• Ampere has raised $12.45 million in seed funding to help the team commercialize its silicon carbide solid-state transformer technology developed at the Nanyang Technological University research lab in Singapore.
  • Solid-state transformers are smaller and have lower cooling requirements than their predecessors, which means installations can take up to 75% less space.
  • Ampere says it can expand the transformer to suit the needs of different locations.

The world’s power infrastructure is riddled with transformers, devices that change voltage as electricity moves through the grid.They are everywhere from power plants to mobile phone chargers. For the most part, they have not changed since they were first developed in the late 19th century.This longevity is a testament not only to the original design, but also to how little the grid has changed in the intervening years.

Transformer in short supply

With the advent of distributed renewable energy, batteries, and electric vehicles, global power grids are changing faster than at any time in the last century. Electricity no longer flows primarily in one direction, from a few large power plants to millions of end users.Instead, every one of these end users can become an electricity supplier, which is a challenge for the humble transformer.
In addition, demand for transformers has outpaced supply, slowing the deployment of renewable energy projects and increasing costs. Solid-state transformers promise to be what integrated circuits are to vacuum tubes.Conventional transformers are passive devices that raise or lower voltage unconsciously.
Ampere wants to change that.The power electronics startup has raised a $12.45 million seed round to help the team commercialize the silicon carbide solid-state transformer technology it developed at the Nanyang Technological University Research Lab in Singapore. The round was co-led by Temasek’s earlier subsidiaries Xora Innovation and Material Impact. TDK Ventures and Foothill Ventures participated in the project.
Phil Inagaki, Xora Managing Director and Amperesand interim CEO, said, “Electric vehicle charging is a great use case.”The scale at which people are looking at the deployment of EV charging in the world creates the largest market for transformers.”

Save space

In addition, solid-state transformers are smaller and have lower cooling requirements than their predecessors, meaning that installation can take up to 75% less space. “Inagaki said.”If you want to build a fast charging station in a city, you probably don’t have much space,” he said. Even outside the city, space is a consideration. “People who work in the fast-charging space, I was surprised that they mentioned it more than I thought they would.”
Amperage says it can expand the transformer to suit the needs of different locations. Unlike traditional monolithic transformers, solid-state transformers can be built using modules. Need more motivation? No, it just needs to add more modules.
Thankfully, changing the way transformers are made $12.5 million isn’t much for a company looking to sell expensive grid-connected equipment.