Infineon Technologies and Amber have announced a collaboration that will see the commercialization of Amber’s power digital control technology in silicon architecture. The main applications are related to Amber’s patented technologies such as AC/DC Enabler and AC Switch for smart circuit breakers, dimmers, and new solutions using Infineon’s product suite. In an exclusive interview with Power Electronics News/EE TImes, Thar Casey, CEO of Amber, and Steve Bakos, Senior Director of Switching Power Supplies at Infineon Technologies, discuss the commercial and technical aspects of the collaboration, which will revolve around digital technologies. Embedded intelligent electronic control market.
“Our goal is to take advantage of solid-state technology and go beyond electromechanical systems — today’s bulky standards for electrolytic capacitors, magnetics, transformers and other passive components,” Casey said. “Infineon and its CoolMOS power MOSFET technology have proven to be up to the task. Our alliance aims to transform every electrical endpoint in all residential and commercial buildings into a modern silicon architecture with embedded intelligence. Our technology The portfolio and customer base, as well as Infineon’s technology portfolio and customer base as one of the largest silicon suppliers in industrial power control and beyond, present strong solid-state electrification opportunities for both of us. Our goal now is to disrupt the market and bring Modern silicon-based intelligence is integrated into every part of the building grid, such as dimming light switches and circuit breakers. We are also looking for innovative avenues for our technology and are working on integrating some new market solutions into Infineon’s in technology.”
Bakos pointed out that the combination of Amber’s innovative technology and Infineon’s technology is an excellent match to open up this market. “We see huge potential in the residential switch, socket and circuit breaker market poised for disruption,” he said. “We’ve looked at Amber’s technology, and we believe we can help them drive this transition not only with our MOSFETs, but also with our microcontrollers, safety ICs, and sensors that help bring these applications to life. Smart. I think it’s a huge opportunity and I’m very excited about it.”
Amber Technology and CoolMOS
Breakthroughs in digital control of electricity allow for the introduction of upgradable firmware and machine learning embedded algorithms in buildings. Solid-state architectures—with electronic components and silicon chips—enable this breakthrough, allowing software intelligence to be incorporated directly into electrical products, electrical infrastructure, and thus building structures.
Amber’s solid-state redesign incorporates intelligence that adapts to any load situation, delivering a flicker-free dimming experience in a slim profile that fits seamlessly into everyday electrical installations. Flickering is defined as the perception of visual instability caused by light stimuli whose brightness or spectral distribution fluctuates over time. Owners and installers of these dimmers can benefit from native overvoltage and short circuit protection, compatibility with a wide range of load types such as MLVs that TRIACs cannot handle, and an integrated wireless device control option that also supports over-the-air updating of each type of new products through their smartphones.
Amber provides solid-state digital control of power through its patented Amber AC/DC Enabler and Amber AC Switch. The AC/DC Enabler is a new topology for AC/DC conversion that does not require magnetic components or high voltage electrolytic capacitors, and is capable of producing a regulated low noise DC output up to 5 W.
Amber AC Switch is a digital power management arcless switch that eliminates the need for bulky relays and TRIAC dimmers. It is also a double throw solid state line disturbance circuit interrupter for ground fault detection circuit interrupters and arc fault circuit interrupters. Built using Infineon’s microcontrollers and MOSFETs, it is configured with a proprietary and robust architecture that is fully protected against inductive, short-circuit, capacitive overcurrent, surge and thermal conditions.
“The environment for these products can be very difficult, and you can’t fail; the silicon solution has to offer better reliability than existing solutions,” Bakos said. “Today, Amber is using the CoolMOS 7 superjunction MOSFET [S7] technology, which was developed specifically for these types of applications. Compared to the previous CoolMOS family, Infineon’s CoolMOS 7 superjunction MOSFET technology has a great advantage in static switching applications. Provides efficiency benefits over the entire load range. Static switching applications for power MOSFETs are where power MOSFETs switch at low frequencies, from a few cycles per minute to the low kilohertz range. Switching power losses of MOSFETs are less of a concern in these applications , and the electrical characterization of MOSFETs focuses on low conduction losses and robustness. Looking ahead, we will look at how to further optimize MOSFET and SiC performance for this application. This includes reliability, packaging, and cost for these types of applications optimization.”
