speedy, efficient switching, thanks to HiPoSwitch

energy converters the use of those novel gallium-nitride transistors have less than half the losses of present technology and make conversion efficiencies of over ninety eight% practical. A extremely good deal of number one power intake may be stored with their good sized use. "more than 3000 terawatt-hours of energy are generated in Europe annually," explains Joachim Würfl, head of both the HiPoSwitch project and the GaN Electronics business location at FBH. "in case you only converted 1 / 4 of the electricity produced yearly in Europe to a one of a kind degree and accelerated the efficiency stage through  percent points, you could flip off at the least  coal-fired plant life," says Würfl.

Hand-in-hand: from excessive-overall performance substances to mass-production techniques

Gallium nitride possesses perfect physical homes for a semiconductor. "GaN additives are consequently very efficient and really rapid strength switches. And that is because of their low on-nation resistance with negligible losses," Würfl emphasizes. at the identical time, better switching frequencies suggest that passive factors of the energy converter, i.e. the inductive coils and capacitors, can be extensively smaller in size -- a particular improvement at the systems side. GaN has already been applied in microwave transistors for a protracted whilst and carried out in skinny layers mostly on silicon carbide (SiC) substrates. This technology has been further advanced by means of FBH over the previous couple of years for six hundred volt-rated strength transistor switches. "This works properly, however it's miles too costly for mass markets. As an alternative, the methods evolved for SiC can be transferred to notably extra value-effective, but technologically greater difficult silicon substrates," Würfl explains.

The advances made within the HiPoSwitch mission healthy hand-in-glove with FBH's collaboration companions. amongst different accomplishments, FBH was so a success in optimizing the processing of GaN switching transistors on SiC and silicon (Si) that almost ideal components became viable. amongst others, complete investigations of flow and degradation consequences finished by way of university of Padua and university of Vienna furnished the foundation for this. The finished transistor chips have been subsequently assembled into low-induction ThinPAK housings by using Infineon in Malaysia. "The unmarried transistor measures most effective four.5 x 2.5 mm and is optimized for switching six hundred volts. It has an on-resistance of 75 milliohms and handles a most of 120 amperes. we are the most effective ones in Europe who can manufacture those kinds of generally-off transistors at gift," says Würfl.

The Belgian corporation EpiGaN together with facility producer Aixtron moved the epitaxy to Si -- so that the manufacturing fees for the substrates drop by using more than a thing of ten. on the equal time, the wafer diameter accelerated to 6" or even eight," a vital step toward fee-powerful industrial manufacturing. Chip-producer Infineon matched up the newly developed GaN generation with a Si manner line for commercial production of power semiconductors at their Austrian location in Villach.

part of the task possessed a decidedly "exploratory man or woman," as Würfl puts it, because of the completely new techniques and tactics for imposing GaN electricity transistors that had in no way before been tried. Promising thoughts for generating semiconductors have been efficiently examined together with colleagues at the college of Vienna and the Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, Slovakia.

The Austrian organization Artesyn is located on the stop of the cost-delivered chain as a systems-stage accomplice. They advanced a three-kW rectifier for telecommunications programs together with cellular base stations. This unit converts line voltage to DC with an performance of 98%. A specialized switching topology became evolved and implemented that is matched to the residences of the GaN switching transistors. way to their large usage, the market for power-saving electricity converters is good sized. Their smaller length and weight also makes them exceedingly attractive for aerospace programs.