From Su-Kam DC 120 to Data Center Scale: A Patent Journey

This is a story about ideas that were right, timing that was early, a company that was lost, and technology that the world is finally catching up to.

1998: It Starts with a Power Cut

I founded Su-Kam Power Systems in 1998 because India had a simple, massive problem: the power went out. Constantly. Homes, shops, offices — everyone needed backup power. The market was full of crude square-wave inverters that damaged appliances and lasted a year.

We built India's first MOSFET-based sine-wave inverter. Then the first microcontroller-based inverter. Then DSP-controlled. Each generation was more efficient, more reliable, more intelligent. India Today would later call our plastic-body inverter the "Innovation of the Decade."

But even in those early days, I was thinking about something bigger than backup power. I was thinking about primary power. Specifically: why are we converting DC to AC just to convert it back to DC?

2003-2017: 77 Patents

Over 14 years, Su-Kam filed 77 patents across solar, UPS, and power electronics. You can see the complete list here. Twelve were granted. The rest were under examination, awaiting hearing, or in provisional status when everything fell apart.

The patents tell a story of progressive insight:

The Early Years (2003-2008)

Focused on inverter and UPS technology — DSP sine wave inverters (Patent #1, granted 241612), high-frequency battery chargers (#3, granted 286639), triple conversion online UPS (#7, granted 284856). We were mastering the art of power conversion.

The Middle Years (2008-2013)

Pivoted to solar. Patent #17 — "A MPPT Based Solar Charge Controller" (granted 292773) — was our first solar patent. This was the foundation: a charge controller that could extract maximum power from solar panels through Maximum Power Point Tracking. We followed with solar charge controllers with multiple arrays (#28), solar grid hybrid systems (#53), and solar power conditioning units (#69).

The Breakthrough Years (2014-2017)

These produced the three patents that define the DC-direct architecture:

And on the US side: US Patent 9,819,219 — "Intelligent and Efficient Off-Grid Solar Home Energy System" — granted November 14, 2017. This patent covers DC-direct power delivery from solar + battery to loads, eliminating DC-AC-DC conversion entirely. It is the architectural blueprint.

The DC 120: Proof It Works

All these patents were not theoretical. We built products.

The Su-Kam DC 120 Solar Home System was a complete DC-direct power system for rural homes. Solar panels charged a battery through an MPPT controller, and the battery directly powered DC loads — LED lights, fans, phone chargers — through a 12V DC bus.

No inverter in the load path. No AC conversion. No wasted energy.

Thousands of these units were deployed across rural India, where grid power was unreliable or nonexistent. They worked. Year after year. In extreme heat, monsoon humidity, and dust storms. The simplicity of the DC-direct approach — fewer components, fewer conversion stages, fewer failure points — made it remarkably reliable.

The DC 120 proved that DC-direct architecture is not just more efficient — it is more robust. Fewer things to break means fewer things that do break.

Watch: The Su-Kam DC 120 in Action

Here are the original product videos from the Su-Kam Solar channel showing the DC 120 system — the exact DC-direct architecture now being proposed for data centers, scaled up from 120 watts to megawatts:

2019-2022: The IBC Years

Su-Kam went through insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) from 2019 to 2022. The company was acquired by new owners through the NCLT resolution process.

During those years, while I was consumed by legal proceedings, the patent portfolio was left unattended. Annuities were not paid. Deadlines were missed. People who managed the IP portfolio left the company. Seventy-seven patents — representing over a decade of innovation in solar and power electronics — expired or were lost.

I share this not for sympathy. I share it because it illustrates something important: ideas do not die when patents expire. The patents documented innovations that were genuine, tested, and deployed. The fact that the legal protections lapsed does not change the physics. The DC-direct architecture works. It always has.

2026: The World Catches Up

Today, the data center industry is independently discovering what we knew in 2008:

Comcast is testing DC-powered data center infrastructure, eliminating the AC-DC-AC conversion chain. Verizon has moved to DC power distribution in its central offices. Claros Technologies, a startup, is building an entire business around DC data center power.

Google and Meta are experimenting with 48VDC rack-level power distribution — essentially, putting the DC-DC conversion at the rack level rather than the server level. This is a step in the right direction, but it still assumes AC power delivery to the rack. The full DC-direct architecture eliminates AC from the entire path.

The automotive industry's shift to 800VDC platforms (Porsche Taycan, Hyundai E-GMP, Kia EV6) is creating a parallel ecosystem of high-voltage DC components — switches, contactors, fuses, connectors — rated for DC at voltages relevant to data center applications. This supply chain development makes DC data center infrastructure more practical and affordable than it was even five years ago.

What Comes Next

The DC-direct data center architecture needs power electronics expertise — solar hybrid inverter platforms, LiFePO4 battery management, high-efficiency DC-DC converters, and AI-powered predictive energy management. This is the expertise I have spent 25+ years building.

The challenge is not building servers — the industry knows how to do that. The challenge is building the power infrastructure that feeds them without wasting 21%. And that is a power electronics problem, not an IT problem.

The Call to Action

If you are a data center operator, here is what I want you to consider:

The math is simple. 17% efficiency improvement. $1.8M annual savings per 10MW. 50% lower battery costs over 20 years. Near-zero carbon from power infrastructure.

The technology is proven. DC-DC conversion at 94-95% efficiency is mature. LiFePO4 batteries are deployed at scale worldwide. MPPT controllers are commodity hardware. Solar panels are cheaper than ever.

The risk is low. Start with a single rack. Run it on DC-direct solar for six months. Measure the actual efficiency. Compare to your AC-powered racks. The data will speak for itself.

The risk of NOT doing it is high. Every year you run on triple-conversion AC is another year of paying 21% more for electricity than necessary. Your competitors who switch first will have a permanent cost advantage.

Solar is DC. Batteries are DC. Servers are DC. The entire power path should be DC.

It is time to stop converting and start computing.