Silicon Is About to Change the World - Again [Point of View]

This paper describes several examples of benefits derived from replacing mechanics with power electronics, including SkyTran-a silicon-based transportation system. However, the new power electronics has much wider application than SkyTran alone. Mating diverse distributed power sources to the electric grid is challenging, but SkyTran's power electronics partner, One-Cycle Control, Inc., a spinoff of California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of California, Irvine, has shown how agile power control can help. Interestingly, One-Cycle Control accomplishes this with no digital signal processing or microprocessor software.