Little Big Power: Femtoamps and Regenerative Supplies – #40 - a podcast by EEs Talk Tech - An Electrical Engineering Podcast

When power systems get ridiculous...



Power goes way beyond basic bench power supplies. Daniel Bogdanoff sits down with Chris Cain to explore femtoamp measurements, 100 kV multi-quadrant regenerative power systems, noise, and space-borne solar arrays in this EEs Talk Tech electrical engineering podcast!





Audio:





Learn more about the Keysight RP7900 regenerative power systems (RPS) and the Keysight CX3300 Dynamic Current Analyzers



0:17
Recording from New Jersey with Chris Cain, who manages teams for electronic industrial products, like power, DMMs, function generators, DAQs, board test, etc.



1:15
Current analyzer behind us measures FEMTOAMPERES of current. This is useful for RF and IoT systems.



4:20
Chris’s most spectacular equipment failure – a new engineer put their electrolytics in backwards



6:30
For extra large electrolytic capacitors people design vent holes in PCB 8:15 High power power supplies. 5kW and 10 kW power supplies



9:00
Two quadrant power supplies vs. one quadrant power supplies



10:30
A 100 kV power supply!? What’s that used for? Battery emulation for things like electric cars. The supply has to be able to both source and sink power, and switch between the two very quickly



12:15
A regenerative power supply (RPS) rectifies input voltage and puts it back on the AC mains instead of dissipating it as heat like a normal electronic load. So, the overall cooling requirements are very different for an RPS than a normal electronic load. One of the big costs for industrial factories is air conditioning and heat management. So, a regenerative power supply is very useful because it reduces heat.



15:15
Regenerative power supplies are also useful for testing photovoltaic inverters, for both terrestrial and space solar systems.



18:45
Noise parameters for high power systems



20:30
Power is very complex, and the systems are very dynamic



22:15
Giant toroidal transformers are used for power supplies and are dynamically controlled. They also are leveraged from systems like source measure units (SMUs).



24:30
Precision current measurement is very different than measurement, it often uses a triax



25:30
Some systems have 5 or 6 wire measurements to help with guardbanding

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