Ideal Power, a pioneer in the development of highly efficient and patented semiconductor power switches, has announced that the Company secured its first design win for solid-state circuit breakers (SSCBs) with one of the largest circuit protection equipment manufacturers in Asia serving the industrial and utility markets.
In connection with this design win, the Company entered a joint development agreement for an SSCB product incorporating multiple B-TRAN devices. The deal includes the product design, prototype builds, and testing of the SSCB which is targeted for completion in the second quarter of 2025 to be followed by commercial sales later in the year. For Ideal Power, the opportunity from this customer’s first B-TRAN-based product could potentially translate to several hundred thousand dollars in the first year of sales, with the opportunity to exceed a million dollars in revenue in the second year. We expect this product to be their first of multiple products incorporating B-TRAN into SSCBs as the customer is interested in offering a suite of B-TRAN-enabled SSCBs with a wide range of ratings. As a result, the overall opportunity with this customer could eventually lead to sales of a million units per year based on the customer’s projections.
The customer’s products are focused on renewable energy, circuit protection for industrial equipment and facilities, utility grid infrastructure, and power distribution. They currently sell over 200 thousand circuit breakers per year to their large established customer base in the Asian market. They have a decades-long legacy of innovation to meet the current and future needs of their customers. Their initial B-TRAN-enabled SSCB will be marketed to grid-tied solar and energy storage equipment providers and utility electric distribution network companies. Other potential applications with the customer include data centers, lighting and air conditioning systems, electric vehicles, including vehicle-to-grid power conversion and EV contractors, and other energy storage solutions. The customer evaluated B-TRAN against SiC MOSFETs and selected B-TRAN due to its ultra-low conduction losses and inherent bi-directionality.
“Today’s design win is a milestone representing significant validation of B-TRAN as an enabling technology for SSCBs and a catalyst for our revenue ramp in industrial markets. Now that we have captured our first design win for SSCBs, we will leverage this win to secure additional design wins with other SSCB customers in the coming months to drive long-term value creation for our shareholders,” stated Dan Brdar, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ideal Power.
For SSCB applications, the Company’s B-TRAN technology dramatically lowers conduction losses compared to IGBT and silicon carbide MOSFET-based SSCBs while offering inherent bidirectionality, reducing the number of devices required for a given circuit breaker rating. Compared to conventional electromechanical breakers, B-TRAN-based SSCBs are expected to offer orders of magnitude faster operation along with programmability and diagnostic capability and enhanced safety and reliability. B-TRAN potentially lays a path to broad SSCB adoption by industrial, utility, and military customers. The Company estimates a $1 billion serviceable addressable market (SAM) for B-TRAN for the solid-state switchgear market, inclusive of SSCBs.
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