Preparation Time Eases EOL Transition While Ushering in New Product Lines
Preparation Time Eases EOL Transition While Ushering in New Product Lines
In-depth Planning Eases the EOL Transition Phase
As technology evolves, inevitably, innovation will impact the product life cycle. With thorough planning, the transition should not cause undue stress. The team at AMETEK has plenty of test engineering experience and have developed a complete EOL checklist to accommodate the impact to test programs involving factors such as cabling, timing, etc.
Legacy products require components that are becoming more difficult to supply. Adding features to these legacy products is becoming more difficult due to new designs being able to accommodate these new features more swiftly. Their goal with the latest product development is to replace these legacy products with a new line that limits the risk to customers in terms of form, fit, and function. As another objective, we streamlined the number of unique parts utilised in the Asterion design to create a more manageable lead time while offering the most significant degree of flexibility.
View the Asterion Series Range
The Latest Asterion Line Boosts Power Density, Reduces Complexity
The new Asterion line of high-power density components, which started roll-out in 2021, offers customers a more concentrated power supply in a compact form. The new line offers power ratings of 1.7, 3.4, 5.0, and 10 kilowatts, with power supplies up to 5 kW housed in a 1U chassis and the 10 kW solution housed in a 2U chassis.
The Asterion AC and DC product lines were designed specifically to alleviate transition issues by offering customers alternative models with similar output and more advanced controls, with capabilities beyond that of our legacy line or other, competitive products.
Streamlining parts and production makes the system quicker to build, which gives us more control over lead times.
The new Asterion DC Series fixed range supplies are an economical option for traditional rectangular wave output power supplies, with nine different output options of up to 600V. The Asterion DC line also offers various autoranging models in the 1.7kW to 10kW power range. This expands the current and voltage range at the full output power level to satisfy a more comprehensive testing need without purchasing additional models. An intuitive color touchscreen display provides operators full control in multiple languages for global adoption.
The new product portfolio overall:
- Standardises the I/O, controls, look, and feel for a true product family
- Reduces the portfolio complexity, providing more comprehensive and nimble solutions
- Offers flexibility for power levels
- Improved power density decreases rack space requirements
- Reduces the factory complexity for supply chain and inventory for more reasonable lead times
- Helps customers avoid oversizing to meet power specifications
Want to Save Space?
The Asterion DC ASA and Asterion DC ASM Series feature up to three outputs in a 1U chassis, with 1800W or 5100 total power, respectively. This is a new product providing the highest power and channel density in the market. The product will make more rack space available, allowing customers to add more components to the existing rack and/or eliminate factory floor space, which can only be a good thing.
The Asterion product line will serve customer requirements and programmable power needs for the next decade. We invite discussions with customers unable to upgrade within this 12-month timeframe to decide on a plan of action. A transition to the newer product line can supply the best and most efficient cost outlay instead of custom or special builds. We can help you plan this business decision for the most significant cost-effectiveness, least risk, and most reward for your business goals.
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Top FAQs
When purchasing a power supply, the first choice to be made is linear supply or switching supply. Linear power supplies offer low ripple and noise specifications and have fast transient behavior. However they are inefficient and generate a lot of heat. They are also quite heavy. As a result most engineers prefer linear power supplies for low power applications. Using switching power supplies is a better choice for higher output power or multichannel applications. They provide higher power density. Switching power supplies are easier to control than linear supplies and cost about the same per channel.
Transient response is a measure of how well a power supply copes with changes in current demand or how well the supply follows the changes in the load impedance. This is an important specification for many applications.
DC output voltage slew rate is a rise or fall time. DC programmable power supplies have output filters that use large capacitors that store a lot of energy. It’s mainly the charge and discharge time of this filter, combined with the current demand of the DUT, which determine a supply’s voltage slew rate. The voltage slew rate is mostly independent of the connected EUT.
Load Regulation is an important specification of programmable power supplies. This means some percent output voltage change from its set-point due to a change in the current demand of the EUT. Normally this effect should be very small, less than 0.01% of set output voltage.
Line regulation specifies the percent change of the DC output voltage or current as a function of AC input line voltage. This specification is important when the input line voltage is not stable.
Stability is a measure of a supply’s long term output voltage or current drift. Stability is primarily specified in parts per million or ppm.
If more output current is required then paralleling power supply outputs is generally the solution. Ametek Programmable Power uses a dedicated control bus to connect its power supplies in parallel. The system configures itself automatically, identifying which unit is the master and which units are the slaves.
If more output voltage is required then connecting power supplies outputs in series is generally the solution. All you have to do is to connect the positive terminal of one supply to the negative of another. The limitation is that when operated in series, there are no master and slave units. Individual power supplies has to be programmed.
DC programmable power supplies typically provide a standard and isolated analog interface. Through the analog interface a supply’s DC output voltage, current and over voltage protection can be set. The control signal can be a voltage signal, a current signal or by connecting a resistor to the analog input.
Many DC programmable power supplies can be configured for either local or remote sensing. For a more accurate output voltage setting, remote sensing should be use. This method compensates for the voltage drop across the leads to the load terminals.
Upgrading to the Asterion power supply system has given us significant more testing capability and flexibility. It has been a wise investment. Thank you for your advice and support.
Margaret Smith
TEST LABORATORY SENIOR ANALYST AT UNIVERSITY OF NSW
Buying the MX45 California Instruments power source has given us enhanced testing capabilities. We have the SNK option, which is a bidirectional sink option. We are now able to simulate all grid conditions in our lab environment up to 45kVA. For me, reliability is important and I’m happy to say that we have been using this device for many years without any issues.
Keith Boydell
RESEARCH FELLOW AT UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG
We have several Sorensen power supplies in our lab and they are the lowest output noise power supply we have experienced. For any critical research project where output noise and line/load regulations are important, we use only Sorensen power supplies.
Annette Eskdale
TEST LABORATORY MANAGER AT MONASH UNIVERSITY
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