For close to a generation, power converters have switched power supplies in much the same way as they always have. A Malvern-based startup, however, is re-examining that accepted wisdom in light of new control technology, improved components and changing economies driven by energy cost and availability. The end result is improved efficiency, of course a buzz word in an ever-greening world, and that, more than anything, has CogniPower poised for big things in the near future.
Its time for innovative thinking, says Thomas Lawson, who founded Lawson Labs, a 30 year-old data acquisition company focused on rarified markets and analytic instruments that spun out CogniPower a little more than a year ago. People are being held back by the limitations of controls of power converters.
The keys to improving power converters, Lawson indicates, lie in predictive energy balancing, precisely timed and controlled switching, and better current measurement. The company has developed an improved way to monitor current in the high-speed, high-current environment that is found in switched-mode power converters. CogniPower hopes to market that technology to build better power products.
These unique capabilities allow you to skip a whole stage of power conversion, says Lawson. We can make a power converter thats enough better than a conventional one, that one of ours can replace two.
Cogniower has already had two patents issued and another 14 in the pipeline. That doesnt include about 12 patents previously issued to Lawson and co-inventor William H. Morong.
John Ryan, who founded and ran Sungard Data Systems and is president of IT venture capital firm Devon Hill Ventures, has taken the company under his wing and is involved in day-to-day operations. CogniPower is hoping to raise $750,000 to help get to a position of profitability. The company received a $200,000 commitment late last year from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Lawson is eyeing data centers, personal computers, electric and hybrid vehicles, LED lighting, wind power and solar inverters as potential markets for CogniPowers boosted converters. Smart Grids would also be a potentially lucrative space for the company.
If we can license our intellectual property then thats a very streamlined way to get this technology out into broad use, Lawson says.
Source: Thomas Lawson, CogniPower
Writer: Joe Petrucci