EA Elektro-Automatik Expands Tektronix's High-Power Test and Measurement Portfolio

Tektronix has long been committed to providing high-quality oscilloscopes, probes, signal analyzers, and signal sources, providing the industry with reliable solutions for observing and analyzing high-speed signals. Tektronix is ​​deeply loved by designers in power-related industries such as renewable energy, electric vehicles, and data center power supplies . Keithley, also a member of the Tektronix family, is a recognized leader in the field of high-precision voltage and current measurement instruments. However, today's power supply technology covers both precision high-speed control electronic equipment and high-power electronic equipment. Although Tektronix has led the test and measurement industry for more than 75 years, there is one area we have not yet explored-kilowatt and above power supply engineering. Today, this situation has changed because EA Elektro-Automatik has joined Tektronix.

Who is EA Elecktro-Automatik?

EA Elektro-Automatik (EA) is a leading European supplier of power electronics for R&D and industrial applications with 50 years of experience in the power electronics industry. EA is headquartered in the industrial corridor of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a state-of-the-art production facility covering 19,000 square meters. EA designs and manufactures power supplies, high-power power adapters and electronic loads with and without power feedback.

EA brings new instruments to further improve Tektronix solutions

EA offers a wide range of high power electronic DC source and load products ranging from hundreds of watts to 3.84 MW. These products include highly efficient bidirectional renewable power supplies that allow engineers to extend voltages up to 2,000 V or currents up to 64,000 A.

These new products complement Tektronix and Keithley instruments and software, providing more complete, higher-performance solutions for applications we already offer, such as:

• Power Design

• Double pulse test

• Traction Inverter Design

• Power Semiconductor Characterization

• Battery research and testing

EA also brings a broad range of products and expertise to address new application needs, such as:

• Battery module and pack development and quality assurance testing

• Battery module and battery pack simulation

• Electrolysis research

• Fuel Cell Testing and Simulation

EA offers several platforms, but we will focus on two series in this article.

EA-10000 Series Power Sources and Loads

The EA-10000 series includes more than 180 programmable DC power supplies and electronic loads, including bidirectional and bidirectional/renewable models. The power range provided is 600 W to 30 kW, with a maximum current of 1000 A and a maximum voltage of 2000 V. The power supply automatically adjusts the power to maximize the use of available power. The power supplies can be connected in parallel, up to 64 devices can be connected, with a total power of up to 1.92MW. The integrated function generator can be used for specific scenario testing, such as simulating solar array curves, or simply providing a power signal with an arbitrary waveform.

EA-PSB 10000 3U High 15 kW Bi-directional Power Supply/Electronic Load with Regeneration Capability.

The instruments can be controlled via Ethernet, USB or analog input. RS-232, CAN Bus, Profibus, ModBus, Profinet and EtherCat are also supported. The bidirectional renewable power supply series can feed energy back to the grid with energy recovery efficiency exceeding 96%. The EA-10000 Industrial Series removes the front panel controls for easy system integration and lower unit energy costs. The Industrial Series can be operated in parallel with a maximum power of 3.84 MW.

EA-BT 20000 Battery Tester

EA-BT 20000 Three-channel 4U battery tester.

The three output channels can each be used to test a single battery pack or connected in parallel to test larger battery packs.

The EA Battery Tester is a power source/load specifically designed for charging and discharging battery packs. The three-channel series can be used to cycle test 3 battery packs with a maximum power of 10 kW per channel. The 3 channels can also be connected in parallel with a maximum power of 30 kW. The BT 20000 series does not release the energy of the battery pack under test, but feeds it back to the grid with a recovery efficiency of over 96%. The high measurement resolution helps to accurately determine the health and service life of the battery. The tester can be controlled via Ethernet, ProfiNet, CAN-FD or EtherCAT.

What are the special advantages of EA technology?

EA pioneered several key technologies that established it as a leader in the test and measurement space. First, they developed the autoranging power supply. Traditional power supplies can only output rated power at a single voltage and current combination. Autoranging power supplies can output rated power over a range of voltage and current combinations. For example, when you don't need the maximum voltage from the power supply, you can have the power supply deliver more current but still maintain the same total power. In many cases, this allows you to purchase a smaller total power supply to meet your needs while providing a wider range of voltage and current values.

Traditional power supplies have a rectangular output characteristic. The EA power supply is an auto-ranging power supply that provides the same power over a wider output range, in this case 5kW.

EA's power supplies and electronic load designs all use silicon carbide semiconductors, which further improves performance. As a result, EA products achieve the highest power density in the industry (60kW in a 6U 19-inch rack!), while maintaining energy recovery efficiency of more than 96%, minimizing noise and heat generation, especially when consuming power. This also facilitates modular design, with up to 64 instruments placed in parallel and controlled as a whole, giving you a maximum of 3.84 MW of bidirectional power sourcing/sinking capacity.

How to get EA products?

EA products are available worldwide in any market where Tektronix products are sold. Thanks to EA's established global network of sales and service centers and fast production lead times, you don't have to wait to find out if our new EA power supplies and electronic loads will meet your needs. For more information, visit our website and our team will contact you.

EA's power technology, Tektronix's leading oscilloscopes, analyzers and signal sources, plus Keithley's source measure units (SMUs) and precision instruments, all combine to form extremely accurate, flexible and efficient power technology solutions. We are backed by the Tektronix global service and support organization and are dedicated to supporting each instrument.