The 2017 "Power Technology Roadmap": Empowering the Electronics Industry [PSMA Corner]

The most recent road map report was formally released at the Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC) 2017 in Tampa, Florida, during 26-30 March. In a plenary presentation at APEC, key trends were noted. The first is the continuing smaller, faster, cheaper mantra associated with most technology progression, which captures how, for many years, our industry has operated in a technology-responsive manner. But he also identified a new and interesting theme in this year's PTR: that power electronics technology has emerged, or, should we say, re-emerged, as an enabling technology in its own right. In other words, a large part of our industry is now shaping the technology for the electronics industry. Examples include the technology behind electric vehicles, alternative energy converters, and energy harvesting devices.