Addressing gating factors for the power management industry: Semitrex

‘Creating a quantum shift in the digital power management industry based on capacitive voltage reduction technology.’

Semitrex is an Irvine, California-based fabless (the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or “fab” of the devices to a specialized manufacturer) semiconductor company that designs chips for improved power management. The company’s patented capacitive voltage reduction technology uses cascading capacitors to store power and convert voltages on chips, reducing the energy consumption of electronic devices.

Founded in 2012, the company is headquartered at Irvine, California and has offices throughout the United States and in Europe.

Semitrex is a new breed of power Semiconductor Company enjoying successes in energy-efficient digital power solutions. At a time when worldwide energy shortages are a reality and strict new efficiency standards are being enacted globally, Semitrex is creating impactful, revolutionary energy-efficient power conversion products that are friendly to humans and the environment.

The first real power supply breakthrough in over four decades, Semitrex’s core energy efficiency power supply technology improves the way that power conversions are made in order to create a significant increase in power efficiency and reduce grid stress. The highly energy-efficient TRONIUM™ is Semitrex’s first chip and is based on its patented Muxcapacitor™ technology. TRONIUM has been tested with efficiencies over 90 percent across all load ranges (down to 50 milliamps) with only 1/2 milliwatt of standby power draw in the U.S. and one milliwatt of standby power draw in Europe. Standby power (also known as vampire power) is responsible for about 400 terawatts per year across 10 billion to 12 billion devices – losses which Semitrex virtually eliminates. Semitrex uses its Muxcapacitor capacitive voltage conversions as the primary method of voltage reduction rather than traditional topologies, which rely on inductive parts for voltage conversions. Applications addressed by Semitrex’s power conversion technology include the billions of devices in the consumer, computer, telecom, medical and industrial markets.
The culmination of Semitrex’s efforts is the development of the TRONIUM^® PSSoC – Power Supply System on a Chip.

TRONIUM^® Powered Products
The TRONIUM^® PSSoC1102 PSSoC^™ is a high Voltage AC/DC Power Supply System in a module. It can supply highly efficient (>90%) output power and is capable of delivering up to 2.5 watts. Its primary use is for providing power in “point‐of‐use” situations powering onboard circuitry or charging consumer products such as cell phones, tablets, notebooks, and low wattage power modules (IoT).

Powered by 120VAC (U.S. wall outlets) to 260VAC (European/Asian wall outlets), The TRONIUM® is typically used as the primary power regulator. The package is monolithic with rugged construction.

Chargers: The Smart Prong™ family of chargers is powered by the TRONIUM® Power Supply System on a Chip™ (PSSoC). Reducing wall power to a few volts requires a very large voltage conversion ratio, since worldwide power levels vary from 115 to 240VAC. The TRONIUM^® chips use the revolutionary new Muxcapacitor® (MXC) voltage pre‐regulation, which provides voltage reduction using cascading capacitors.

Most converters use high transformer winding ratios to achieve large step‐down voltages. This causes losses due to escaping electrons when the transformer’s magnetic field expands and collapses. The TRONIUM® MXC technology drops the voltage by using a capacitor chain. This allows the use of lower conversion ratios. Lower conversion ratios translate into higher energy efficiency. MXC pre‐regulation provides a lower primary converter input voltage. This permits a much smaller transformer size.

PSR – PRIMARY SIDE REGULATORS: Semitrex’s TRONIUM^® Primary-Side Remote Sensing (PSRS®) semiconductor architecture reduces parts necessary on a power supply, while keeping tight regulation for all types of power topologies from forward convertors to flyback configurations.

The TRONIUM^® PSRS^® relies on the principle of sensing the instantaneous current and voltage seen by the primary winding of the transformer before a full collapse and reset. This information can then be used to accurately regulate the secondary output voltage by Pulse-Width-Modulation (PWM) of the primary-side MOSFET switch providing highly efficient sensing at low, medium and high current demands.

The primary benefit of this architecture is the elimination of feedback from the secondary side of the transformer which must cross the isolation boundary with an opto-isolator. As a result, a reduction in typically 9 components and their associated cost is obtained. An added benefit is the greatly improved efficiency of the power supply at light and medium loads, with regulation deviance within 1%.

ENERLINKX: ENERLINKX^™ is the Semitrex TRONIUM^® Whole House or Whole Office Energy and Control system. It can be used with all kinds of electronic devices which are powered by Semitrex’s TRONIUM^® chips. By using the TRONIUM^® PSSoC-C(om) module, each electronic device or TRONIUM^® wall outlet in your home or office can be controlled and monitored from your cell phone or TV, without costly add-ons which, themselves use energy.

Chargenetics: The Chargnetics tester tests both device and chargers; while providing simulated loads (charging profiles) for all types of products which need to be charged. With the Chargnetics tester, a governmental authority or regulating entity can avoid purchasing all the devices on the market which might utilize the charge to be tested.

The tester also has the ability to accurately test at extremely low stand by powers, a feature which does not exist in current testing device formats. The Chargnetics box reliably tests and evaluates chargers, alone or together with their chargeable devices.

“We are committed to reducing energy consumption through the development of radical new energy efficient semiconductor solutions.”

Meet the Master

Michael Freeman J.D., CEO & CTO: Semitrex was founded by Michael H. Freeman in 2012 as a fabless power semiconductor R&D company based on Freeman’s capacitor innovations. Freeman is an Emmy Award Winning Mobile Video Inventor. His mobile inventions were the foundation of 802.11(n) MIMO technology. Licensed by virtually every cell company that existed at the time, these Mobile Video patents were ultimately purchased by Samsung, and were asserted in the Apple vs. Samsung litigation, in which Michael testified as the first “smart phone” and “mobile video” technologies invented.