American Superconductor Releases the PowerModule Power Converter
American Superconductor Corp. (Westborough, MA) announced that its Integrated Electronics division released its first commercial power-converter product. The company believes that the device, which is called the PowerModule, could create the standard for the power-conversion industry.
PowerModules are based on a printed circuit-board design, which allows the use of standard electronic-manufacturing techniques for consistent, automated product assembly. The company is designing, developing and producing PowerModules that have ratings from 60kW to 1,000kW per module.
The first product offering is the PowerModule-250, which has a power rating of 250kW. The various models of PowerModules can be operated in parallel for higher power ratings and can be easily reconfigured to obtain a variety of ratings, pole numbers and sizes from common hardware. Fiber-optic communication provides high-speed, noise-immune communication between PowerModules and system controllers. Software and control hardware for the new device is modular and programmable to allow for the rapid development of new applications, or to be reconfigured for customer-specific features. Thus, a single PowerModule design can be used to implement a wide variety of power-conversion methods and end-user applications.
"Our PowerModules are like building blocks that can be stacked and integrated to handle power in a wide range of end-use applications," said Greg Yurek, CEO of American Superconductor. "The printed circuit-board design and full programmability of the PowerModule provides a level of flexibility in configuration, installation and use that we believe will make the PowerModule the undisputed standard for power converters. This means we can expect significant, profitable revenue growth from this division starting in the June 2001 quarter." Yurek added, "If the market develops as we expect, revenues from this business are expected to exceed $100.0 million within three years."
