Tag Archive for ‘green’
April 27, 2011
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By Fairchild Semiconductor
As part of a three year partnership, Fairchild Semiconductor is supporting Habitat for Humanity’s most advanced development on the West Coast, a 36 home condominium complex for families in need. Fairchild Semiconductor is donating both time and money to Habitat for Humanity and helping create a healthier environment for our community by constructing energy efficient, ADA compatible affordable homes.
Today, a group of employees gathered at the Daly City construction site and separated into teams. One team gathered bundles of joists that were securely hoisted to the second floor of the complex. The team created a framework to hold the joists in place by nailing braces to the joists one at a time. “The framework became robust in a modest amount of time” says team member, Art.
While Art’s team installed floor joists and braces for four units on the 3rd floor of the housing complex another team cut and installed grab bar backing for ADA convertible bathrooms as part of a green building practice. Andrea constructed sawhorses in order to create an elevated surface to make wood cutting easier, and Naveen cut wood panels to go into wheelchair accessible bathrooms.
A group of employees volunteered to work from the scaffolding and focused on the outer walls of the building. Dennis says, “we were hanging wallboard and putting in nails.”
“When you’re out of nails your team members pass you more. This is the same principle I see at Fairchild; we collaborate together to achieve a solution. Volunteering today was a thoroughly enjoyable experience,” says Ravi.
By the end of the day there were tangible results for the community and volunteers were fulfilled. Fairchild will participate in routine team building projects with Habitat for Humanity throughout the three year endeavor.
Tags: accessibility, construction, corporate responsibility, Energy Efficiency, green, human interest
January 18, 2010
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By Benchmarks
Each quarter, Fairchild Semiconductor introduces new products, tips and tools for power and analog applications in the quarterly Benchmarks magazine. The following Benchmarks Volume 1, 2010 “Engineering Connections” article discusses flyback topology as an efficient solution for meeting today’s global demand for lowering power consumption in power supplies.
External power adapters are instrumental for the operation of virtually all small electronic devices. As many as 3.2 billion adapters are currently in use globally, according to industry estimates.
With this worldwide focus on energy savings, regulatory bodies are examining all ways to “go green,” and standards have been developed, specifying higher levels of efficiency for products such as notebook PC power supplies. Flyback topology has proven to be an effective solution, both in terms of cost and technology, for pulse-width modulated (PWM) power conversion in these products. Fairchild has a wide portfolio of PWM controllers that enhance the performance of flyback converters.
As part of its global focus on energy savings, Fairchild has developed a portfolio of pulse-width modulated (PWM) controllers, which enable notebook power-supply designers to meet the stringent international energy-saving regulations. These include the ENERGY STAR External Power Supply (EPS) version 2.0 requirement that mandates 87 percent average active-mode efficiency to obtain compliance.
Integrated PWM controllers, like the FAN6754, offer designers high-voltage startup to improve energy savings at light load by 25 percent when compared to alternate solutions. It also eliminates external protection circuits by incorporating over-voltage, over-current and over-temperature protection plus brownout and line-compensation functions. Other advantages of Fairchild’s PWM controllers include frequency hopping, which reduces EMI emissions by as much as 5-10 dB, and internal soft start (8ms) to reduce voltage stress on the MOSFET at startup.
Additionally, Fairchild’s PWM controllers incorporate several design features that lower the overall power consumption of notebook adapters, such as a proprietary green-mode function that provides off-time modulation to continuously decrease the switching frequency under light-load conditions. Fairchild’s PWM devices offer a host of robust, accurate protection features built-in to protect the power supply and the load from failure, all without adding external components or circuitry.
Tags: Benchmarks, Energy Efficiency, Fairchild Semiconductor, flyback converter, green, PWM controller
November 24, 2009
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By Alfred Hesener
PV inverter technology is driven by efficiency and compliance, but reliability is also important
What modern, ecological houses are wearing this season is blue - more precisely, the dark blue of solar cells. And this trend is gaining momentum, despite the financial crisis and reduction in feed-in tariffs from governments surprised by the success they created.
The owners of these systems are less concerned about the looks. What they are concerned about is high and reliable output. (Think of efficiency in the high 90s at more than 7000 power temperature cycles over lifetime!).
Green Power Feeding the Grid discusses how a good, reliable power switch must be the basis of this.
Tags: Energy Efficiency, green, inverter
August 3, 2009
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By Katelyn Chapman
Arriving at Fort Williams in Cape Elizabeth, Maine on Saturday for the 12th 
TD Banknorth Beach to Beacon 10K, my breath was taken away. This didn’t happen from physical exertion but from the majestic beauty of the sunrise over the beautiful rocky coast. I had a feeling that this meant it would be a memorable day.
When the race started, we knew that people from all over the world and over 50 of our own employees were running the picturesque course. Anticipation rose as we awaited the arrival of the first finishers.
At first the runners trickled in but soon the field was flooded with participants of all ages. We congratulated everyone on their successful completion and were excited to spot the green shirts of our co-workers. The Fairchild Semiconductor men ended up finishing #2 in the men’s corporate challenge! Congrats guys!
In our Green Energy Sponsor tent, 
we had fun mingling with interested community members who took home free give-aways like green water bottles. Visitors of all ages rode the bicycle to charge their cell phone.
When I left at the end of the event, I thought how amazing the day was- perfect sunrise, great location, wonderful people!
A big thanks to my fellow employees at Fairchild Semiconductor who ran and helped man
our Green Energy Sponsor booth. Our contributions will go to the 2009 beneficiary, Maine Handicapped Skiing. Thanks to everyone at Fairchild who made our Green Energy Sponsorship a success!
Tags: Fairchild, Fairchild Semiconductor, green, sponsor
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