/ ENGINEERS FOCUS ON POWER TECHNOLOGIES, AVNET DATA SHOWS
By Lee Fitzgerald, Director, Global Technical Enablement, Avnet
Visitor data for Design Hub, Avnet’s self-service design tool, shows power design is a trending topic for the engineering community.
Power management, conversion and control as horizontal technologies touch almost every market in electronics. Semiconductor technology is developing rapidly in this area, with sustained indication that wide bandgap is displacing silicon in high-power applications.
What constitutes high power is relatively broad and arguably a moving target. Five years ago, most of the industry didn’t appreciate how much global electricity generated would be consumed by cryptocurrency mining and artificial intelligence (AI). By 2026, the figures are expected to be 160 TWh and 90 TWh respectively (Figure 1).
Power is one of the most challenging design disciplines. Avnet is committed to supporting OEMs in these endeavors.
While it would be hard to directly correlate the increase in power consumption in these application areas with the design start activity Avnet sees from customers, our data does show a change in the pattern around 2022, when the number of projects for motor control drops but the number of power applications rises (Figure 2). As a comparison, the graph also describes the project starts for EV development over the same period. Both motor control and EV design require power subsystems.
Sum of EVs, power and motor
Figure 2: Here we compare the number of Avnet design starts for EVs, power and motor control. We can see some correlation between EVs, power and motor control around 2020, and that between 2022 and 2023 the number of new projects in power experienced an upturn, while month-on-month new designs in motor control fell slightly.
Electricity demand from data centers, artificial intelligence data centers and cryptocurrencies worldwide, with a forecast for 2026 (in TWh)
Figure 1: This data from Statista clearly shows the emergence of AI data centers in terms of demand for electricity. Before 2023 there was no measurable demand, but by 2026 demand is expected to be 90 TWh. (Source: Statista)
We can also show the level of interest in power-related reference designs available on Design Hub. This recent snapshot of visitor activity (Figure 3) clearly shows that the block diagrams, reference designs and editable schematic diagrams most popular on Design Hub relate to power applications.
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
Design Hub activity
Figure 3: As a comparison, we show the visitor behavior for Design Hub. More engineers visiting the free design resource were interested in Power and Charging than the leading verticals that need power, such as industrial, embedded or energy.
Engineering resources
Design Hub is an engineering resource, part of Avnet’s growing portfolio of self-service tools. The Design Hub library of reference designs is closely integrated with AVAIL, Avnet’s online schematic capture design tool.
Engineers can use Design Hub and AVAIL to accelerate their design cycle, drawing on thousands of block diagrams, reference designs and circuit diagrams. All featured designs are available at no upfront cost or recurring royalty fee.
The tools generate engineering files that can be used in other electronic design automation tools and a bill of materials that can easily be ordered online through Farnell.
What's next for Design Hub?
With hundreds of block diagrams and customizable schematic diagrams, Design Hub already gives engineers an early-stage productivity boost. Design Hub users can now access Avnet’s AI-driven cross-referencing tool to help with later-stage design decisions.
The cross-reference tool uses AI to find alternative or near-equivalent components for a part number. The tool gives each suggestion a score related to how closely it matches the original part and a risk rating based on what Avnet knows about the alternative components’ current and future availability.
This powerful feature is enabled by AI and supported by our suppliers’ cross-referencing data, our engineering knowledge and Avnet’s parametric-level data. Registration to Design Hub is required to use the cross-reference tool, but registration is free and open to anyone, not just existing Avnet customers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lee Fitzgerald
Director, Global Technical Enablement, Avnet
Lee Fitzgerald is director, global technical enablement, with Avnet. Focused on demand creation, Lee combines a talent for growth strategy with an emphasis on results. Lee has 25-plus years of experience working in competitive and dynamic markets, drawing on his sales and technical knowledge in semiconductor and passive electronics.