CamSemi, a spin-out company from the Department of Engineering, has been awarded the 2009 Carbon Trust Innovation Award in recognition of the company’s innovative power management integrated circuits (ICs) and their potential to cut the energy consumed within buildings.

CamSemi was scrutinised by a panel of independent experts from government, science and business and was awarded the prize for genuine innovation, carbon saving potential and commercial opportunity.

This award comes just months after the company was awarded ‘University Spin-out of the year’ in the New Energy Awards 2009. It was also previously named Start-up of the Year 2008 by the National Microelectronics Institute and was short-listed for two Business Weekly awards in 2008.

Founded by Professor Gehan Amaratunga and Professor Florin Udrea in 2002, CamSemi designs bespoke chips to control power devices found throughout our homes, many of which waste over half the energy they consume in heat.

One device they launched in 2007 now sits in power supplies that are 86% efficient and are sold with routers, modems and cordless phones. The company’s latest device controls the world’s first mobile-phone charger that meets new standards for ultra-low power consumption.

Dick Strawbridge, a television presenter, eco engineer and one of the judges of the award said: ‘I love the CamSemi solution. In the 1780s Edmund Burke said no one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little. CamSemi is a classic example of a company that has done a little that will add up to a lot.’

The Carbon Trust Innovation Awards was founded in 2003 to recognise ‘cleantech champion’ and success stories from the UK’s rapidly growing low carbon economy.

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