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Seeking Your Feedback on a Beat Our Board Design Challenge - Grand Prize $5,000

rscasny

I've been in discussions with a component supplier who would like to sponsor a Design Challenge.

But its vision of the Design Challenge is a little different than how element14 typically administers a Design Challenge. I want to tell you the details below. I would really appreciate you voting in the polls and offering feedback on the challenge. Thanks.

Randall
-element14 Community Team


What is the Beat Our Board Design Challenge?

The goal of PI Beat Our Board Design Challenge is for the participants to design a board that improves or beats the sponsor's DER-953 board. Below, I've posted a short video and a schematic of this RDK, as well as the datasheet.

image

How Applicants are Selected as one of the Top 10

The Top 10 submissions get to advance to the next stage and will be given the DER-953Q plus a $250 shopping cart to buy materials – fulfilled by Farnell. The sponsor or its representatives will judge the finalists. They are awarding $5,000 to the grand prize winner and $2,500 to the 2nd place winner.

The enrollment period will last 6 weeks.

What they need to show to be one of the top 10

To be selected as one of the Top 10, the applicant needs to show the following:
• Topology / switch type
• Transformer size
• Preliminary schematic

The length of the challenge is about 6 months (ends June 2024).

Here are the criteria to win:

• Cannot use InnoSwitch
• Beat the efficiency – 10%, 25%, 50% and 100% no-load
• 40-500 V DC input
• Size/ volume of board must be same size or smaller
• Must meet thermals – 85 degrees Celsius – no heatsink
• No optocouplers
• Component count
• No-load consumption
• Automotive qualified components only
• Transformer exempt
• Up to and no more than a 6-layer PCB
• Specify PCB stack up weight per sq foot- 2oz 1oz 1oz 1oz 2: Maximum copper thickness on top and bottom layers
• Overload power current limit = 8.1 A

What do you think of this challenge? I invite you to offer your thoughts in the comments section below.

I also invite you to vote in the following polls:



Parents

  • It is very cool but too hard, I think. Maybe it is hard just to me, but I think it is very hard in comparison with standard design challenge, when you can take just a Arduino and do something. I consider it very hard also because DER-953Q design is realy nice. Power Integrations spend lot of time with designing it and datasheet shows all evaluation results. I think there is very low chance that someone make something better.

    I do not understand the point "Cannot use InnoSwitch". At begining you wrote that we can win by improving their design, but later it seems that we should create (new) design using competittor products practicaly showing that it is impossible to make better design. That is interesting.

    You can also consider sending member result (final board) to Power Integration for propper (and equal/fair) evaluation under same terms (high voltage tests, tests at thermal limits, ...). In other words sponsoring shipping from member to Element14 (or Power Integration), basicaly the reverse way you send packages to us.

    I think 10 sponsored kits are too much. Because of complexity I gues that no more than 5 kits are necessary. Instead you can consider sponsoring PCB manufacturing.

Reply

  • It is very cool but too hard, I think. Maybe it is hard just to me, but I think it is very hard in comparison with standard design challenge, when you can take just a Arduino and do something. I consider it very hard also because DER-953Q design is realy nice. Power Integrations spend lot of time with designing it and datasheet shows all evaluation results. I think there is very low chance that someone make something better.

    I do not understand the point "Cannot use InnoSwitch". At begining you wrote that we can win by improving their design, but later it seems that we should create (new) design using competittor products practicaly showing that it is impossible to make better design. That is interesting.

    You can also consider sending member result (final board) to Power Integration for propper (and equal/fair) evaluation under same terms (high voltage tests, tests at thermal limits, ...). In other words sponsoring shipping from member to Element14 (or Power Integration), basicaly the reverse way you send packages to us.

    I think 10 sponsored kits are too much. Because of complexity I gues that no more than 5 kits are necessary. Instead you can consider sponsoring PCB manufacturing.

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