Arctic Sand Technologies

Arctic Sand Technologies originated as a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2011, founded by Nadia Shalaby and Dr. David Giuliano. The company was established to commercialize the power conversion technology developed during Dr. Giuliano's PhD research at MIT. Gary Davison served as the CEO from September 2013 until the company's acquisition. A significant milestone was achieved in March 2017 when Peregrine Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Murata Manufacturing, acquired Arctic Sand. This acquisition was a strategic move to integrate Arctic Sand's technology into Murata's portfolio, aiming to advance the power electronics industry. Following the acquisition, Peregrine Semiconductor rebranded to pSemi in January 2018.

The core of Arctic Sand's business is the design and manufacturing of fabless, low-power semiconductors for DC-DC power conversion. Its business model centers on creating and selling these highly efficient power conversion integrated circuits (ICs) to other manufacturers. The company's primary clients are in the telecommunications, data communications, mobile computing, and industrial electronics markets. By developing power management chips, Arctic Sand aimed to capture a piece of the multi-billion dollar DC/DC power conversion market.

Arctic Sand's flagship product is based on its Transformative Integrated Power Solutions (TIPS™) technology, a patented architecture leveraging exclusively-licensed MIT patents. This technology enables the creation of power conversion ICs that are significantly smaller and more efficient than competing products. For instance, in some applications, the technology can reduce the physical space required for power components by 50% and their height by a factor of three, while cutting power losses by up to half. A key product line, the ARC3C family of LED driver ICs, targets ultra-high-definition (UHD) LCD displays for notebooks and tablets, offering substantial power savings that can translate to about an hour of additional battery life. The architecture is versatile, supporting buck, buck-boost, and boost topologies for a wide array of applications, from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to larger systems such as servers and networking equipment.

Keywords: power conversion IC, DC-DC converters, semiconductor, fabless, power management, MIT spin-off, Murata Manufacturing, pSemi, Transformative Integrated Power Solutions, TIPS, power efficiency, LED driver, mobile computing, data centers, low-power semiconductors, buck-boost, power modules, high efficiency, small footprint, power electronics, integrated circuits, thermal management