Menlo Microsystems Awarded Defense Innovation Unit Contract to Develop Advanced Circuit Breakers for Defense Systems

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Menlo Microsystems Inc. (Menlo Micro), the company responsible for bringing its Ideal Switch® technology to market, has been awarded a contract by the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). Menlo Micro will develop a first of its kind, high-current advanced circuit breaker for power distribution for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program’s Advanced Technology Innovation Pipeline (ATIP) Program. Menlo Micro was selected from a field of companies competing for the contract through DIU’s rigorous vendor selection process.

Throughout the project, Menlo Micro will provide building blocks to be converted into a hybrid Ideal Switch® architecture to switch up to 1kV_DC/10kA_DC for U.S. Navy electrical systems. Upon project completion, 100A power building blocks will be assembled and tested for future integration into advanced circuit breakers for the DoD.

This breakthrough circuit breaker solution will feature more reliable state-of-the-art performance in a much smaller form factor, compared to traditional circuit breakers. This new circuit breaker solution uses Menlo Micro’s high-power MM9200 SMT Ideal Switch®, combined with a solid-state switch. It will enable high efficiency hot-switch solutions with SWaP that is up to 5X smaller, 4X lighter, and with less complicated external cooling and heatsinking solutions than the old generation solutions based on mechanical switches. This novel circuit breaker also provides fast dI/dT switching for better reliability, lower maintenance, and 5X lower surge current. Because of the ultra-low resistivity contacts, the Ideal Switch® offers substantial efficiency advantages when compared to other semiconductor solutions and Electro-Mechanical relays. Through its unique design, the advanced circuit breaker can interrupt a circuit more than 10 times faster than a mechanical breaker.

“The 1kV / 10kA circuit breaker solution using Menlo Micro’s technology will be groundbreaking and the first evolution in the circuit breaker field in decades. We look forward to our partnership with the U.S. Navy demonstrating the scalability of these advanced circuit breakers,” said Russ Garcia, Chief Executive Officer at Menlo Microsystems. “Menlo Micro’s high-current solution offers vastly improved performance, protection, and reliability that will not only drastically change power control for defense ground, air and sea vessels, but will revolutionize power control in buildings, microgrids, and other energy distribution applications. We understand the greater energy efficiency goals the DoD is targeting for powering the future and look forward to supporting their initiatives.”