Our Technologies:
Digital Control of Electricity in a Silicon Chip
- The 2nd Electrical Revolution -
Software defined electrical sensing control and protection in silicon chip architecture.
Through AmberSemi™breakthrough technologies in silicon chips, semiconductor and electrical product companies have the opportunity to upgrade, every electrical endpoint, in every building on earth, to state-of-the-art silicon architecture. It is the fulfillment of the vision for smart buildings and smart city intelligence, literally from within the backbone of the sorely under-leveraged building electrical grid.
AmberSemi discovered a novel way to manage and control electricity, digitally in solid-state, eliminating 1950’s era technologies, which are standard today for AC/DC conversion and AC control in electrical products.
AmberSemi’s solid-state breakthroughs enable a fundamental design revolution, changing the world of the possible for electrical engineers and as a result permanently transforming the value electrical products can deliver across the world.
"This is a big deal... It's also a big deal for the market." – Forbes
Three Core Technology Breakthroughs
AmberSemi’s three core breakthroughs are transformational for both the semiconductor industry and Electrical products sectors due to the superior intelligence now possible, and the enhanced value delivered.
A true second electrical revolution of digitized electricity with solid-state intelligence embedded in the electrical grid and products of every building on earth.
1. AC Direct Power: AC Direct DC Enabler
DC extraction from AC Mains without the use of rectifier bridges, transformers and high voltage, bulk capacitors.
The AC Direct DC Enabler is a new architecture of off-line AC/DC powe conversion solutions that extract DC power directly from AC mains. The innovative architecture eliminates the need for rectifier bridges, transformers and high voltage, bulk capacitors. The Enabler requires fewer external components than conventional power solutions and creates opportunities to expand product features and/or significantly reduce product form factor.
This paves the way for highly integrated and intelligent applications in IoT/IIoT/AIoT for the smart home, smart building, appliances, industrial automation, smart city and other markets.
- Disruptive innovation – novel methodology to extract DC power directly from AC Mains
- Dramatically smaller up to 30% system footprint size and 8% the volume occupied – dramatically smaller size of AmberSemi’s topology opens space for more features or slimmer product form factors
- Dynamic, intelligent power delivery – SPI control or communications interface for configuration and real-time reporting and data-logging
- Lowest component count – 50% fewer components for the power delivered versus standard power supplies
- Most size effective – industry leading power density at 5W per 0.21 in3 (1.47 cm3)
- Intelligent protection – Integrated protection and status reporting for output over-current, over-voltage, under-voltage and over-temperature
- Flexible design – compatible with ceramic, polymer, electrolytic and other capacitors
2. AC Direct Sensing
Continuous sensing of the AC Mains for ongoing, real-time awareness of normal & abnormal electricity state.
AmberSemi’s AC Direct Sensing™ is a breakthrough technology for gathering real time data on the state of AC power. Utilizing its dynamic range of sensing it samples thousands of times per second for true and continuous awareness of the AC Mains. It is a standalone silicon technology that supports a range of solutions like motor controls, surge protection, GFCI outlets, arc-fault circuit breakers, and more.
In the example of ground fault sensing, AmberSemi utilizes digital current monitoring and leakage current detection to more accurately recognize a real ground fault and drastically reduce nuisance tripping. This combined with self-diagnosis and stored device history can help the industry enhance safety, improve quality of performance and even allows for OTA firmware updates to keep the sensing algorithms current with the latest technologies and devices.
Over-Current
Short-Circuit
Ground Fault
Over-Voltage
Arc-Fault
Inductive
Over-Current
Short-Circuit
Ground Fault
Over-Voltage
Arc-Fault
Inductive
- Digital sensing and detection – Sampling of the electrical sine wave thousands of times per second enables digitized data to be available in real-time
- Full awareness of the state of electricity at any time – Enables a clearer understanding of normal electricity state and the extremely rapid identification of abnormal states for continuous and instantaneous decision making.
- Smarter, digitized assessments of electricity – Intelligent algorithms take digital information and make immediate assessment through embedded predicative artificial intelligence (AI), in near real time, for much smarter information and action on pivotal events.
3. AC Direct Control & Protection The Indestructible AC Switch Controller™
AC switching that is unbreakable in solid-state & operates thousands of times faster than today’s standards
AmberSemi’s Indestructible AC Switch Controller™ applies its unique architecture of driver control over conventional bi-directional MOSFETs while utilizing its AC Direct DC Enabler™ to provide power with independence to the reference (common source to gate). The presence of the AC Direct DC Enabler™ in the common source environment, and its power capabilities, allow for any type of microcontroller device to control the AC Switch™.
The AC Switch™ is naturally power scalable and input voltage independent and the proprietary gate driver technology makes it fully protected from inductive, short circuit, capacitive over-current, surge, and over-temperature conditions. AmberSemi’s AC Switch™ in silicon chip architecture, makes it conducive to a vast array of AC mains product applications such as circuit breakers, motor controllers, lighting, surge, receptacles, solid-state relays, etc. When combined with AC Direct Sensing it represents a complete system solution with intelligent decision-making and protection.
- Switching in a silicon chip architecture that is thousands of times faster than traditional standard means
- Significantly safer – arc-free electricity control
- Smarter, hyper intelligent operation reduces / eliminates nuisance switching (trips)
- Indestructible in the hostile AC Mains environment, including self and downstream transient event protection
- Embedded, dynamic power delivery, by leveraging Ambers AC Direct DC Enabler, for further form factor advantages
- Offers significantly better reliability than electro-mechanical architecture
- Can be combined with AC Direct Sensing for hostile or safety product applications for better protection