Knowles Precision Devices Blog

Top Articles of 2023: Bidirectional Charging, Microstrip Filters, and More

Written by Bethany DeMarco | Dec 27, 2023 1:15:00 PM

In 2023, our experts continued their commitment to teaching engineering basics and sharing their insights into the latest industry trends and challenges. Hopefully, you’ve found our lessons and insights valuable. We appreciate that you turn to us to learn about the industry, and we take your readership seriously.

As we reflect on this past year, we wanted to share five of our top blog posts, in case you missed them.  

 

1. Why Bidirectional Charging for EVs Requires Special Attention to Design 

Bidirectional technology means electric vehicle (EV) batteries can fuel vehicles and private homes or local grids. Since bidirectional chargers send current in two different directions using one circuit, their components will experience more wear. Wear leads to overheating, voltage spikes and current surges that could pose safety concerns. Each component in the system must be designed for longer device life and a higher number of charge/discharge cycles. Read more

 

2. The Facts About Microstrip Filters 

Microstrip technology was first released in 1952. Since then, advancements in both dielectric material manufacturing and thin film processing techniques have led to the adoption of microstrip filtering for a wider range of applications, especially at mmWave frequencies. Since our acquisition of Integrated Microwave Corporation (IMC) in 2021, we have extended our range of RF and microwave filtering solutions. During this time, we’ve also continued to innovate on and expand our product offering for the microstrip filter. Read more

 

3. High-Performance Capacitors to Meet the Needs of Demanding Aerospace and Defense Applications 

Innovative technologies in aerospace and defense are placing new demands on power electronics. They must function reliably at higher voltages and in more extreme temperatures—all while becoming smaller and lighter. As innovation continues, the “jobs” that need to be done by the capacitors used in power electronics systems are changing as well. Read more

 

4. Selecting Capacitors for High-Voltage X-Ray Power Supplies 

X-ray power supplies need to step up a large amount of voltage in a small package. A popular way to achieve this is to design power supplies for X-ray machines using an LLC resonant converter topology, which uses capacitors to create smooth, reliable power. DC-link capacitors, decoupling and bypass capacitors, safety capacitors and other EMI filters all contribute to ensuring the power supply can support X-ray functions. Read more
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5. What Are DC-Blocking Capacitors, and Why Are They Important? 

In all applications requiring signal integrity and accurate power amplification, blocking capacitors are used to provide clean waveforms and correctly amplified voltages. Generally, waveform systems can be broadly defined into power-related alternating current (AC) and communications-related radio frequency (RF) applications. Both employ waveforms to provide power or information. Each of these applications require blocking capacitors to ensure waveforms conform to the desired specifications. Read more

As always, we’re here to help you learn how to design for high performance in critical applications across industries—including space, healthcare, defense and manufacturing.  

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