-Si-valley start-up uses AI to solve soft-switching control challenge for DC/AC and AC/DC power conversion; -Massive advantages demonstrated for burgeoning electric vehicle market and others

Pre-Switch, Inc., a Silicon Valley start-up that emerged from stealth mode last year, today expanded its revolutionary soft-switching IGBT and silicon carbide gate driver architecture to cover 3-phase power systems. The platform, including the Pre-Drive™3 controller board, powered by the Pre-Flex™ FPGA, and RPG gate driver board, enables a doubling of power output for a typical inverter, or an increase in switching speed by a factor of up to 20 times.

Hard-Switching is the most commonly-used technique for DC/AC power converters but it has numerous drawbacks, the largest of which is the introduction of switching losses - wasted energy produced while a transistor fully transitions between On and Off states. These switching losses are responsible for a large percentage of power converter losses. In contrast, soft-switching minimizes switching losses but is has never been successfully-implemented for DC/AC systems with varying input voltage, temperature and load conditions. Pre-Switch uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to constantly-adjust the relative timing of elements within the switching system required to force a resonance to offset the current and voltage wave forms - thereby minimizing switching losses.

Pre-Switch's forced-resonant soft-switching topology replaces the traditional IGBT or silicon carbide driver with a common intelligent controller board, Pre-Drive3, and a specific plug-in RPG (Resonant Power Gate) module optimized for the customer's chosen SiC or IGBT package. The Pre-Switch architecture delivers the same switching loss performance - or better - as a five-level design, but significantly reduces cost, control complexity and BOM count.

Says Bruce T. Renouard, CEO, Pre-Switch: "Customers have called Pre-Switch's soft-switching technology ‘the Holy Grail' for power conversion. eV designers have been amongst the first to adopt this exciting technology because it dramatically-reduces iron core loses in electric motors at cruising torques, providing 5-12 % more range. However, our soft-switching technology is also applicable to a wide range of industries, and is independent of device technology."

Pre-Switch: Further, Faster, Lighter, Cheaper - Cooler

About Pre-Switch

Pre-Switch, Inc. is a Silicon Valley company that delivers AI-based soft-switching power architectures that minimize switching losses, resulting in dramatic improvements in efficiency, size, performance and reliability. Key applications include for electric vehicles, solar inverters, wind turbines, UPS, storage and motor drives. Pre-Switch™ technology increases eV range, reduces battery size, shrinks power converter size and cost, while minimizing cooling requirements. Pre-Switch was founded by industry experts in power semiconductors, power systems, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Pre-Flex technology is patent pending globally.

Pre-Switch®, the Pre-Switch logo and other trademarks or service names are the trademarks of Pre-Switch, Inc.