These technology applications deliver digitally powered and enhanced GFCI, AFCI and overcurrent inrush current protection in solid-state circuit breakers and other electrical products.
Amber now has a portfolio of 10 secured patents, with these four new patents, plus two prior patents, supporting the company’s architecture in solid-state circuit breakers and by default in less complex, downstream electrical product applications like outlets, standalone GFCI outlets and other receptible based products in building electrical grids.
This announcement comes shortly after the company's strategic alliance with Infineon to collaborate on next generation silicon solutions that provide digital control of electricity with embedded intelligence across a range of product applications.
Amber CEO Thar Casey said, “Through intelligent digital detection and more rapid interruption of electrical faults and overcurrent/inrush current issues, we are enabling the creation of unique electrical products that are safer, faster, and provide far more capabilities than any existing solutions. Using silicon chip architecture and Amber’s intelligent digital technologies, these specific life and fire safety enhancements make possible simpler, more reliable, more robust implementations in circuit breakers, outlets, switches and other electrical endpoints, providing the potential for multiple layers of protection within the building electrical grid beyond the circuit breaker.”
The new patents extend coverage of Amber’s IP more deeply over its core technologies for digital control of electricity in silicon architecture – specifically for DC extraction directly from AC mains, and indestructible AC switching. They also expand new IP coverage to the company’s digitally intelligent electrical fault detection and interruption, along with intelligent overcurrent/inrush current protections.
Amber’s patented technologies are aligned with the UL 489i solid-state circuit breaker standard and will align with IEC specifications for circuit breakers slated to be published in 2025.
“Circuit breakers, specifically, are an enormous and important part of global building electrical infrastructure, and Amber’s solid-state innovations enable development of true 21st century solutions that deliver safer, faster and more intelligent control of electricity,” said Steve Bakos, Senior Director, Switching Power at Infineon Technologies. “More broadly, the downstream implementations of these technologies into outlets and switches will be transformative based on the value that can be added to these applications and have implications across the full building electrical grid.”
Amber's innovations are seen as enabling a major reduction in false AFCI and GFCI circuit breaker trips, power interruption 3,000 times faster compared to traditional circuit breakers, truly arc-free switching, and a dramatic reduction in the size of power management technologies for inclusion in circuit breaker and other electrical endpoint solutions.
