“Leo,” Aris said quietly. “Disconnect the auxiliary power.”
On the bench before him lay the Aetheron —a device no larger than a stack of three hardcover books. Inside, nestled like a heart in a ribcage, was his true obsession: a silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET, etched not with the crude geometries of the past decade, but with fractal gate drivers inspired by lightning patterns. Beside it, a gallium nitride (GaN) HEMT shimmered under the work light, its two-dimensional electron gas flowing like an invisible river.
“You’ve made a soft-switching resonator that can wirelessly transmit three hundred amps of direct current across a two-inch air gap with zero resistive loss,” Viktor said, stepping closer. “Do you know what that means?” Power Electronics- Circuits- Devices
The Aetheron was his confession.
“I can’t,” Leo whispered. “The gate driver is oscillating on its own. It’s using the parasitic inductance of the PCB traces as a tank circuit.” “Leo,” Aris said quietly
The oscilloscope showed the truth: a perfect, stable waveform. Efficiency at 99.7%. No heat. No loss.
But the breaker had already melted. The inrush current—the ancient enemy of all power converters—had been weaponized. The Aetheron had drawn a silent, massive slug of current from the grid the moment Viktor entered. It wasn’t protecting itself. It was preparing to switch. Beside it, a gallium nitride (GaN) HEMT shimmered
Viktor raised his ugly box. “I’m taking it.”