Programmable Power Blog

If you are in the market for a programmable DC power supply for the first time in five or ten years, you will notice some significant improvements. Modern supplies offer higher power densities, helping you save rack space. In addition, modern supplies can provide considerable flexibility in power, current, and voltage ratings, helping you future-proof your test systems to meet changing requirements.

Legacy Products EOL Announcement Offers Extensive Transition Period

When choosing programmable AC sources and DC supplies, look beyond the headline specs, such as power and voltage, before purchasing. Choose a vendor who offers flexibility concerning interface options, software support, size and weight, output measurement capabilities, and environmental conditions.

Multiple-output programmable DC power supplies can serve a wide range of applications, extending from semiconductor tests to process control. When selecting such supplies, look for flexibility as well as power density. Concerning the latter, choose a supply that maximizes output power while minimizing size—for example, a three-output supply that offers a 5,100W total output power in a 1U chassis.

When choosing programmable DC power supplies, you have many options. You can choose from a wide range of voltage, current, and power ratings. You will also select other specifications, including input voltage, output voltage regulation, output ripple and noise, and transient response time to a step input. Then, you will want to consider digital communications options, software compatibility, and whether you will need manual front-panel controls. And of course, you will also have multiple vendors from which to choose.

AMETEK Programmable Power has introduced two new multiple-output programmable DC power supplies—the Sorensen™ Asterion® DC ASA Series and Sorensen™ Asterion® DC ASM Series. These bring high power density and flexibility to applications ranging from commercial functional PCBA tests to military ATE systems. Each supply in the two series comes in a 1U-high chassis and features up to three independent, isolated outputs.

AMETEK Programmable Power Reveals the New Sorensen™ Asterion® DC ASA Series 

AMETEK Programmable Power is proud to reveal the new Sorensen™ Asterion® DC ASA Series Multiple-Output Programmable Power Supply.  As the newest addition to the Asterion platform of power testing solutions, the ASA Series offers enhanced testing efficiency while drastically reducing space and power consumption requirements.  

Semiconductors have been making headlines recently, primarily because chipmakers have been unable to make enough devices to satisfy demand. Headlines like these are common: “Until 2023? Parts shortage will keep auto prices sky-high,” “The global chip shortage is starting to hit the smartphone industry,” and “Why the global chip shortage is making it so hard to buy a PS5.”

When it comes to power and test applications, efficiency is key. The quicker you can perform tests, with the least amount of setup time and capital/energy costs, the more tests you can perform and the faster you can validate your product designs.  

Here, the role of the power supply innovation is an important one. As a critical piece of any test application, a power supply can make or break your product testing. The following are just a few factors that are dependent on your choice of power supply: 

AMETEK Programmable Power Supports Team Sonnenwagen Aachen

Team Sonnenwagen Aachen, equipped with an Asterion DC programmable power supply from AMETEK Programmable Power, has spent nearly 14 months designing and building its third-generation solar-powered racecar, dubbed Covestro Photon. In October, team members will take the car to Morocco to compete with other European solar teams in a new event—the Solar Challenge Morocco 2021 (SCM). The SCM is a five-day event with five different stages covering 2,500 km.

It wouldn't be bragging to say that we have a lot of experience with power supplies here at AMETEK Programmable Power. Many of our design and sales engineers have been with us for a long time, and we feel that really gives us an edge when it comes to helping you get the best product for your needs. Their extensive knowledge of our products and applications enable them to recommend just the right products, and you can feel confident in their recommendations.

The power supply may be one of the least-considered components of an electronic system. After all, how hard can it be to find the right power source for your system? You figure out how much current you need at the voltage your system will operate at, find a model that can supply that voltage and current in a catalog or on a website, then make the purchase.

Choosing the right power supply for your test system or application is no small task. Defining the power requirements for your application comes first, but this is only the beginning. Once you know the voltages and currents, you need to figure out how to power and control your source. There are several decisions that will need to be made.

Modern education and research are essential to creating the technology of the future. Good education creates the next wave of engineers and scientists, while research gives us all the tools and new scientific understanding to fuel our best designs.  

