Recognizing that voltage sags were occurring at the average rate of 24 times per year—with more
than half of these incidents dropping voltage below 75% of nominal levels—a Hynix manufacturing
facility in the northwest United States needed a fast solution. Voltage sags were shutting down tools,
requiring cleaning and requalifying. Product had to be scrapped or reworked. Work in progress was
reset to zero. Often, two full days were required to reestablish nominal operations. As a 24/7/365
manufacturing facility, the loss of two days for each of 12 annual events was having a considerably
negative impact on productivity.
While generators and conventional UPS systems were available, they were judged too slow to react,
too inefficient in performance and too costly to maintain. All options were either rated less
than 92% efficient or would require an interruption in power and operations to install.
We proposed a DySC
battery-free UPS and arranged a trial installation on a Hynix air handler. With the success of
the trial, Hynix systematically added more DySCs to the facility, totaling up to more than
10 MVA of DySC protection.
While the Hynix Semiconductor plant is still refining their protection scheme,
DySCs have transformed voltage sag disruptions into
minor inconveniences—and made it easier for plant managers to determine what
devices to protect to ensure smooth operation. As more devices ride through the sag events,
productivity, efficiency and profitability continue to increase.
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