APEC 2021 will be an online event in June

This year’s APEC 2021 will be presented as a fully virtual event for the first time in its 36-year history. Although we’ll miss the camaraderie of the in-person event we attend every year, you’ll see from the description to follow that APEC 2021 will not be a scaled-back or limited version of this important annual trade show.

Hosted on the robust event platform Social27 from June 14 to June 17, 2021, participants and exhibitors of APEC 2021 will have many different ways to network. The online event will afford power electronics professionals — especially those based abroad — the flexibility of participating live and/or accessing the recorded materials on-demand.

APEC 2021 will be a complete virtual conference and exhibition consisting of:

• June 14–17: An online conference of multiple, live educational sessions and Q&As, spanning four days
• June 15–16: A two-day virtual exhibition featuring hundreds of companies

When announcing their decision to hold the event online, the APEC Conference Committee cited uncertainties surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic. Continuing global travel restrictions and unknown future guidance on large-scale gatherings made it impossible for the committee to predict that the event would be safe to attend in-person by June. As a fully online conference and exhibition, APEC 2021 will ensure the safety of attendees and presenters alike.

I encourage you, whether you’re a long-time APEC participant or you are new to APEC, to take advantage of the opportunity to advance your professional growth. APEC 2021 is an unmatched resource for learning about the latest technologies and trends impacting the power electronics industry.

Conference program
The complete schedule of Plenary Sessions, Technical Sessions, Industry Sessions, RAP Sessions, and Professional Education Seminars is now available online. Registrants will have access to session content during the live sessions. They will also be able to access recorded content until late July (except for the live-only RAP Sessions).

Here is a summary of the program details for APEC 2021:

Plenary Sessions
The APEC Plenary Sessions continue a long-standing tradition of addressing issues of immediate and long-term interest to the practicing power electronics professional.

Unlike prior, in-person APEC events where “keynote” Plenary Sessions were held on the conference’s opening day, APEC 2021 virtual Plenary Sessions will be distributed over the first three days of the conference. This year’s lineup includes seven distinguished invited professionals who will share their thoughts on six topics, ranging from automotive and wide-bandgap technologies to energy storage and the future of power passives:

• Auxiliary Automotive Drives Revolutionized by Power Electronics

• Monday, June 14, 9:00 a.m. EDT
• Annette Muetze, Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing, Graz University of Technology

• Wide Bandgap Technologies: Enabling a Broader Power Application Domain

• Monday, June 14, 9:45 a.m. EDT
• Edoardo Merli, Power Transistor Macro-Division General Manager and Group Vice President, STMicroelectronics

• Native a.m.erican Energy Sovereignty: Energy Storage and Power Electronics Benefits

• Tuesday, June 15, 9:45 a.m. EDT
• Stanley Atcitty, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Sandia National Laboratories

• Maturing Wide Bandgap Semiconductors Fosters Standardization (JEDEC JC-70 addresses unique characteristics and behaviors of WBG)

• Tuesday, June 15, 9:00 a.m. EDT
• Stephanie Watts Butler, Texas Instruments; JC-70 Chair
• Peter Friedrichs, Infineon; JC-70.2 Co-Chair

• The Present and Future of Magnetics and Other Power Passives

• Wednesday, June 16, 9:00 a.m. EDT
• Charles R. Sullivan, Professor of Engineering, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

• Quantum Computing — The New Computing Paradigm

• Wednesday, June, 9:45 a.m. EDT
• Heike Riel, IBM Fellow, Lead IBM Research Quantum Europe & Africa, IBM Research

Technical Sessions
The Technical Program at APEC is peer-reviewed. Technical papers are carefully selected based on their ability to highlight the most innovative technical solutions at the highest quality possible. They cover all areas of technical interest for the practicing power electronics professional. Papers with broad appeal are presented during lecture sessions, and those with a specialized focus are presented during dialogue sessions.

All sessions will be pre-recorded and available on-demand starting June 9. On the scheduled day of the session, a live Q&A will follow each presentation. In addition, “Office Hours” for presenters will be held in several time slots over the course of the conference.

The Technical Sessions and Q&A panels will take place over several time slots on Monday, June 14; Wednesday, June 16; and Thursday, June 17. Technical Dialog (Poster) Sessions will be held on Tuesday, June 15. The timing of these sessions is designed to allow for maximum access by the worldwide APEC audience. The full schedule can be found at http://www.apec-conf.org/conference/schedule/.

