The awards were announced in the January 2009 issue of the magazine. The editors of Electronic Products – a leading trade publication for electronic-design engineers – evaluated thousands of products launched in 2008 and chose 19 winners. The winning products are selected on the basis of innovative design, significant advancement in technology or application and substantial achievement in price and performance.
Patrick Le Fèvre, Ericsson Power Modules’ Marketing Director, says: “We are very proud to receive this award. It places Ericsson as a technology leader, driving innovation in products that contribute to lower energy consumption, resulting in lower CO2 emissions. The success of this product is a true team effort by our marketing staff and research and development scientists.”
In an industry first, Ericsson’s BMR453 DC/DC converter series uses a digital control platform contained within the modules. By integrating more into the control circuitry, the concept frees up space to greatly improve the power density, simultaneously offering unprecedented levels of control.
With 96 percent efficiency, the BMR453 offers up to 400W output power or up to 33A with ±2 percent accuracy. At that level of accuracy, the best module commercially available offers just 300W output power. Ericsson’s BMR453 offers 33 percent more power in the same package size.
Electronic Products’ Editorial Director, Murray Slovick, says the magazine’s Product of the Year winners should be particularly proud because of the rigorous selection process used. “It is somewhat akin to a doctoral dissertation defense, except instead of defending a thesis the nominating editor must defend each product against the arguments of his or her colleagues, all of whom are trying hard to find flaws in the product’s performance.”
This was the 33rd annual Product of the Year Awards, which Electronic Products has been hosting to recognize the best products in the industry since 1977.
This recognition follows on from other awards won by Ericsson in 2008 in electronic product design (the e-Legacy Award for investment in the environment), and the top 10 DC/DC Award from Electronic Products China magazine. Ericsson was also a finalist in Electronics Weekly’s Elektra Awards for 2008, an award that it won in 2007.
Ericsson Power Modules has received Electronic Products’ Product of the Year award twice before, in 1983 for its DC/DC converter PKA (so called blue-module) and in 1999 for its DC/DC converter PKJ, the first high power commercial DC/DC converter using advance synchronous rectification contributing to reduce energy consumption.