Power devices on bulk gallium nitride and diamond substrates: An overview of ARPA-E´s SWITCHES program

Author

Heidel, Timothy D. ; Gradzki, Pawel ; Henshall, David N.

Author_Institution

U.S. Dept. of Energy, Adv. Res. Projects Agency - Energy, Washington, DC, USA

fYear

2015

fDate

21-24 June 2015

Firstpage

27

Lastpage

28

Abstract

Wide bandgap (WBG) power semiconductor devices offer substantial energy efficiency opportunities in a wide range of applications. The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has invested in WBG power semiconductor devices since 2010. ARPA-E´s ADEPT (Agile Delivery of Electrical Power Technologies) program, funded several teams to develop a range of SiC and GaN devices and demonstrate their efficacy in power converters. Despite recent progress, high cost remains an important barrier to the widespread adoption of WBG devices. Also, most WBG discrete devices demonstrated to date have had relatively low current ratings.

Keywords

gallium compounds; power convertors; power semiconductor devices; silicon compounds; wide band gap semiconductors; ADEPT program; ARPA-E; Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy; Agile Delivery of Electrical Power Technologies program; GaN; GaN devices; SiC; SiC devices; WBG discrete devices; WBG power semiconductor devices; bulk gallium nitride; diamond substrates; energy efficiency opportunities; power converters; wide bandgap power semiconductor devices; Current density; Gallium nitride; Photonic band gap; Semiconductor diodes; Silicon carbide; Substrates; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Device Research Conference (DRC), 2015 73rd Annual

Conference_Location

Columbus, OH

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-8134-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/DRC.2015.7175535

Filename

7175535