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Energy provides are instrumental for the success of purposes through which excessive effectivity, reliability, and efficiency are obligatory necessities. This consists of the newest purposes within the automotive sector, the place the progressive electrification of the automobile fleet imposes unprecedented challenges to extend vary and scale back charging time, in addition to the dimensions and weight of the facility supply community. Information facilities, the place an unlimited quantity of information is saved and processed (additionally due to assistance from synthetic–intelligence algorithms), require extremely–environment friendly energy options able to working 24/7 whereas minimizing energy consumption and taking on much less house and weight.
Vicor Company, the trade chief in revolutionary energy–module design and manufacturing, has not too long ago celebrated the opening of a brand new 90,000–sq.–foot, state–of–the–artwork manufacturing facility in Andover, Massachusetts. The facility–module–manufacturing facility, created to assist the demand coming from the quick–rising automotive electrification and knowledge heart/AI industries, is the world’s first converter–housed–in–bundle (CHiP) fabrication facility. The brand new ChiP fab units the usual for scalable, excessive–quantity, price–efficient, and dependable energy–module manufacturing in the US.
Vicor ChiP fab
“This new ChiP fab is vertically built-in, which means that we’ve got developed a proprietary know-how and we introduced that underneath one roof somewhat than having it outsourced,” mentioned Tom Curatolo, director of purposes engineering at Vicor. “We predict this makes us far more environment friendly in an effort to meet our present and rising data-center calls for and the massive automotive calls for that will likely be beginning to ramp up within the close to future.”
The brand new fab, proven in Determine 1, is designed particularly to construct among the new merchandise that Vicor is bringing to market. For instance, Vicor’s proprietary Vertical Energy Supply options require larger–quantity manufacturing of their SM–ChiP elements such because the modular present multiplier (MCM) and MCM driver gadgets, in addition to new merchandise supporting ball–grid–array (solder sphere connect) necessities that aerospace and satellite tv for pc communications prospects want.
“We’ve at all times accomplished fairly a considerable amount of our enterprise with the aerospace and protection section, and this has continued into our new superior merchandise,” Curatolo mentioned. “It is a key side for our manufacturing, as a result of should you’re coping with aerospace and protection in addition to satellite tv for pc–kind purposes, reliability is crucial.”
These merchandise embody the DCM DC/DC converter, which regulates and transforms, in addition to chipsets consisting of PRM regulator and VTM present multiplier modules that will also be molded and rugged for withstanding environmental situations.
As well as, the power and the manufacturing course of used inside have been rigorously targeted on environmental sustainability through the use of environmentally pleasant, clear manufacturing processes that far exceed the sustainability benchmarks of competing manufacturing amenities.
Working intently with native, state, and federal environmental businesses, the operation has been designed for zero wastewater and air discharge. Wastewater will likely be recycled into extremely–pure deionized water that will likely be reused in regular operation. Vicor has adopted a multi–part strategy to filtering the water to make sure the best high quality. The preliminary part induces dissolved substances to solidify in order that they are often simply filtered out. Additional filtering removes natural particles and residual chemical compounds by way of quite a lot of mechanical filtering and chemical processes.
It has been estimated that this new sustainable wastewater course of will save as much as 20 million gallons of water every year, which is an impressive achievement. Furthermore, the strong contaminants filtered out as a part of the method are collected and recycled when doable. This multi–stage course of was constructed on trade greatest practices and additional refined to attain excessive ranges of purity.
ChiP manufacturing course of analogous to semiconductor strategy
The brand new, vertically built-in ChiP fab employs a proprietary manufacturing method that’s analogous to that utilized by semiconductor wafer fabs. This patented course of units Vicor aside from its opponents by enabling the manufacturing of probably the most energy–dense merchandise available in the market, but in addition allows higher high quality, reliability, and scalability.
The method (see Determine 2) begins with a naked panel analogous to a silicon wafer on which a number of cases of excessive–efficiency modules might be mounted and soldered through the use of state–of–the–artwork decide–and–place machines. These modules embody PRM, DCM, VTM, BCM, and extra. Completely different elements might be constructed from these panels, and they are often blended, matched, and singulated. Or they are often organized collectively as an array. Due to this fact, this fabrication methodology is extremely versatile and gives a excessive yield (as much as 420,000 elements per hour).
As soon as the SMT elements are positioned on the panel, it will get over–molded to create a dependable and thermally adept bundle. Then the meeting is plated, creating the interconnections in addition to the thermal interface for the bundle. Lastly, the facility modules are separated from one another by way of a course of known as “singulation.” The top product is then submitted to the required acceptance and qualification checks (together with whole dose radiation for the elements that may go right into a satellite tv for pc software), making certain it’s compliant to the datasheet specs and to the relevant requirements.
“The idea is just like the semiconductor wafer, with the distinction that it’s not a semiconductor wafer however a panel,” Curatolo mentioned. “It’s a proprietary PC board with a number of layers, manufactured as one unit, then singulated.”
A serious advantage of this answer is that it’s a simple and repeatable manufacturing course of and it includes so much much less waste. In case you needed to manufacture every of those elements individually, you’d find yourself with far more waste. It’s also extra price–efficient and ensures higher high quality. In accordance with Vicor, smaller modules not solely have larger energy density, however in addition they turn out to be inexpensive to fabricate — just like the semiconductor trade, each efficiency and value might be improved on the similar time.
“This panel idea is a serious soar in how we are able to produce issues and manufacture issues rapidly,” Curatolo mentioned. “That’s actually vital in in the present day’s atmosphere, the place it’s a must to face supply-chain points and also you’re underneath lots of strain to get these modules constructed and out the door instantly.”
Getting ready for brand spanking new, excessive–progress automotive and knowledge heart markets
In the present day, markets are more and more demanding extra energy–dense gadgets. That is true for the automotive trade, the place electrical automobiles require energy options which are environment friendly, small, and light-weight, as weight is crucial. The necessity is comparable in satellites: As a result of there may be not a lot accessible house for the elements, every one must be small.
In addition to automotive and aerospace and protection, knowledge heart is one other key trade for Vicor. “Information heart is an umbrella time period that incudes AI, machine studying, edge computing, and purposes that require excessive present density,” mentioned Steve Germino, director of PR and media relations at Vicor. “The brand new manufacturing facility allows us to fulfill the demand of those fast-growing markets. Our proprietary course of distinguishes Vicor from our opponents and units a brand new commonplace for top–high quality, low–price, and dependable power-module manufacturing in the US.”
The Vicor ChiP fab ushers in a brand new period of energy–module manufacturing. From the semiconductor–like strategy to the automation and emphasis on sustainability, Vicor has been targeted on excellence in manufacturing. Vicor has taken these measures not solely to assist prospects’ demand but in addition with an eye fixed towards sustainability to stay accountable for the total manufacturing course of, which now consists of plating underneath one roof.
This zero–wastewater recycling system is an ideal complement to state–of–the–artwork Vicor manufacturing processes, which have been regularly innovated upon for over 40 years. Because the main designer and producer of excessive–efficiency energy–module options, the brand new facility will assist a brand new period of progress, development, and innovation for many years to come back.
