Ep. 45 | The “Ideal Switch”? GE’s Spinoff, Menlo Micro, Looks to Disrupt the Power Industry

Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits

Chris Keimel may have dreamed of being a veterinarian, but he is undoubtedly making a bigger impact on the world through his work on micro-electromechanical systems, also known as MEMs. In this episode of Moore’s Lobby, our host, Daniel Bogdanoff, speaks with Chris about his career developing cutting-edge nanotechnology.

Chris recounts the technology development behind their Ideal Switch and the creation of Menlo Micro, a company that traces its lineage and name back to Thomas Edison, “The Wizard of Menlo Park”. The work began at General Electric’s Global Research Center, where Keimel and his co-workers were asking the question:

“How do you reinvent the circuit breaker, something that's been in existence for decades or even a century, kind of back to the times of Thomas Edison?”

“We Were Just Blowing Them Up”

In this conversation, Chris noted that “Almost no one in their right mind would…go make a circuit breaker smaller.” Typically, if you want to put more power through a device you make it bigger and add more metal. But the GE team was “thinking outside the box…how do we reinvent this?”

As they first started testing the technology available at the time, they were definitely not successful.

“When we started pushing watts…or hundreds of watts through these relays, we were just blowing them up in the labs…Okay, this is a transformational moment. We either stop and move on to something else because this is not going to work or we dig in and we figure out why this is not working.”

The Humble Switch and Its Impact on the World

In our increasingly electrified world, nearly everything includes a power switch. From our lights and our phones to our cars and coffee makers. Taking on big projects like this is what motivates Chris:

“What I love about this technology is I get to have an impact on developing a technology and looking to transform a technology that we use every day…The switch is the interface between us as humans in a society.”

Both engineers and business leaders will find interesting takeaways from this fascinating conversation with Chris Keimel including:

- “We had Eureka moments every year, almost every month.” - The unique aspect of GE’s business culture that allowed the Ideal Switch technology to develop over a decade, despite not producing income.- Why Chris compares the product development to an orchestra.- The process behind commercializing the metal MEMs technology and the decision to spinout from GE.

So listen in and tell us what you think!