Well equipped for Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is being shaped by the continuing rise in the degree of automation, by the digitalization that includes the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and by high levels of energy efficiency. In this respect, TDK presents a wide range of innovative EPCOS and TDK key components.

TDK offers a uniquely extensive portfolio of ceramic, film and aluminum electrolyte capacitors which also includes power capacitors for power factor correction. Aluminum electrolytic capacitors for DC link circuits are classic components for industrial power supplies, frequency converters or solar power inverters.

New types with screw terminals offer ripple current capabilities of up to 40 percent higher than their predecessors and are available for rated voltages of between 350 V DC and 450 V DC with capacitance ranges from 1500 nF to 18,000 nF. At the maximum operating temperature of 105 °C a useful life of 6000 hours is achieved.

Film capacitors are also being used to a greater extent in DC link circuits. One extremely compact solution is a new EPCOS type with dimensions of just 40 mm x 58 mm (diameter x height). This offers a rated voltage of 350 V DC and a capacitance of 65 µF. Its extremely high capacitance density of 0.9 µF/cm³ permits up to 50 percent more capacitance per volume than comparable capacitors.

Figure 1:

DC link capacitor with a low ESR of just 10 mΩ. 

Figure 2:

CeraLink™ in flex-assembly technology permits capacitance values of up to 10 µF in a small space.

Innovative DC link solutions with ceramic capacitors

With the MEGACAP Type MLCCs of the CA series TDK offers a solution that achieves high capacitance and low ESR values thanks to vertically stacked capacitors. Designed for voltages of between 25 V and 1000 V, these new types cover a range of capacitance from 20 nF to 150 µF. The MLCCs are available with the temperature characteristics C0G, X7T, X7S, and X7R.

CeraLink™ capacitors represent the innovative basis of DC link and snubber solutions. The capacitors are available in modular flex-assembly technology. This space-saving design connects two, three or ten identical capacitors in parallel over the same terminals in order to increase the capacitance. The new CeraLink FA types are available for rated voltages of 500 V DC, 700 V DC and 900 V DC. Depending on the voltage and number of capacitors, this results in nominal capacitance values of 0.5 µF to 10 µF.  

Considerable increase in efficiency due to new ferrites 

The ferrite material PC200 on an MnZn basis is specifically designed for fast switching power semiconductors on a GaN basis. Thanks to new core designs additional copper losses can be reduced by up to 70 percent. The basis for this is a special core design using distributed air gaps which permits higher operating frequencies and smaller inductive components to be used in power supply systems. By reducing electromagnetic emissions, the additional copper losses at high frequencies are also significantly reduced.

Safe protection against overvoltage

For safe protection against overvoltage, the lineup of EPCOS ThermoFuse™ varistors has been extended with the new compact NT14 and NT20 series. The NT14 series (disk diameter 14 mm) is designed to absorb maximum surge currents with an 8/20-μs pulse of 6 kA at rated voltages of between 130 V_RMS and 680 V_RMS, while the NT20 series (disk diameter 20 mm) has a surge current capability with an 8/20-μs pulse of 10 kA at rated voltages of between 130 V_RMS and 750 V_RMS.  

Figure 3:

 ThermoFuse NT intrinsically safe varistors for a maximum surge current capability of 6 kA.

Figure 4:

CeraCharge ™, the world's first rechargeable solid-state SMD battery, handles up to 1000 charge/discharge cycles.

Well equipped for industrial networking

Industry 4.0 is based on networking using LAN and WLAN. LAN cables enable not only data, but also power to be transmitted – Power over Ethernet (PoE). Specifically for PoE++, TDK offers a new series of EPCOS transformers with an output of up to 60 W at low DC resistances, which – depending on the type – can have values as low as 3.5 mΩ. The TDK ALT4532 series of pulse transformers has also been extended to include types for Gigabit Ethernet and PoE applications. The new ALT4532P transformer is suitable for extended 2.5GBASE-T (2.5 Gbit/s) and 5GBASE-T (5 Gbit/s) LAN applications as well as for 1000BASE-T (1 Gbit/s) with 600 mA PoE applications. The type 4532H is compatible with the 10GBASE-T standard (10 Gbit/s).

CeraCharge™, the world's first rechargeable solid-state SMD battery, is especially suitable for IIoT applications and is available in a compact EIA 1812 package. With a capacity of 100 µAh at a rated voltage of 1.4 V and an internal resistance of 200 Ω, the battery is capable of delivering currents of about 2 mA for short periods, say in pulsed mode, for the supply of a Bluetooth module during transmission, for example.

Sensors – the basis for industrial automation

Figure 5:

 PowerHap™ 15G for haptic feedback with forces of up to 20 N and displacement of up to 200 µm.

Sensor solutions based on ultrasonics, such as the ceramic-based EPCOS ultrasonic sensor disks, also meet current trends. Depending on their geometry, these disks permit frequencies of 200 kHz to 400 kHz or 500 kHz to 4000 kHz. In industrial electronics applications the sensor disks permit the flow metering of fluids or gases, and the level sensing of fluids or bulk materials.

Haptic feedback, in HMI applications for example, is becoming increasingly important in industrial electronics. The PowerHap™ piezo actuators with haptic feedback, for example, now also include the miniaturized type 2.5G which has dimensions of just 9 mm x 9 mm x 1.25 mm. At the maximum operating voltage of 60 V the new actuator can can achieve an acceleration of 2.5 g under a load of 100 grams. This enables a maximum displacement of 35 µm or a high force of 4 N to be achieved. The new type supplements the existing PowerHap series which includes the larger 7G and 15G types.