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Amantys Limited, a start-up based on research from the University of Cambridge, has recently secured $7 million in Series A funding to continue with the commercial development of its digital power platform.
The new funding round has been led by Moonray Investors, part of Fidelity International, and ARM Holdings plc (ARM). Moonray has additionally purchased the remaining external minority interests in Amantys.
Dr Patrick Palmer, Reader in Electrical Engineering at the Department of Engineering, developed technology that will simplify the design of medium voltage power electronic equipment using insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs).
Dr Palmer and his former student co-inventors have been supported by Cambridge Enterprise Limited, the University’s commercialisation group, in their efforts to see the results of their basic research exploited commercially. The company was founded in 2010 by a number of former ARM executives and Dr Palmer, who remains the company’s Chief Scientist following this round of investment.
Power conversion occurs everywhere in the modern world. It keeps the online world connected; it controls motors small and large, from trains and planes to the cars we ride in; to solar panels and UPS power supplies.
However, as energy flows from power stations through power lines and transformers to consumers, energy is wasted. Amantys is developing innovative and disruptive power control products to address this wastage.
Amantys’ technology allows power transistors to be configured more easily to construct systems to switch medium and high voltages. This allows the designer to continue to use existing design topologies to build medium voltage inverters with higher efficiency and without the need to move to more complicated systems. Products which use Amantys’ technology will benefit from greater efficiency, improved reliability, ease of design and reduced cost.
Picture credit: matti.frisk
Image: Power lines by Matti Frisk via Flickr