FAQs

What is a Battery? A battery is an electrochemical device that can store energy in the form of chemical energy. It translates to electric energy when the battery is connected in a circuit due to the flow of electrons because of the specific placement of chemicals. It was invented by Alessandro Volta, whereas Gaston Plante…

A lithium-ion capacitor (LIC) is a type of supercapacitor. It’s a hybrid between a Li-ion battery and an electric double-layer supercapacitor (ELDC). The cathode is activated carbon, the same as is found in an ELDC, while the anode consists of carbon material pre-doped with lithium ions, similar to those found in Li-ion batteries. LICs are…

For operating and backup power and energy storage, engineers can choose among batteries, supercapacitors, or “best of both” hybrid supercapacitors. The previous part of this article established the context for supercapacitors and explained their structure in simplistic terms; obviously, this is a component with deep physics, chemistry, materials-science considerations, and manufacturing issues. The first widely […]

For operating and backup power and energy storage, engineers can choose among batteries, supercapacitors, or “best of both” hybrid supercapacitors. The previous part of this article established the context for supercapacitors and explained their structure in simplistic terms; obviously, this is a component with deep physics, chemistry, materials-science considerations, and manufacturing issues. The first widely […]

Backup power systems provide crucial emergency power to critical components whenever there’s a failure in a facility’s main power supply. These backup systems are indispensable at facilities involved in essential life-saving services, automated manufacturing of expensive product, and other critical operations where they help protect vital equipment and prevent expensive downtime, data loss, and time-consuming…

Current transformers or CTs are indispensable anywhere high currents are measured and processed. These instrument transformers effectively diminish high-voltage current flows for a convenient way to securely evaluate and monitor real electrical current through an ac transmission wire relying on a conventional ammeter. CTs perform this task by generating alternating current in a secondary winding…

Automated facilities commanded by industrial control cabinets rely on the components in those cabinets to work reliably even in the face of power variations. These components include local power supplies, PLCs, data loggers, networking and other communication equipment, and IO — which are all vulnerable to the detrimental effects of voltage surge. Also known as…

Industrial electronics operate in electrically noisy and mechanically challenging environments. The problem is that automation, control, and instrumentation components rely on accurate signals sans electrical interference or distortion to properly operate. So optocoupler modules are often employed by engineers as signal-protecting intermediaries between signal sources as well as power sources and industrial controls and other…

A top challenge in industrial electronics is the integration of sensing and feedback — in part because their disparate outputs require clean and safe transmission to the installation’s PLC or other primary controller. For these connections, system integrators rely on signal conditioners and isolation amplifiers. While both devices serve as an intermediary point in power…

An uninterruptible power supply or UPS is an electrical device that provides supplementary emergency power to the connected load when there’s a loss in the main power supply. It supplies power via a backup battery until the main power is restored. UPSs install between that regular power source and the load, with the supplied power…