Cambridge Semiconductor Limited
Encyclopedia
Cambridge Semiconductor Limited (CamSemi) is a fabless semiconductor
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...

 business based in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It specializes in power management
Power management
Power management is a feature of some electrical appliances, especially copiers, computers and computer peripherals such as monitors and printers, that turns off the power or switches the system to a low-power state when inactive. In computing this is known as PC power management and is built...

 IC
Ic
IC, ic, or i.c. may stand for:In computing and technology:* .ic.gov, a second-level domain name administered by the US Government for members of the intelligence community* Integrated circuit* Initial condition...

s. The company was spun out of Cambridge University in August 2000 with seed investment from the Cambridge University Challenge Fund, as a commercial venture arising out of the research conducted by Professor Gehan Amarantunga and others at the Cambridge University Engineering Department
Cambridge University Engineering Department
The Cambridge University Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest departments in the university. The main site is situated at Trumpington Street, to the south of Cambridge city centre. The department is the primary centre for engineering teaching and research...

.

CamSemi is developing a range of new ICs
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...

 for use in power conversion products such as mains power supplies and lighting. The company’s products are enabling power supply
Power supply
A power supply is a device that supplies electrical energy to one or more electric loads. The term is most commonly applied to devices that convert one form of electrical energy to another, though it may also refer to devices that convert another form of energy to electrical energy...

 manufacturers to develop low cost products that comply with Energy Star
Energy Star
Energy Star is an international standard for energy efficient consumer products originated in the United States of America. It was first created as a United States government program during the early 1990s, but Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and the European Union have also adopted...

, the European code of conduct and related energy-efficiency regulations. All CamSemi products are based on a proprietary portfolio of technologies and topologies including advanced control architectures, RDFC and PowerBrane.

The company’s venture capital investors include DFJ Esprit
Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with affiliate offices in more than 30 cities around the world and over $7 billion in capital commitments....

, SEP
Scottish Equity Partners
Scottish Equity Partners is a leading independent owner managed venture capital and growth equity firm. It invests in innovative, high growth companies in the information technology, healthcare and energy technology sectors...

, TTP Ventures and cleantech investors The Carbon Trust
The Carbon Trust
The Carbon Trust is a not for dividend company limited by guarantee created by the UK government to help businesses and public organisations to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, through improved energy efficiency and developing commercial low carbon technology...

 and BankInvest.

Launched products

  • C2470 mixed signal controllers and RDFC (Resonant Discontinuous Forward Converter) topology for switched-mode power supplies (SMPS)
    Switched-mode power supply
    A switched-mode power supply is an electronic power supply that incorporates a switching regulator in order to be highly efficient in the conversion of electrical power...

  • C2140 and C2150 primary side sensing flyback controllers for SMPS
    Switched-mode power supply
    A switched-mode power supply is an electronic power supply that incorporates a switching regulator in order to be highly efficient in the conversion of electrical power...

  • C2160 family of PSS flyback controllers targeting 5 star-rated mobile phone chargers with <30 mW no-load
  • C3120 LED drivers ICs for solid-state lighting
    LED lamp
    An LED lamp is a solid-state lamp that uses light-emitting diodes as the source of light. The LEDs involved may be conventional semiconductor light-emitting diodes, organic LEDs , or polymer light-emitting diodes devices, although PLED technologies are not currently commercially available.Since...


Development milestones

  • 2002 CamSemi secured series A funding led by 3i
    3i
    3i Group plc is a multinational private equity and venture capital company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has offices in 13 countries across Asia, Europe and the Americas and had total assets under management of £12.7 billion as at 31 March 2011...

     to raise $6.1 million.
  • 2004 Announced PowerBrane, a new technology to integrate IGBTs and controllers onto the same die
    Die (integrated circuit)
    A die in the context of integrated circuits is a small block of semiconducting material, on which a given functional circuit is fabricated.Typically, integrated circuits are produced in large batches on a single wafer of electronic-grade silicon or other semiconductor through processes such as...

    .
  • 2007 Launched RDFC controller family Company announcement.
  • Opened sales office and application design centre in Taiwan.
  • 2008 Closed series C funding to raise $34 million ; introduced first primary side sensing controllers and named ‘Start up of the year’ by National Microelectronics Institute Company announcement
  • 2009 Named as ‘University Spin-out of the Year’ in New Energy Awards Company announcement
  • Launched C2160 family of PSS controllers to help manufacturers develop power supplies with <30 mW no load power
    No load power
    No load power consumption is the electric power consumed by a power charger when it is plugged into a wall socket but without the mobile phone or other handheld device being connected....

  • 2011 Awarded ‘Business Weekly’s East of England International Trade Award’ Company announcement
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