about
In March 2023, Advanced Conversion was acquired by Electro Technik Industries (ETI).
About ETI
Electro Technik (ETI), based in Clearwater, Florida, is the parent company for multiple passive electronic component companies organized into three primary business units including; capacitive/resistive products, microwave/RF products, and magnetics/transformer products. See table for the complete list of other ETI companies.
Advanced Power Conversion Solutions – dba Advanced Conversion was founded in 2019 by Ed Sawyer and Mike Brubaker to carry on the technology and the customer application solutions formerly provided by SBE Inc.
Advanced Conversion has acquired the technology license to all patents, designs, data, products, and processes from SBE which enables us to continue to support all of the existing solutions and products used by former SBE customers.
Additionally, we are ready to apply these industry-leading tools to new optimized designs for interested customers in various markets including electric vehicles, aviation, alternative energy, and pulsed power.
Advanced Conversion is taking this foundation of technology and industry-leading solutions to the next level by adding in-house design and manufacturing of high-performance bus bars. This allows the company to significantly decrease typical industry lead-times as well as better integrate the cap-bus design to its optimal manufactured level as a DC link solution. The result is a faster design, prototyping, and production solution to market for our customers.
With manufacturing and design facilities in Vermont, Colorado, and China, Advanced Conversion can bring a global supply chain solutions at competitive prices to our customers across the globe. Our customers enjoy the best technical solution, leveraging their semiconductor strategy, and accessing competitive pricing at their production location.
QUALITY STATEMENT
Advanced Conversion has a current ISO9001:2015 registered status (pdf).
Ed Sawyer, BSEE, MBA
President and CEO - Founder
In 2002, Mr. Ed Sawyer joined SBE Inc. as President and led the acquisition of SBE’s critical assets and technology by Advanced Conversion in December 2019.
From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Sawyer worked at Banta Corporation as a VP of North American Operations, with responsibility for over 1500 employees covering 4 locations in the U.S. and Mexico, and prior to that as a Project Leader, for the greenfield start‐up of a Business Server Hard Drive Configuration and Final Assembly plant for Compaq Computer, where he took the business from only 25 people to over 700, occupying 500,000 square feet and producing $75 Million in revenue, over a period of 24 months.
Previously, he was Business Unit General Manager for Emerson Electric Company (1995-1999) where he was responsible for the worldwide sensors and thermistors business and the establishment of new production facilities in China and Mexico.
Mr. Sawyer has a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University and an MBA from Colorado State University. He is a co-inventor on numerous US and global patents.
Michael Brubaker, PhD, MSEE, BSEE
Chief Technology Officer - Founder
Dr. Michael Brubaker joined SBE Inc. in July of 2010 and was a key leader in the acquisition of SBE’s critical assets and technology by Advanced Conversion in December 2019. He is responsible for the oversight of Advanced Conversion’s R&D activities and application engineering while also serving as the company’s acting Quality Manager.
Prior to SBE and Advanced Conversion, Dr. Brubaker was the Vice President of Engineering and a founding member of Fieldmetrics Inc. He has also worked as an independent consultant, staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and was the team leader for Insulation Systems at the ABB Transmission Technology Institute.
Dr. Brubaker holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder and earned his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Electric Power Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has more than 30 technical publications and a number of US and European patents.
Wayne Liu, BSME
Asia General Manager
Mr. Wayne (Yingwu) Liu joined SBE Inc. in 2008.
He is fully responsible for all operational aspects of China and other Asia locations. Head of business development of Asia – China, Korea, Japan, India, etc… he is also responsible for China manufacturing and oversees product manufacturing projects including vendor selection and project management, scheduling, costing, quality assurance and control, material and process analysis, product engineering, tooling, shipping, and logistics.
Previously, he was a project manager located in Shenzhen and was responsible for transfer Apple Desktop computer assembly line from the US to China, Full of experience on product localization and cost reduction.
Hazel Binding
Finance Manager
Ms. Hazel Binding joined Advanced Conversion as our Finance Manager in 2021.
From 2017 to 2021, Ms. Binding worked for a private K-8 school located in New Hampshire as their Business Manager, ensuring they successfully passed their annual audit of financial statements under GAAP.
Previously, while living back in the UK where Ms. Binding was born, she worked for AA DriveTech (2008-2017). During this time Ms. Binding set up their first Project Management Office, as Head of PMO, and worked on several multi million-pound projects including business acquisitions.
Later on, she took on the position as Operations Manager for the Training Division, responsible for trainers and training venues around the UK.
Terry Hosking, MSEE, BSEE
Chief Engineer
Mr. Terry Hosking joined SBE in November 1994 working to characterize the dV/dt capabilities of the product line at that time.
Later he was responsible for the design and construction of numerous production and test equipment upgrades that significantly improved yield. He conceived the idea of the “power ring” capacitor and was a key member of the team that developed it to become the Advanced Conversion flagship product line.
Prior to SBE and Advanced Conversion, Mr. Hosking worked at Digital Equipment Corp as manufacturing, then power supply hardware engineer. Mr. Hosking holds a Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Vermont.
He has several technical publications and a number of US, European, and Japanese patents.