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Many industrial manufacturing processes require monitoring and control of temperature at key points in the operation to ensure the highest product quality, maximum throughput and optimized yield. To meet these demands, innovations are driving new precise and reliable thermal measurement solutions. Traditional technologies such as thermocouples and thermistors are giving way to more sophisticated optical techniques that deliver improved reliability and repeatability needed by modern thermal processes. This has led to the growing use of fiber optic sensors that are immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI) common in industrial environments, and non-contact pyrometers that measure precise thermal radiation.

The reliability issue is a significant pain point because a so-called “truck roll” (a visit by a service technician to the base station to repair or replace a component, circuit board or other assembly) is a costly last resort that service providers want to avoid. Unplanned downtime and maintenance costs can mount very quickly, reaching many hundreds of times the cost of any specific part or system that has failed.

Power system designers today face intense pressure to raise conversion efficiency and save energy as they strive to deliver sustainably improved performance. One key to reaching greater efficiency is switched-mode power conversion.