COMPANY PRESENTATION

eFFiciency research is a Belgian company founded in 2003 by engineers specialized in electronic circuits design. With the evolution of Power Electronics and High Frequency Communications (wired and wireless), electromagnetic understanding of electronic circuits becomes a more demanding aspect of the design.

eFFiciency research offers Research & Innovation services in the design of electronic circuits when electromagnetic aspects matter. With several breakthroughs and patented inventions in this area, eFFiciency research is an ideal partner in the development of innovative electronic circuits that include one or several electromagnetic aspects.

EXPERTISE AREA

eFFiciency research has already been involved in the development of many products that have successfully been marketed.

High Efficiency Power Supplies

Innovative topologies have been developed to reach conversion efficiency in the range of 96 to 98 % depending on the application and cost optimization. Fast algorithms running on digital signal processors have been implemented to accurately control these converters.

Radio Frequency

Efficient antennas, power amplifiers, low noise amplifiers, innovative modulation / demodulation schemes have been put in operation to develop low bit rate hand-held communication devices that inter-operate over ranges of several hundred meters to hundred of kilometres.

Signal Integrity

Signal integrity problems in the MHz to the GHz range have been resolved . Advices to avoid such problems have also been provided.

Electromagnetic Compatibility

With more than 25 years of experience in the electromagnetic compatibility, eFFiciency research has already covered several aspects of electromagnetic compatibility in the board, device and system level.

Do not hesitate: loosing the opportunity to work together could cost you more than a few minutes talking about it!

NEED HELP? Contact us!

WORKING TOGETHER

Electronic circuits can be very different if only one parameter differs. For example, the way a 10 kW power supply is designed is completely different from the way a 1 W converter is.

In order to give quantitative values that allow you to assess the expertise you can get by working with us, the figure below shows some typical values encountered during the design stages.

For example, a few watts to several kW converters with input and output of a few volts to several hundred of volts, radio frequency devices operating from several meters to hundred of kilometers, radio receiver with less that 20 nV sensitivity and 0,1 ppm long term carrier frequency accuracy, …

Our expertise at your service.

METHODOLOGY

Research of fast and efficient solutions to a technical challenge always requires a suitable methodology when creating innovative products. The way we proceed to discover efficient solutions is based on three methods:

An analytical model often reveals important parameters underlying a problem. It is therefore a powerful mean to find creative technical solutions but it is unfortunately restricted to simple cases. When the analytical model becomes too complex, the solution is then to use the analytical model only for a part of the problem under analysis or to switch to the second method.

Computer simulations are often considered as the panacea when creating new products. The advantage of computer simulations is that they can give a vision of the product and its behaviour before being prototyped. Computer simulations also give access to hidden variables that are not measurable on a prototype. The drawback of computer simulations is that the computer time required to get useful results quickly becomes huge.

When inventing a new product, building prototypes of one or several subsystems can quickly give useful pieces of information about its behaviour.

The efficient approach we suggest is to use the above tools when they are optimum in the course of the research and development steps. The right tool is the tool that gives the most information in the shortest time frame. By continuously keeping in mind the above three tools and by alternately selecting them, product development can be very fast and lead to numerous new ideas.

At each iteration, knowledge increases and opens the door to new ideas.

To be concrete, let’s start with an example: the design of an innovative 10kW power supply topology.

A new circuit can be imagined by crossing the product requirements, the knowledge of the engineers and by parsing a lot of literature in order to avoid re-inventing the wheel. Once it is done, the analytical model is understood but not verified. A computer simulation can be useful to check that the circuit works as expected. If necessary, the analytical model can be corrected. When confident about the result, a prototype can be elaborated. When bringing-up the prototype, the computer simulation model can be refined for the next product development.

Do not hesitate: loosing the opportunity to work together could cost you more than a few minutes talking about it!

NEED HELP? Contact us!

TRAINING

The on site trainings are given by experienced (typically 25 years of experience) engineers who are experts in their domain. All teachers are still fully active in the industry and are also involved in research projects. The course are contentiously reviewed to match customers demands and industry needs and evolution.

 

Antenna Basics

4HOURS TRAINING
  • Presentation of the fundamentals of wave propagation
  • Review of general antenna characteristics
  • Examples of antenna simulations based on modern finite elements methods
INFO AND ORDER

Electromagnetic compatibility regulations

4HOURS TRAINING
  • Use of regulation as a strength to build reliable products
  • Important electromagnetic regulations
  • Possible training customization to a specific product category
INFO AND ORDER

Electromagnetic compatibility basics

4HOURS TRAINING
  • Introduction to electromagnetic rules
  • Prerequisite to the “Ground management in printed circuit boards” training
  • Prerequisite to the “Electromagnetic compatibility for power electronics” training
INFO AND ORDER

Ground management in printed circuit boards

8HOURS TRAINING
  • Review the role of a ground plane
  • Understand power supply noise, mixed signal design and RF design
  • Connection rules of the ground plane to the chassis: examples and simulation
INFO AND ORDER

Electromagnetic compatibility for power electronics

12HOURS TRAINING
  • Identify and modelize noise sources and coupling mechanisms
  • Filters design and noise reduction techniques
  • Systematic approach of the problem
INFO AND ORDER

SOFTWARE TOOLS

eFFiciency research has developed different tools used during the design and optimization of power converters and wireless devices. Some of these tools appear to be extremely powerful and have reached a sufficient degree of maturity to be used by people outside eFFiciency research. Therefore, they are now offered for power electronics advanced simulations and embedded design debugging.

 

 

CONTACT US

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