Highlights

QPT has revolutionised an existing semiconductor technology leading to:

An 80% reduction in wasted power, 10% improvements in system efficiency, large reductions in system costs.

Over 5 years of R & D

This patented technology can reduce global electricity usage by up to 5%.

Hugh environmental benefits

Since electric motors use around 50% of the world's electricity the environmental impact is the same as removing every plane from the sky.

Large and growing market

QPT’s solution accesses a $60bn a Total Addressable Market.

The Problem

“Electric motors are the largest single-energy use with half of global electricity consumption.
There is a huge, untapped potential for energy efficiency in motors: around 25% of electricity use could be saved cost-effectively, which would reduce global electricity demand by 10%.”
- The International Energy Agency (IEA)

Today’s silicon-based power semiconductors are capped at a maximum frequency of 4kHz, limiting further improvements in efficiency, size and weight of electric motor drives.
Even with these frequency limitations, Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) is a constant challenge.
Motor drives and electric motors generate a lot of heat, which needs to be handled via complex cooling systems
The electric motors are driven by block-like waves rather than smooth sine waves. This causes vibrations, noise, heat and reduces efficiency further.

The solution

Much better power semiconductors already exist

Much faster GaN (Gallium Nitride) power semiconductors are already transforming the efficiency of lower power applications, such as chargers.
GaN transistors can operate at frequencies that are 100s of times faster than silicon-based systems
These high frequencies would allow an electric motor to be driven smoothly by a pure sine wave

But there are significant challenges at high power

With these very high frequencies increases come very significant EMI challenges
GaN transistors are very small. At high power and high frequency the thermal challenges are also complex

Our Product

QPT has designed, developed, patented, and produced a simple to integrate module that solves the challenges and enables electric motor drives which have:

1 MHz switching speed (100x faster than the current state-of-the-art).
Reduces motor drive switching losses by 80%
Increases power density to provide a 20x reduction in size and weight
Best in class thermal performance, reducing the need for complex cooling systems
Minimal EMI to ensure simple compliance
A perfect sine wave output to the electric motor reducing noise, vibrations, wasted energy from eddy currents and improved lifespan of the motor
Significant reductions in the Total Cost of Ownership

Market & Growth

Our modules target an estimated $60Bn TAM by 2030. This market is driven by heat pumps & air conditioners (HVAC), electric vehicles and industrial applications. The HVAC market is expected to grow at a CAGR 7.6% (from 2022 to 2030), EVs at a CAGR 15.9% (from 2023 to 2035) & industrial motors at a CAGR 3.9% (from 2022 to 2032). Electric motors use around 45% of the world’s electricity, so the opportunities are vast.

Business model

Our facility in Portugal can produce large numbers (up to 1m units) of modules which will be backed up by outsourcing from specialist partners that we are already in early discussions with. We also expect additional revenue to come from licensing our IP and, in the long term, selling key chips (ASICS) within our modules.

Competition

As far as we can tell, no other power engineers have been able to solve the GaN issues. Our Founder’s experienced knowledge of both power and microwave engineering enabled him to draw on these multiple disciplines to solve the challenges. Much smaller and much faster switching transistors mean that many of the challenges in creating a next-generation, GaN-based power module actually require microwave and RF engineering solutions.

Use of funds

Funds will be used to scale up production and staff plus global filing of 14 patents to further protect our technology & forming a barrier to competitors.

Investors & funding

We have currently raised around £2.9m to fund R&D. Leading the previous round was GaN Systems co-founder, Geoff Haynes, an expert on GaN and power electronics

Customers

Having won ABB’s Power Density Start-up Challenge QPT have a contract with ABB to develop a next-gen motor drive with the world’s largest supplier of industrial electric motors. We also have an MoU with GaN Systems (recently acquired by Infineon) whose 650V GaN transistors are used within our qIPM module.

IP

The process of filing 14 patents has started which will protect these innovations. 4 of the core patents have already been filed with 2 granted.

The Team

The team has a history of several successful exits between them and includes industry veterans who understand the challenges of scaling complex hardware products in the high-power markets.