Electrical Efficiency

The State University of New York Polytechnic Institute will develop a scalable, manufacturable, and robust technology platform for silicon carbide (SiC) power integrated circuits. The team will leverage the relatively high maturity of SiC technology to develop highly scalable SiC integrated circuits and support devices and establish a manufacturable process baseline in a state-of-the-art, 6-inch fabrication facility. This allows for much higher power (as compared to silicon) integrated circuits in future.

Virginia Tech will accelerate deployment of power electronics into grid-scale energy applications by developing 20 kV GaN devices integrated into a medium-voltage (MV) power module. For the GaN power devices, high-quality substrates and innovative growth techniques will be used to reduce the background impurity contamination in the thick layers needed to block 20 kV. The power module will be fabricated using three-dimensional packaging for improved thermal management and high-power density at 20 kV.

GE Global Research will develop a device architecture for the world’s first high-voltage silicon carbide (SiC) super junction (SJ) field-effect transistors. These devices will provide highly efficient power conversion (such as from direct to alternating current) in medium voltage applications, including renewables like solar and wind power, as well as transportation.

Harvard University will develop a compact NMR system to provide detailed information on composition and environment in subsurface oil exploration and production. By building the electronics for the system with gallium-nitride-based integrated circuitry, the team seeks to greatly miniaturize the NMR system, reducing both the volume and weight by two orders of magnitude, and enabling it to withstand the high temperatures found in a deep drill hole. The proposed technology will place the majority of the essential NMR electronics on a single board.

Sandia National Laboratories will develop a new device to prevent EMP damage to the power grid. The EMP arrestor will be comprised of diodes fabricated from the semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN), capable of responding on the ns timescale required to protect the grid against EMP threats. The diodes will be capable of blocking 20 kilovolts (kV), enabling a single device to protect distribution-level equipment on the grid. The team will focus on the epitaxial crystal growth of GaN layers and device design needed to achieve the 20 kV performance target.

Sonrisa Research will develop a new class of SiC power transistors using a simple three-dimensional architectural modification to reduce the channel resistance by up to a factor of nine. To accomplish this, Sonrisa will etch trenches into the basic planar MOSFET, increasing its effective channel width without increasing its overall area. This is similar to the fin-type field-effect transistor (FinFET) geometry popular in advanced Si integrated circuits, but in a configuration that meets high-power application needs.

Stanford will develop an innovative cooling technology, the Extreme Heat Flux Micro- (EHFμ-) Cooler, to improve reliability and performance in power electronics by offering improved chip thermal management. The cooler employs a novel liquid wicking, thin-film evaporator, with microchannels to route liquid and the resulting vapor, with the net effect of improved heat removal rates at manageable pressure drops. This significantly increases heat flux thereby reducing the device (chip) temperature.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign aims to create the world's most efficient, reliable, and compact wind energy conversion system. Instead of following the traditional approach of building the electrical generator separately from the power electronics converter, and then connecting both to convert the turbine’s mechanical power into electrical power, the team will apply CCD methodologies on the generator and converter to substantially reduce the size and weight of the system.

Tibbar Technologies will develop plasma-based AC to DC converters for a variety of applications, including DC power for commercial buildings and for High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) electrical transmission. A plasma is created when a gas absorbs enough energy to separate the electrons from the nuclei, making it susceptible to electric and magnetic fields. In this project the team will develop a converter based principally on a single plasma component, rather than a system of capacitors and semiconductor switches.

By leveraging advanced microfabrication processes, the team led by Stanford University will develop a scalable heat-to-electricity conversion device with higher performance at a lower manufacturing cost than is presently available to industry. The team’s solid-state conversion device is based on a 20th century thermionic converter design, where an electric current is produced by heating up an electrode to eject electrons across a vacuum gap for collection by a cooler electrode.