University of Arkansas Researchers Partner with SunShot Award-Winning Company

The University of Arkansas’ Mixed-Signal Computer-Aided Design Laboratory has partnered with SineWatts Inc., a cleantech startup based in Charlotte, North Carolina. SineWatts has been selected for a second Incubator Award from the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative.

The award will support the company’s efforts to develop a solar power converter, called the Inverter Molecule. U of A researchers are working with SineWatts to transition the current implementation from board level to integrated circuit level for efficiency enhancement, maximizing volumetric reduction and increasing reliability.

Using the Inverter Molecule device, a SineWatts solar power plant can significantly reduce installation cost of photovoltaic systems and allow utilities to dispatch photovoltaic power plants in the same manner as conventional power plants. A plant composed of the Inverter Molecules will have none of the footprint associated with conventional inverters and ancillary hardware, resulting in a 70 percent lower installed inverter cost.

“This award represents a commitment by the Energy Department for the SineWatts product and the world-class team behind it,” said SineWatts CEO Shiba Bhowmik.

The U of A team is led by Alan Mantooth, Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering and holder of the Twenty-First Century Endowed Chair in Mixed-Signal IC Design and CAD and consists of Matt Francis, adjunct researcher professor, and several graduate and undergraduate students at the U of A. This team will assist SineWatts in this key integration phase.

“Once again, our students have the opportunity to participate with a great team and leading edge technology in the creation of next generation products in the energy sector,” said Mantooth. “There are some aggressive miniaturization targets to achieve, but we are confident, based on our past experience in power electronics integration, that we can accomplish our objectives. We are attempting to reduce tens of square inches of printed circuit board real estate into a few square millimeters of integrated circuits.”