Artificial Muscle (AMI) has formed a separate division to commercialize its dc-dc converters and other high-voltage electronic components. The new division, AMI Electronics (AMIE), will sell a unique line of electronic components to OEMs. Timothy Coogan was named General Manager of the AMI Electronics Division in addition to his role as Director of Marketing for Artificial Muscle.
“EPAM actuators require a sophisticated low power, step-up dc-dc converter with a rich set of features at a low price,” said Tim Coogan, General Manager of AMIE. “Existing dc-dc converters simply don’t provide the appropriate mix of features at a price that makes sense for high-volume Artificial Muscle applications such as linear actuators, pumps, and proportional valves. As such, we developed our own step-up electronic components for internal use, and have determined that dc-dc converters with this rich feature-price ratio are in demand for a wide variety of high-volume applications.”
AMIE’s first product line will be the Thunder family of 1.5-W dc-dc converters, available today with input voltages 0 V to 5 V; 12 V; or 24 V and output voltages of 500 V to 5000 V.
“While Artificial Muscle continues to lower our operating voltage requirements, we have provided high-voltage products to a broad spectrum of aerospace, automotive, medical, consumer electronics, and other Fortune-500 companies and international academic and research institutions since 2004,” said Charlie Duncheon, Artificial Muscle’s acting CEO. “This new initiative allows customers to purchase our electronic components separately with output voltage specifications far greater than our own EPAM products require. AMI Electronics is the first example of our leveraged R-and-D strategy that capitalizes on the investments we have made to bring the first high-volume Universal Muscle Actuator (UMA) to market.”
