plate heat exchanger is proven as a great part of the e-bus CO₂ heat pump system by global vehicle manufacturers, with sophisticated technology achieving its goals.

The new super-junction STPOWER MDmesh K6 series from STMicroelectronics enhances several key parameters to minimize system-power losses. It is especially suited to lighting applications based on flyback topology, such as LED drivers, HID lamps, as well as adapters, and power supplies for flat-panel displays.

UART, or universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter, is one of the most used device-to-device communication protocols. This article shows how to use UART as a hardware communication protocol by following the standard procedure.

The demand for connected devices keeps growing – in particular in the Internet of Things, or IoT for short. The Fraunhofer flagship project ZEPOWEL has shown successfully how all of these sensor systems can become extremely energy efficient or even completely autonomous. The potential result: Up to 20 % less carbon emissions in Germany alone.