Amantys Ltd. has launched its first product, the Amantys Power Drive, an advanced, high isolation gate drive for medium and high voltage applications. This single channel gate drive incorporates a number of system enhancements to deliver a compact solution designed for longer life reliability and improved performance over comparable solutions. The company anticipates strong demand in applications as varied as HVDC, industrial and locomotive motor drives, and hybrid and electric vehicles.
Current products in the market are custom engineered for each application, and as a consequence, scarce and valuable power engineering resources are diverted from real product differentiation with repetitive engineering work. At the recent launch of the UK’s "Power Electronics: A Strategy for Success" the scarcity of such skills was identified as one of the key industry challenges. By providing a common platform to drive a range of different IGBTs from several manufacturers, the Amantys Power Drive brings greater design reuse allowing those skilled resources to be redeployed on higher-level product innovation.
The Amantys Power Drive is configurable for various power modules and offers control of the rate of voltage and current change (dV/dt and dI/dt). The compact design sits within the power module dimensions to give a more robust design and a smaller footprint. It is compatible with existing drives but offers improved characteristics, switching modules from Infineon, Mitsubishi, Dynex and Toshiba.
Bryn Parry, CEO, Amantys commented, "We’re launching the Amantys Power Drive as the first step on a very focused technology journey for Amantys; we’re thrilled that we’re already pushing the boundaries of existing market solutions. As a new company in the power electronics industry, early customer engagement is vital to building relationships, earning recognition, and of course, building first revenues. By raising industry’s expectations of a gate drive and how power is switched, this announcement paves the way for the intelligent power switch we’re developing right now."
Lead customers will receive the Amantys Power Drive samples this year with general availability in the first quarter of 2012, and production beginning in the second quarter. The company expects to follow this first product announcement with further product releases in the first quarter of 2012. The Amantys Power Drive is priced at $625 for sample quantities.
