Vicor Corporation

Vicor Corporation, headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts and founded in 1981 by Patrizio Vinciarelli, is a power electronics company specializing in high-density, high-efficiency power conversion modules — and a supplier of radiation-tolerant power solutions for LEO, MEO, and GEO satellites, military space platforms, and launch vehicle avionics.

Vicor's core product architecture is the Factorized Power Architecture (FPA), which separates voltage transformation from regulation into two distinct stages: a Power Component (PRM — Pre-Regulator Module) that performs isolated transformation, and a Voltage Transformation Module (VTM) acting as a current multiplier at the point-of-load. This two-stage approach achieves conversion efficiencies exceeding 95% and power densities up to 1,700 W/in³ — critical in satellite applications where mass, volume, and thermal dissipation budgets are tightly constrained.

The Chip-on-Heat-Spreader (ChiP) package format, produced in Vicor's Andover fabrication facility, enables direct mounting to spacecraft thermal management structures.

Vicor's space-grade product lines include radiation-hardened DC-DC converters and POL (point-of-load) regulators qualified to MIL-PRF-38534 Class K for high-radiation orbital environments. The company's BCM (Bus Converter Module) and DCM (DC-DC Converter Module) families are designed to handle the wide input voltage swings characteristic of satellite power buses (28V unregulated for LEO smallsats, 50V or 100V regulated for GEO buses) and convert to tightly regulated secondary voltages for payload electronics, reaction wheel drives, and transponders.

In 2019 Vicor opened a $75 million, 90,000-square-foot fabrication facility expansion in Andover to increase ChiP module manufacturing capacity, reflecting growing demand from the commercial satellite and defense space markets. Customers include satellite bus manufacturers, payload integrators, and launch vehicle avionics suppliers across the U.S. and Europe. Vicor competes with Crane Aerospace, Behlman Electronics, and SynQor in the space power electronics segment.