RECOM and Artificial Intelligence in Power Electronics

Feb 23, 2024
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At first, it might seem that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and power supply design have very little in common. However, RECOM is already actively using AI in at least three separate areas to improve our products and services. Read on to see how Artificial Intelligence, power, and RECOM are becoming synonymous.

Table of Contents

Intelligent Component Datasheet Comparison

RECOM manufactures some 33,000 standard products. The reason for so many products in our portfolio is the number of permutations and combinations needed to meet our customers' needs.

Consider a simple 5W DC/DC converter – RECOM’s REC5 series. Six different input voltages are offered as standard and nine different output voltages. That is 54 different input/output combinations straight off. Additionally, the series is available with four different isolation voltage ratings and six different pinning options. Include the options of a metal instead of a plastic case, remote control on/off function, and plastic tube or tape and reel packaging, then the total number of standard product options quickly exceeds three thousand – and that is just one converter series!

All these permutations are necessary to meet the various requirements of our customers – some may need SMD pinning so a single production process can be used for all components on the board, while another might demand through-hole pinning for extra robustness against shock and vibration, and to be pin-compatible with a second source from a different manufacturer. So, all these different combinations are needed.
Parametric search function on RECOM's website
Fig. 1: Example of a parametric search function on a manufacturer’s website
The problem is the complexity of such a wide choice. If a customer has an existing DC/DC converter solution and seeks to replace it with a RECOM product, it can be daunting to search through all the available options; a parametric search on RECOM’s website for a 1W converter with 5V input and 5V output returns 5 pages of results (Figure 1). A competitor shows 19 matches from their website search engine; another shows 122 results. Are they equivalent? What is the difference between them?

This is where Artificial Intelligence can help. RECOM is actively working with a local university to develop an AI system that can extract data from different manufacturers’ PDF datasheets so they can be compared. This is not a trivial task. Each manufacturer has a different style, text font, and datasheet layout.

Additionally, numerical data may be presented in different ways (e.g., 1A or 1000mA), measured in different ways (e.g., load regulation over 10-100% or 25%-100% load), or with incomplete information (e.g., 2kV isolation instead of 2kVDC for 60 seconds isolation). The Artificial Intelligence software must not only search through and recognize similar information presented in different parts of various datasheets, but also understand the context in which it is given, to judge if the data is genuinely equivalent.

Such a task is currently the job of a skilled and experienced component engineer. Artificial Intelligence will not replace that skill, but will greatly speed up the process – ideally replacing the long slog of trawling through hundreds of datasheets to make a shortlist of a few compatible candidates.

AI-Optimized Power Architecture for AGV Systems

Illustration of AGV from the outside and its power supply from the inside
Fig. 2: Typical AGV subsystems (source: Hirose Electric)
Many circuit designs need multiple board-level power supply voltages. Take, for example, an autonomous or automated guided vehicle (AGV) that can drive itself along city pavements to deliver packages or food parcels. The AGV will need various functional blocks – sensor inputs like video cameras, object detection via ultrasonic, radar, or lidar rangefinders, a GPS orientation system, a microcontroller, and several motor drivers – all powered from a single rechargeable battery, typically a 48V Lithium-Ion battery pack (Figure 2).

All these functional subsystems need power, supplied by the 48V battery pack. The battery voltage will vary according to load and state of charge, from 24V when depleted up to 54V when freshly charged, with a transient input range of 20V-60V1. The regulated board-level voltages could be +15V for the motor controllers, +12V for the camera and ultrasonic sensors, +300V for the LiDAR system, 3.4V for the GPS subsystem, and +5V, +3.3V, 1.8V, and 1.2V for the microcontroller, interface, and memory ICs. The wheel motor drives would be powered directly from the battery.

Obviously, these board-level power supplies will be supplied by various voltage regulators and DC/DC converter modules, but which is the optimum arrangement for the distributed power architecture? Individually powered from the 48V battery, or via a high-current DC/DC converter to reduce and regulate the supply with LDO regulators for each system, or a combination thereof? (Figure 3).
Graphics of two power supply solutions for the AGV board
Fig. 3: Two possible distributed power solutions for the AGV board: centralized and distributed
Both power tree solutions shown in Figure 3 deliver the same end results. The top distributed power architecture solution uses more DC/DC converter modules, which is highly efficient but not cheap. The bottom centralized solution uses more cost-effective low-dropout (LDO) regulators than the upper solution but has higher conversion losses. Is maximum overall efficiency the most important factor for the longest possible battery life? Or is cost the most important criterion? Or is there another power tree arrangement that would give a more optimal solution, delivering good efficiency at a reasonable cost? CAD software programs are available to help experienced designers select the right sockets in the power supply tree based on given technical specifications, but Artificial Intelligence can improve this process, allowing less experienced power engineers to find the most optimal solution with the best performance at the lowest cost.

RECOM is partnering with an AI software company that is developing such an automated design platform to offer targeted power supply design solutions. The AI algorithm will intuitively capture the application's functional requirements, automatically generate the project design, schematics, and documentation, and select the optimum components to streamline the design to best meet the project parameters.

Leveraging AI for Marketing and Technical Content

Video still from an AI generated synthetic avatar with audio and video commentary. Production time was a few hours
Fig. 4: Video still from an AI generated synthetic avatar with audio and video commentary. Production time was a few hours
Most will have heard of ChatGPT, a ‘large language model’ that uses machine learning to give intelligent replies to written questions. When released in late 2022, it became the fastest-growing software application ever – gaining over 100 million users within a few months. Building on the original free-to-use version's success, the latest pay-for-use versions have expanded the AI’s capability to generate images and text based on user prompts. Other Artificial Intelligence platforms can now create avatar videos with spoken commentaries based on text and image inputs.

RECOM has started to use these AI tools to create simple blog posts and short videos to promote new product releases (Figure 4). RECOM is a highly innovative company, releasing on average a new product every week. We need to communicate these new developments to our large customer base (>100k customers) quickly and simply, without bombarding them with weekly texts and press releases.

A short blog post, podcast, or YouTube video is an ideal way to keep our customers informed without being overbearing. However, traditional video shooting, audio recording, or image animation is a very expensive and time-consuming process, so we have had to be selective in choosing just the main products that were worth the additional investment in time and resources.

Automated text, audio, and video generation using AI has allowed us to generate informative short videos, podcast episodes, and blog posts that are available on demand, freeing up our customers' time and inboxes but still offering up-to-date information on our ever-expanding product portfolio. It also means we can quickly create new videos in different languages to support local markets and rapidly update our customer communications with any last-minute corrections or new features. Needless to say, RECOM experts always proofread the material before publication.

As the capabilities of A.I.-generated videos, texts, and audio tracks continue to advance, there is a growing opportunity to enhance our creativity in marketing efforts. For instance, we can provide more comprehensive information in the local language of our customers or implement layered product marketing strategies. This approach includes a succinct introduction to the main benefits for a broader audience and a detailed exploration of technological advances and features tailored to more sophisticated users. Being a technology company focused on delivering solutions, not just products, artificial intelligence software plays a crucial role in shaping our future. While it cannot replace the profound knowledge, skills, and experience of our engineers and sales support teams, it serves as a valuable tool to augment our services for customers. By leveraging A.I., we aim to elevate the overall quality of our offerings, ensuring a more personalized and efficient experience for our clients.

Note: the last paragraph was written by AI

1Specification according to LV148 automotive standard
Applications