The S7 series of high voltage superjunction MOSFETs set a new benchmark for power density by uniquely mounting a 22mΩ die into an innovative small TO leadless SMD package. It is ideal for applications where MOSFETs are switched at low frequency, such as active bridge rectification, inverter stages, surge relays, PLCs, power solid state relays and solid state circuit breakers. For solid-state relay and solid-state circuit breaker designs, Infineon’s CoolMOS S7 MOSFETs complement other superjunction MOSFETs, IGBTs, OpTIMOS low and medium voltage MOSFETs, galvanically isolated gate drivers and photovoltaic isolators from the CoolMOS family.
“We customize MOSFETs for DC applications, load switching applications, etc.,” Bakos said. “We will continue to study this application to optimize performance for this type of DC application. Circuit breaker space is a challenge because it is a rough electrical environment, but Amber’s architecture works by actively sensing and mitigating loads such as surges and inductive loads. Events like spikes tame this environment before they cause problems, unlike traditional switches and circuit breakers, which are just meant to try to survive these events. To achieve this, Amber’s solution is based on the recent Cypress Semiconductor The acquired form of a PSoC microcontroller incorporates some intelligence, but this requires a regulated DC power supply, and all of this requires external magnetics and capacitors. The challenge is that in a circuit breaker, light switch, or power outlet box in a very small, fixed In size, there is no room for these additional components. This is where Amber’s Enabler IP comes in. It provides regulated DC power in a very small and economical footprint without bulky magnetics or capacitors, providing sensor and Other functions such as wireless communication make room and provide DC power. Achieving the goal of a monolithic IC with enablers, PSoC and FETs is theoretically possible but impractical. But this does not preclude including this in a single package solution. We will work closely with Amber to use our extensive packaging expertise to figure out the best way to divide and package this solution so that it is small but thermally efficient. We look forward to working with Amber to help transform these solutions into become a reality and help change the residential electricity landscape.”
Amber-Infineon partnership
Casey and Backus noted that the collaboration includes two main goals starting this year. The first will focus on upgrading power management architectures for specific product categories, such as smart switches, standard dimmers, sockets, and more, using silicon-based solutions from Amber and Infineon. All relevant applications will benefit from small, intelligent and dynamic power management. The second objective will explore the integration of some of Amber’s proprietary architectures with Infineon’s product roadmap to create opportunities in new solutions in new markets.
Both Amber and Infineon foresee many opportunities in this partnership. Bakos noted that Amber’s architecture matches many of Infineon’s power control and computing solution offerings. Replacing mechanical-based components with solid-state technology has received full attention from Infineon. By replacing traditional bulky and expensive magnetic and mechanical components, Amber’s solution reduces cost and space, which are major factors in switches and electrical boxes.
“For decades, or rather more than a century, the mindset of companies that make products like switches and sockets has been electromechanical,” Casey said. “But, over the past five years, that mindset is changing a bit. When you have a computer or a phone in your hand, you can do anything with it, but at the same time you’re still using electromechanical technology in your home, like sockets. And switches, then there’s a problem. Same goes for energy: you have to know how much you’re spending and where you’re wasting it. That’s what solid state is all about, that’s what intelligence is all about. When you are a complete base of sensors and algorithms, you become aware of your surroundings; you understand your energy, energy management and control. UL and IEC are increasingly focusing on solid state switches. They recognize that this is the next step. In the US, we There’s UL 489, which is the specification for solid state circuit breakers. And then in Europe and the rest of the world, the IEC just released their draft for 2025 solid state circuit breakers. So it’s still going to take time, and I think for now, we’re going to create through this collaboration The strong attraction is for the market.”
“There is no doubt that this is an emerging and growing market,” Bakos said. “There will be innovations, there will be things to discover and learn with our customers, and we will continue to innovate and shape our technology for these applications. It will take some time, but we believe that, in the meantime, there will be improvements in There is a huge opportunity in the functionality of a standard switch or circuit breaker.”
After surveying the market, Amber pointed out that light switch dimming solutions are a problem. “That’s going to be our current focus: better quality, more affordable, more compact dimmers that fit into a box, using MOSFET technology, not any kind of old technology like TRIAC,” Casey said . “The whole thing will be connected to the house with intelligence and energy monitoring and metering.”
Bakos commented that in addition to MOSFETs, Infineon’s portfolio of technologies, including sensors and microphones, can be used to make the architecture truly smart. “Amber’s solution leverages our tiny solid-state sensing technology to free up space for applications and provide security so the system cannot be hacked,” he said.
Infineon and Amber are convinced that this important collaboration will have practical implications on several fronts. CoolMOS is the starting point, but other semiconductor solutions will include Amber’s technology.