The wave of renewable energy is not coming – it is already here. Due to a mix of consumer and regulatory pressure, renewable energy is transforming the power and energy sector, creating new opportunities and challenges for design engineers.  

The right power supply can make all the difference. When you are creating a new product or setting up a test system, how you power your designs can have a major impact on their performance, efficiency and energy usage. Making the wrong choice can lead to: 

If you want to create next-level products in the military and aerospace sector, then you need better power and testing solutions. Only with the right power and test equipment can you respond to the industry’s rising demands with qualified products that meet performance and efficiency requirements, while also upholding government regulations.  

While today’s power supplies provide many advanced features, finding them and maximizing their capabilities can be challenging. That’s why when AMETEK Programmable Power designed the Sorensen™ SGX Series programmable DC power supplies, we paid a lot of attention to the user interface. The result? The SGX Series has an intuitive, easy-to-use front panel touchscreen display that allows you to quickly access output programming parameters, measurements, sequencing, and configuration and system settings.

TheSorensen SGX Seriescombines onboard intelligent controls with the outstanding power electronics common to all SG family supplies. These controls enable sophisticated sequencing, constant power mode and save/recall of instrument settings. The ability to program sequences and loop through them makes the SGX ideal for repetitive testing.

One of the cool features of AMETEK Programmable Power's SGX Series of power supplies is that it supports an LXI Class C Ethernet interface. This allows you to connect the SGX Series to your network and control it remotely from any computer on the network.

The AMETEK Programmable Power AMECare® Reliability Assurance™ service level agreement (SLA) program is designed to provide “white glove” support for mission-critical power and test devices. It includes regular preventative maintenance, break-fix support, and legacy upgrades beginning with a product’s purchase and extending throughout its entire lifecycle.

Resistive loads are easy on a DC power supply. When you turn off the power, the current quickly drops to zero and no damage is done.

Over the past 10-20 years, counterfeit electronic components have become a serious problem. Counterfeit components are parts that have somehow been misrepresented as to their origins or quality. Because counterfeit parts are often of lower quality than what are called “franchise” parts, they may represent a hazard if used in critical systems such as automobiles, aircraft of any kind, military equipment, or space vehicles.

AMETEK Programmable Power, the global leader in programmable AC and DC power test solutions, will be exhibiting at APEC 2019, which takes place this year from March 17 – 21 in Anaheim, CA at the Anaheim Convention Center. 

The Sorensen SG Series is designed for exceptional load transient response, low noise and the highest power density in the industry. With a full 15 kW available down to 20VDC output in a 3U package the SG Series leads the industry in power density. The power density is enhanced by a stylish front air intake allowing supplies to be stacked without any required clearance between units.

The Sorensen™ SGX Series is the next generation of our successful SG Series of programmable DC power supplies. Like the SG Series, the SGX Series has exceptional load transient response, very low noise, and high power density. What sets the SGX Series apart is the new touch screen display. This new feature makes the Sorensen SG Series of programmable DC power supplies even easier to use.

Today, when we think about controlling the output of a power supply, we usually think about digital control via a USB port or some other network interface. That's not the only way to control a power supply, though. Analog control is still used in many industrial applications, and it’s also a good choice if you have fairly simple control needs.

The most important thing that a power supply does is to maintain a constant voltage output or a constant current output. This is true whether the power supply is built into a product and provides fixed output voltages, such as a desktop computer power supply, or a power supply that is on the test bench or is part of an automated test system that must provide variable outputs. We call this ability to maintain a constant output voltage or current regulation.

One of the big challenges when designing and manufacturing auto parts is ensuring that they operate reliably in very hot environments, such as Dubai, where the high temperature can easily reach 40˚C. Of course, they must also operate reliably in very cold environments, such as Siberia, where the thermometer can drop to -40˚C or below. You certainly don't want parts to fail when you're zipping down the road at 200 km/hr. because they can't take the heat (or the cold).

Low-level measurements are susceptible to noise from a number of different sources. 

The tests you run to ensure that airborne utilization equipment is compatible with an aircraft's power system are specified in a series of MIL-HDBKs, specifically MIL-HDBK-704-1 through MIL-HDBK-704-8. To run these tests, a sophisticated power source is essential to simulate various power conditions. In addition, you also need whatever equipment is required to monitor the unit under test (UUT) while running the test.

