See earlier profile.

Akros Silicon was formed in January 2005 “to bring managed power to the network edge to accelerate the deployment of intelligent appliances.” In July 2005, the company raised $9 million in Series A funding from Bay Partners and U.S. Venture Partners. In March 2007, Akros secured $10.1 million in Series B financing led by Levensohn Venture Partners and including Series A investors Bay Partners, SPM Capital and US Venture Partners. The company has 35 employees.

Traditional Power over Ethernet (PoE) PD shipments will grow from 32M ports in 2006 to 145M ports in 2011, according to Dell’Oro Group research. Enterprise devices such VoIP phones have already embraced PoE and residential access and infotainment devices are beginning to use it. Emerging medical, industrial, security, and automotive devices represent potential opportunities as well.

The existing IEEE 802.3af PoE standard enables powered devices to receive as much as 13 Watts of power, which can be limiting for many of today’s power hungry devices. The emerging IEEE 802.3at standard enhances PoE by providing increased power of at least 30 Watts, with the potential to move as high as the 60 Watt range. Akros believes the shift to the higher power IEEE 802.3at standard creates an inflection point for significant new design opportunities. The IEEE 802.3at straw dog is anticipated in the early Fall with ratification six months thereafter.

To capitalize on this opportunity, Akros is developing PoE ICs for Powered Device (PD) applications. Akros argues that it has developed the first system-level ICs that merge the network interface with power management circuitry. Akros believes its solutions will enable large-scale deployment of network-attached appliances such as VoIP phones, WLAN access points, RFID tag readers, point-of-sale terminals, networked cameras, remote access and home-networked systems.

Akros recently introduced its AS1100 family of devices, which offer the smallest footprint and highest integration for Power over Ethernet (PoE) Powered Device (PD) applications, according to the company. Built on standard HV CMOS SOI technology, the AS1100 family combines rectification and protection circuitry with a PD controller and a DC-DC controller. The devices include system-level circuitry for lower EMI emissions and robust surge protection. This high level of integration provides significant reliability and protection advantages, as well as simplifies PoE PD design.

The AS1100 family provides advanced power management through integration of a hot-swap switch and a DC-DC controller that operates from a switched input voltage and includes soft-start and current limiting functions. The DC-DC architecture is a current mode converter, which can be configured with external component changes for either fly-back, forward, or buck topologies to support non-isolated or isolated switching topologies. The dual switch architecture minimizes noise, maximizes efficiency and reduces the switch breakdown requirements for a lower cost solution.

A key requirement of POE systems is immunity to overvoltage and surge events, functionality that has been implemented in discretes in the past. The pin compatible AS1100 family provides seamless support for local power and over temperature protection. Integrating the diode bridge and protection circuitry significantly increases the reaction time of protection devices and PHY immunity to over-voltage stress events. Integrating these components also substantially reduces board-to-board variation and increases overall manufacturability providing the customer with time to market advantage. The AS1100 supports board level surges > 16.5kV air discharge, > 8kV contact discharge and > 6kV Surge, well in excess of industry requirements.

Since Power and Ethernet mixes data and power delivery on the same wire, it is critical to manage the path for transient surge events, in parallel with the DC-DC conversion function, in order to achieve EMC compliance and the Ethernet transmission requirements. Using proprietary precision analog and mixed-signal technologies and unique system-orientated design and architecture allows the control of EMI and provides immunity against surge transients, while managing power and Ethernet performance.

The two major sources for electromagnetic emissions come from switching noise emanating at the DC-DC conversion and differential to common mode conversion that occurs at the Ethernet PHYs and associated transformers. Akros’ EMI technology is critical for low EMI emissions and to improve immunity in both conducted and radiated frequency bands. The devices include a series of platform tested circuit capabilities to assist system designers in providing solutions that meet or exceed regulatory and extreme environmental usages.

PoE competitors include PowerDsine, TI, Linear Tech, Silicon Labs and National, among others. In October 2006, Microsemi entered into a definitive agreement to acquire PowerDsine for $168 million net of cash acquired. Akros believes the AS1100 family of devices is the first highly integrated PD family that addresses the needs of the high growth PoE market. The AS1100 family is unique in addressing EMI and surge resilience, offering a superior level of integration and the industry’s smallest footprint while saving overall system cost and maximizing system efficiency. The company has 40 patents filed with many more in the pipeline.

The AS1100 family includes the AS1113 for IEEE 802.3af-2003 power levels (13W) and AS1124 for either 802.3af or 802.3at pre-standard power levels. The AS1124 for 24W applications encompasses the pre-802.3at standard with “two finger classification” and is backward compatible to current 802.3af customer needs. The AS1113 and AS1124 are priced at $1.33 and $1.46 for 1kU quantity respectively.

Future plans include a device focused on EMI, and devices that integrate additional power regulators to support multiple voltage requirements.

J. Francois Crepin, President, CEO, Chairman & Co-founder (former president, COO and Director of Metalink and held various VP positions at Level One (acquired by Intel), including VP marketing and sales, business development and M&A as well as divisional GM)

John Camagna, VP of Engineering & Co-Founder (former VP of engineering at Metalink and directed the DSL program at Level One)

Sajol Ghoshal, CTO and Chief Architect & Co-Founder (former COO at Calpont, a hardware-based database management company, VP of engineering of Agere, which was acquired by Lucent/Agere and director of engineering of the WAN Access Division at Level One)

Linda Maser, VP of North American Sales (previously VP of Sales for Zilker Labs and Director of Sales and Marketing for ON Semiconductor’s computing segment)

Ven Shan, VP of Marketing (previously VP of product marketing at Semtech and Alliance, and Director of Marketing for Gigabit Ethernet products at National)