Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exhibit

Visit our booth at the APEC 2023 Exhibit in the Orange County Convention Center during the APEC Conference in March. The Exhibit is open from March 20 through March 22.

The APEC Conference hosts an exposition featuring hundreds of companies serving the power electronics industry in a variety of capacities. Top manufacturers and se [...]

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What is Load Regulation?

Load regulation ensures programmed output voltage remains constant despite load variations It is calculated using the following formula:

Where VLmin is the voltage at no load and VLmax is the voltage at maximum rated [...]

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What are voltage modes?

While all programmable AC power sources offer AC output mode, some also provide DC output mode. This may be useful for applications where only DC is required to power an EUT.  However, a growing number of power related products are coming on the market than can operate from both AC grid power and direct DC power.  This often eliminate [...]

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Remote Control

Computer control of test equipment – including AC and DC power sources – is a critical requirement for building automated test systems (ATE) and to a lesser extend engineering development lab experiments. Key requirements for this type of computer control are:

• Reliable communication to reduce or eliminate communication errors
• Da [...]
  
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Irvine, California, December 2, 2022 -- Pacific Power Source has expanded the range of AZX Series Regenerative AC Grid Simulators for test and development of bidirectional AC powered products by releasing two new Models.  The new 45kVA/kW 3450AZX and 90kVA/kW 3900AZX models join t [...]

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Power Conversion

Programmable AC power sources used for development and test applications convert locally available utility power to specific precision AC or DC output formats needed to test or control units under test. This is called “solid state power conversion” as active electronic circuitry is used rather than rotary converters or voltage only transformer.  This [...]

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What is Voltage Distortion?

Voltage distortion occurs when an AC output is purely sinusoidal but has small levels of voltage harmonics in addition to the fundamental sinewave frequency.  This low level of voltage distortion is often difficult to see on an oscilloscope and requires a power analyzer or harmonics analyzer to quantify. Distortion is typically expressed in percentage [...]

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Single Phase AC Voltage

Most of us are familiar with the single phase voltage in our homes provided by the local utility. For the US, this is typically 120V. For single phase voltage, the voltage is expressed as a Line to Neutral voltage between two power conductors (plus a safety ground).  The neutral conductor is normally at ground potential while the Line cond [...]

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Power Supplies and Output Power rating versus Voltage

As a rule, power supplies are rated for maximum power output only at their maximum output voltage. That means that as the programmed output voltage is decreased, the power output capability decreases proportionally. For example, a 10kW rated power supply with a 0 to 100V voltage range can deliver 100A at 100V or 10 [...]

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What is the difference between Inrush Current and Peak Current?

While inrush current has a peak current value, the term “Inrush Current” is commonly used to describe the current that is required to energize an AC powered device or product when first applying voltage and power to it.  This is especially true for inductive loads such as transformers, Indu [...]

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