AMETEK Programmable Power DC power supplies convert AC power to DC power. While our supplies are very good at doing this, they're not perfect. On the output, there will be some small amount of AC still present. This is called ripple.

As the number of photovoltaic power-generation systems continue to increase, the requirements for photovoltaic inverters are evolving as well. Conventional electrical characteristics such as over-voltage, over-frequency, anti- islanding intended to verify the inverter’s ability to tolerate power grid fluctuation are changing to meet varying requirements of the modern grid. In addition, the introduction of new requirements for low voltage ride through, high voltage crossing, and reactive power injection mean the inverter must be able to provide appropriate compensation when these grid conditions occur.

When installing an AMETEK Programmable Power power source, you must properly size the wires you use to connect the AC input power to the power source and the AC or DC output to the load. Selecting the right size gauge wire will ensure that your power source will operate efficiently and reliably.

While these days, computer control is usually the preferred method of controlling a power supply, many AMETEK Programmable Power products, such as the Sorensen SGA Series still offer analog control. Analog control is still used in many industrial applications, and it's also a good choice if you have fairly simple control needs.

To ensure that automotive electronics can withstand the voltage transients induced on the power bus, companies use expensive arbitrary waveform generation and coupling networks during the design phase. For production test, however, a simpler and less expensive means for simulating bus voltage variations and transients is required. For many transient tests, all you need is a switching power supply and an electronic load.

The Sorensen SG Series is one of the most popular high power programmable DC power supplies on the market. The SG Series is designed for exceptional load transient response and low noise output. With a full 15 kW available down to 20VDC output in a 3U package the SG Series leads the industry in power density. The power density is enhanced by a stylish front air intake allowing supplies to be stacked without clearance between units.

In many applications, a DC power supply has to drive a load with a large ripple component. Examples of this type of load are DC-AC inverters, DC-DC converters, and DC motor loads. Linear supplies can normally handle this kind of load easily, but when you use a switching power supply, such as the Sorensen SG Series or Sorensen ASD Series, to drive this type of load, you may encounter some unexpected (and undesirable) problems.

Selecting a laboratory power supply for the lab is not as easy as you might think. If you thumb through a catalog and choose the first one that you think meets your needs, you could end up with a power supply that more often than not sits on the shelf. By filling out the checklist below, and comparing your needs to the product descriptions and specifications of AMETEK Programmable Power's DC bench supplies, you're more likely to get the power supply you need.

Transient response is a measure of how well a DC supply, such as the Sorensen SG Series, copes with changes in current demand or how well the supply follows load impedance changes. This is an important specification in many applications, such as mobile phone testing and testing automotive relays and fuses. A good understanding of this power supply characteristic will help you choose the right supply for your test application.

When a load draws a high current, the voltage drop across the power leads could be high enough to cause a device under test (DUT) to fail or cause a system to malfunction. The solution to this problem is to use remote sensing. By adding a second set of wires—the sense wires—you can ensure that the proper voltage level is at the DUT or system's power terminals.

One of the most important specifications for a DC power supply is load regulation. Load regulation is a measure of how well a supply maintains its output voltage when the output current changes. Good load regulation will help ensure that the power supply will deliver the voltage your circuit or system needs.

The slew rate of a DC power supply is the rate at which the output voltage and output current changes. This characteristic is important in many applications, especially automatic test applications, as the faster a supply reaches a programmed voltage or current, the faster a test will run.

The first choice you must make when purchasing a DC power supply for a test system is whether to select a linear supply or switching supply. Linear power supplies offer low ripple and noise specifications and have fast transient behavior. They are, however, inefficient and generate a lot of heat. They are also quite heavy. As a result, most engineers find them desirable only at lower output power levels (typically less then 500 Watts). Most linear DC power supplies are benchtop supplies.

Testing the electric motors and the electronic control modules found in today's electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) is in many ways more challenging than testing internal combustion engines and their control modules. For one thing, HEV electric motors spin faster than internal combustion engines. They also must change speed more rapidly than internal combustion engines, and because some are designed to also generate energy, the test system must also measure the electrical output as well as the mechanical output of the motor.