👋 Happy Saturday—we’re back again with another light read! This weekend’s highlights include a couple of interesting lecture notes, how ASML machines are kept up and running, and a cool startup manufacturing permanent magnets.
Interesting Lecture Note: MIT Power Electronics đź“ť
Before the advent of modern power electronics, electrical energy was primarily controlled through mechanical switches, rotating machinery, and early gas-filled tubes like mercury-arc rectifiers, which were bulky, less efficient, and had limited control capabilities. Power electronics is a fundamental field that deals with the processing and control of electrical energy using semiconductor devices.
This MIT course covers all the major types of power electronic conversion you need to understand how modern electronics, motors, and industrial machines work.
Interesting Video: When an ASML Lithography Machine Goes Down
When down, ASML Lithography machine cost customers over $100k/hour. Because of this, ASML has a division of highly trained field engineers similar to turbine engine companies who can spring into action to resolve an unscheduled shut down quickly and capture lessons learned for the future.
This kind of facilities management and field engineering is often not discussed or analyzed in detail. Especially the economics of capital equipment management, a single ASML machine is a multi-million dollar asset!
The cost of ownership is equivalent to:
Cost of Ownership = Depreciation Cost / (Throughput * Utilization Factor)
Reducing the utilization factor of equipment when it shuts down has the effect of inversely increasing the cost of ownership.
Startup Highlight: Niron Magnetics 🧲
Niron Magnetics is developing the world’s first advanced manufacturing process for the mass production of permanent magnets powered by a breakthrough material formulation. Niron’s proprietary iron-nitride magnets possess inherently higher magnetization and can be produced at a lower cost compared to today’s rare-earth magnets, and will enable a revolution in the design of new electric motors and generators.
Earlier this week, Niron opened a production test facility in Minneapolis which will make some of the first rare earth magnets ever produced in the US. The pilot facility will refine processes needed for the full-scale production facility which Niron has announced in Sartell, Minnesota.
The Sartell facility will produce 1,500 tons of rare-earth-free magnets per year and is expected to come online in 2026 to meet the surging demand for rare earth-free permanent magnets.