GaN pioneer Haynes leads investor push as QPT targets £500k on Crowdcube

The company reports that the current crowdfunding round has a target of £500,000 and adds that it is eligible for EIS (Enterprise Investment Scheme) status.

Based at the Bradfield Centre on Cambridge Science Park, QPT was founded in 2019 with a mission to help the world use power more efficiently – crucial in tackling the climate crisis.

Founded by Rob Gwynne, QPT focuses on a major source of carbon production into the atmosphere; the burning of fossil fuels to power electric motors that use 45 per cent of the world’s electricity.

It is acknowledged to be the first company to work out and patent a set of innovations that enable high power, high voltage GaN transistors to be used in VFDs at their ultrafast frequencies and thus unlock their full potential to deliver power savings.

A VFD (variable frequency drive) is a type of controller that drives an electric motor by varying the frequency and voltage of its power supply.

The company’s key, patented innovations are called qDrive™, ZEST™, and qSense™ and they come together in QPT’s qGaN and qSensor modules. 

Two qGaN modules implement a half bridge that drives a single phase of a motor – three of these half bridges are used to drive a motor in a Y-configuration. These innovations come together to form a holistic, integrated approach that upgrades the VFD design to cope with having GaN transistors running at full throttle. Otherwise, says the company, “it would be like bolting a jet engine onto a standard car!”