Industry Sessions
Industry Sessions cover information on current topics in power electronics and are presented by industry sources. These sessions run in parallel with the traditional Technical Sessions track. Industry Sessions speakers are invited to give presentations only, without submitting a formal paper. This allows attendees to learn about up-to-the-minute information that otherwise might not be available in the published conference papers. While these sessions are technical in nature, they also target business-oriented topics of interest to purchasing agents, electronic system designers, regulatory engineers, and others supporting the power electronics industry.

All Industry Sessions and Industry Dialog Sessions will be presented in parallel with the Technical Sessions schedule, as detailed above. And, just as with the Technical Sessions, all Industry Sessions will be pre-recorded and available on-demand starting June 9. On the scheduled day of the session, a live Q&A will follow each presentation. In addition, “Office Hours” for presenters will be held in several time slots over the course of the conference.

RAP Sessions
This year’s RAP Sessions, a perennial favorite at APEC, will be back in full force. RAP Sessions allow for more informal and exciting dialogue among attendees and presenters. While these sessions have always been held concurrently at in-person APEC events, this year’s RAP Sessions will take place in three separate time slots so that interested attendees can participate in all three. And, as has always been the case, Rap Sessions are open to all registrants — but in this case, you’ll need to provide your own cool drink and snacks. Here’s the lineup:

• RAP Session 1: Monday, June 14, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. EDT

• Distributed vs. centralized control for micro-grid and nano-grid

• RAP Session 2: Wednesday, June 16, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EDT

• Does high level of integration make power converters more reliable or not?

• RAP Session 3: Thursday, June 17, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. EDT

• Where does the expertise for the next generation of magnetics come from: the magnetics companies or the engineer designing the power supply?

Professional Education Seminars
APEC’s Professional Education Seminars (PES) focus on practical aspects of the power electronics profession and provide in-depth discussion of important and complex power electronics topics. Given by distinguished speakers and experts, each seminar combines practical application with theory and is designed to further educate the working professional in power electronics or related fields. The preliminary list of seminar topics includes:

• Hybrid and Resonant Switched-Capacitor Power Converters: New Circuit Topologies and Control Techniques for High Power Density Designs
• New Developments in Topologies and Magnetics to Reach 99% Efficiency Using the Latest Semiconductor Devices
• Selecting the Best Power Semiconductor Device for Your Application
• Isolated Gate Driver ICs in Power Electronics Systems — Insulation specifications, IC verification, Application Requirements and Design Optimization
• Integrated PCB Winding Magnetic Components for High-Frequency Power Converters
• Practical Considerations for the Application of High-Power Si and SiC Modules
• Designing Compensators for the Control of Switching Power Supplies
• Traditional and Emerging Digital Control Techniques in Power Electronics
• EMC Design Fundamentals for Power Electronics Converters
• Silicon Carbide (SiC) Power Converters: EMC Design Fundamentals, Layout Techniques, and Construction Methods
• Reliability Analysis Methods and Tools for Power Electronic Components and Systems
• Fundamentals of Switched Reluctance Motor Drives
• Future Power Electronics 4.0 SiC/GaN 3-phase PWM Converter Concepts
• A Practical Guide to SiC MOSFET and Schottky Applications
• SiC Power Conversion and System Packaging Technologies for High-Temperature, High-Pressure Harsh-Environment Applications Maximizing GaN FET and IC Performance

Profession Education Seminars will be presented in several time slots over the course of the conference. They will also be recorded and available on-demand. Please check the online schedule for details.

Technical Exposition
At the first-ever APEC virtual exposition, exhibitors will showcase their latest advances in power electronics technology. Important for networking opportunities, they will also be available to discuss specifics with attendees, share contact data, and request product literature and other information.

The Exposition will be open for live attendance and free to all registrants during the following hours:

• Tuesday, June 15

• 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EDT
• 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. EDT
• 9:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. EDT

• Wednesday, June 16

• 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. EDT
• 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. EDT

Register today
I look forward to seeing you at APEC “live and in-person” in 2022 when the pandemic is behind us. Until then, please register for APEC 2021 and join us in June for the virtual event. After all, we’re fortunate to have this chance to network with our peers and learn about new products in the comfort of our local surroundings.

Greg Evans, P.E., serves as APEC 2021 Publicity Co-Chair. He is CEO of WelComm, Inc., a marketing communications firm with a concentration in the power electronics industry. He has attended APEC nearly every year in its 36-year history and has served on the Conference Committee for over 20 years.