EPCOS groups entertainment electronics and household electronics together in the consumer electronics category. The manufacturers of multimedia products have to pack more and more features and functions into ever smaller spaces. Appliance manufacturers are required to replace conventional systems with more and more increasingly sophisticated electronic controllers that make appliances easier to use and more energy efficient.
Entertainment electronics
Entertainment electronics applications are increasingly converging with information and communication technologies. Today's mobile phones can also serve as TVs, radios, MP3 players and navigation devices. Televisions let viewers access the Internet, while gaming consoles can play DVDs and record TV shows. A further trend in entertainment electronics is the improvement in audiovisual quality drive by digital transmission technologies.
EPCOS sells an extensive range of products for advanced multimedia devices. SAW multimedia filters ensure high-quality TV reception. CeraDiodes® protect electronic circuits against electrostatic discharges. Transformers and chokes from EPCOS are fitted in switch-mode power supplies, which compensate for voltage fluctuations in unstable power networks and use electrical energy more efficiently than conventional power supplies. Since ferrite cores are partly responsible for high power consumption, the ferrite material N51 from EPCOS is instrumental in sharply reducing power losses.
Household electronics
New developments in home appliances likewise center around superior energy efficiency. A lot of energy can, for example, be saved by using induction cookers, which use electromagnetic fields to produce heat. These cookers boast an efficiency, or ratio of input to output power, of 90 percent, a huge improvement on the 40 percent efficiency of gas cookers and up to 60 percent efficiency of conventional electric cookers.
EPCOS is an established supplier of film capacitors, chokes, transformers, thermistors, varistors and many other key components in induction cookers. Yet these are by no means the only appliances that use our products. Motor-run capacitors and other products from EPCOS also help cut power consumption and energy costs in refrigerators. Replacing a 270-liter refrigerator-freezer built in 1990 by a modern appliance with A++ energy efficiency can save around EUR 80 a year. In dishwashers, turbidity sensors from EPCOS monitor how dirty the water is, allowing the wash cycle to be ended as soon as the dishes are clean, saving electricity and water and thus easing the burden on the environment.
