Fusion startup Helion is developing new semiconductors that could double output of its power plants

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Disrupt doors open Oct. 13. Get your pass and bring someone with you at 50% off. REGISTER NOW. Fusion startup Helion has been awarded $175 million in federal funding to research, develop, and manufacture advanced semiconductors and power electronics for its fusion power plants, the company announced on Thursday. Currently, those devices lose about 5% to 10% of the electricity that flows through them. While those losses seem small, they can compound themselves in a complex system like Helion’s. “If we can cut that loss in half, that’s actually twice the power output of the fusion system,” David Kirtley, co-founder and CEO at Helion, told TechCrunch. Helion has been racing to complete its first power plant, Orion, in time to meet a 2028 deadline to provide Microsoft with electricity from the grid. Funding from the award will help Helion build automated semiconductor module, packaging, and testing capacity to supply the fusion machine that’s currently under construction. The new production line, to be built in Washington State, will be the first in the U.S. to make a class of semiconductor that is used not just in fusion power, but in manufacturing, wastewater treatment, medicine, and defense. “There are no U.S. manufacturers right now that do it,” Kirtley said. “This is absolutely enabling going from zero to 100 for advanced, high-voltage and pulsed semiconductors here in the United States.” The three-year award was made by the Department of Commerce under the CHIPS Act, a Biden-era law that seeks to bolster semiconductor module research, development, and manufacturing in the U.S.