Focusing on Smart Power and Smart Industrials for a sustainable future
STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, will host the Industrial Summit 2024 on October 29 at the Futian Shangri-La Hotel, in Shenzhen, China.
Recognizing the significant challenges posed by climate change, ST has consistently demonstrated its unwavering commitment to sustainability. The Company is dedicated to improving power density and efficiency through its cutting-edge solutions, leading the way towards reduced carbon emissions and a sustainable future.
The Industrial Summit is a top-notch technology showcase that highlights the breadth and depth of ST’s industrial products and solutions. Into its 6th edition, this year’s event continues the overarching theme of “Powering Your Sustainable Innovation”, with a focus on Smart Power and Smart Industrials for a sustainable future.
Visitors will hear insightful keynotes and 28 technical presentations from ST, its customers and partners, and can explore over 150 demonstrations targeting three main market segments: Automation, Power & Energy, and Motor Control. Additionally, the event will feature 6 showstoppers developed in close collaboration with ST’s customers and partners, presenting innovative technologies, solutions, and products in the areas of growing demand from the end markets, including Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN), power supply for AI data center, High Power Thermal Management system, Automation Production Line, the Solar-Storage-Charging Integration demo, and various solutions from the Ecosystem Partners of ST.
Showstopper and demo highlights
ST’s 25+ Years of SiC Leadership: ST brings value to its customers through mastery of the full silicon carbide (SiC) value chain, from R&D, substrate, epitaxy, and wafer fabrication to assembly and packaging of power discretes and modules. At this year’s Industrial Summit, the SiC showstopper will demonstrate ST as a global SiC leader in market, innovation and manufacturing, with a broad portfolio of STPOWER MOSFETs and diodes adapted for key industrial and automotive applications. Visitors will get a comprehensive overview of the development and manufacturing of SiC devices, from powder to the end product.
ST’s cutting-edge SiC MOSFET and diode portfolio, complemented by STGAP galvanic isolated drivers, delivers high efficiency, reliability, and performance in different packages. It will be demonstrated at the Summit through various reference designs for energy storage and power supply for AI servers, as well as other high-power applications.
Next-Generation Data Center Infrastructure from Megawatt to Gigawatt: The AI and data communications sectors, currently responsible for 4% of global carbon emissions, are projected to reach 14% of emissions by 2040. Adopting heat recovery, liquid cooling, HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current), high-efficiency PSUs (Power Supply Unit), and new power-semiconductor technologies can further reduce power consumption.
Rapid advancements in power technology, including through new semiconductor materials like SiC and GaN (Gallium Nitride) driven by STGAP galvanic isolation gate drivers, will help further moderate the growth in energy demand from data centers. Highlighting ST’s capabilities is a 5.5 kW power supply for AI data centers using SiC for greater efficiency and better power density. In addition, with STPOWER MDmesh M9/DM9 series super-junction power MOSFETs, ST sets a benchmark for the 600V/650V super-junction technology combining best-in-class performance with remarkable ease of use. Tailored for both hard- and soft-switching topologies, the MDmesh M9 and DM9 series are ideal for AI server data centers. Moreover, the STM32G4 microcontrollers bring intelligence and advanced control to our power solutions, allowing us to better manage power distribution and adapt to fluctuating loads in real-time.
In addition, transitioning to HVDC infrastructure can further enhance data-center efficiency by reducing transmission losses and energy consumption. ST’s SiC technology, paired with advanced packaging, enables HVDC systems to excel in high-temperature environments.
High-Power Thermal-Management Systems: The demand for high-power cooling solutions is rapidly increasing across various sectors, driven by significant growth in HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) systems, AI data centers infrastructure management, and grid-scale battery energy storage.
ST provides a comprehensive set of high-power cooling solutions to address differentiated power ranges and architectures. At this showstopper, ST will showcase its latest 10kW Commercial Compressor solution, which innovates using one single STM32G4 microcontroller (MCU) to control multiple functions, including three-phase PFC Vienna, FOC (Field Oriented Control) motor control, Nano Edge AI predictive maintenance, and KNX. This solution also delivers robust and reliable performance with ST’s 1200V IGBTs and SiC diodes, plus STGAP galvanically isolated gate drivers. Also, two other solutions will be featured at this showstopper: the 7kW triple FOC and interleaved PFC, and 4kW Dual FOC and Interleaved PFC. These solutions ensure efficient and reliable performance to meet different customer specifications for heat pumps and commercial air conditioning, based on ST’s SLLIMM Intelligent Power Modules, and Power Management and Analog ICs
Automated Assembly Line System: This groundbreaking automated assembly line system is the first of its kind at ST and represents the largest demonstration at the Industrial Summit 2024. An unprecedented factory-automation system underscores ST’s comprehensive ecosystem of partners and extensive system-level expertise in embedded systems. This demo features a complex automation system that integrates 3 robotic arms, which communicate precisely with an AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) to transfer items running on an MTS (Maglev Track System) driven by 7 ST dual motor servo drive solutions. All these components are managed by an ST Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), navigating through a variety of standards such as Codesys, EtherCAT, Profinet, Sub-1G, IO-Link, and more. This demo is further enhanced in collaboration with Siemens automation solutions, enabling seamless integration like the PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and HMI, which reflects accuracy, reliability and precision.
This impressive system demonstrates all major ST technologies for automation systems, including STM32 MCUs for HMI (Human Machine Interface), STM32MP1/2 Microprocessor Units (MPUs) for PLC processing, and a wide variety of analog products like IPS (intelligent power switches) for control. The system also covers different connectivity technologies for both wired (such as IO-link) and wireless, where the ST ultra-low power MCUs can bring added value in battery life.
Lastly, ST technologies include Industrial sensors (such as ToF proximity sensors, MEMS and IR sensors, IMUs, accelerometers, vibrometers, pressure sensors), ST25R for RFID read/write and Industrial actuators for the robotic arms, and the massive 14 PMSM linear motors are well covered by ST gate drivers and motion control ICs, wide LV and HV MOSFETS, IPS, Power management IC, and all this requires good protection devices for both input (CLTxx) and output (SMAJxx). In total, more than 500 ST devices are utilized across various HMIs, PLC controllers, drivers, RFID readers, gateways, connectivity devices, sensors, servo motors, and other components.
Solutions from Ecosystem Partners: To tackle the diverse challenges of the highly fragmented industrial market, ST is collaborating with technology leaders, key industrial customers, and ecosystem partners to accelerate growth and meet local market needs. Beyond the major highlights above, additional demos showcasing collaborations between ST and its ecosystem partners will be featured, including the Carbon Management solutions from ST’s customer Sungrow iCarbon, the Solar-Storage-Charging Integration Digital Energy Management solution from ST’s distributor WT Microelectronics, and multiple innovations from Joint Labs between ST and some leading Chinese universities.
