Power electronics with wide bandgap materials: Toward greener, more efficient technologies
- PDF / 407,037 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 585 x 783 pts Page_size
- 64 Downloads / 175 Views
Introduction Power electronics is the branch of electronics specifically dealing with collecting, delivering, and storing energy, including general and local/commodity energy supplies, by conversion and control of electrical power.1 Specific applications range from power supply systems to motor vehicle drives,2 photovoltaic and fuel cell converters, inverters, and high-frequency heating,3 among many others. The impact of power electronics has already been significant and is anticipated to be even more so in the future for efficient energy production and management. As in most other electronics areas, silicon also has been the predominant semiconductor in power electronics to date. However, with wide bandgap materials power electronic components are faster, smaller, more efficient, and more reliable than their Si-based counterparts. Moreover, they permit the operation of devices at higher voltages, temperatures, and frequencies,4 making it possible to reduce volume and weight in a wide range of applications. This could lead to large energy savings in industrial and consumer appliances, accelerate widespread use of electric vehicles and fuel cells, and integrate renewable energy into the electric grid.
The power electronics market as a whole was about $20 billion in 2012, and power electronics will remain one of the most attractive branches of the semiconductor industry over the next decade.5 The latest power electronics market forecasts6 predict an increase of 60% for low-voltage technologies (below 900 V) by the year 2020, accompanied by an approximately 100% market increase for medium (1.2–1.7 kV) and high voltage (2 kV and above) technologies. This implies that the largest market increase in this sector over the next decade (medium and high voltage) will rely on semiconductor technologies beyond silicon (also see article by Okumura in this issue). This can be likened to a second revolution, equivalent to the introduction of large scale fabrication of silicon complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, which led to the commoditization of electronics and formed the basis of our modern technological era. The power electronics revolution could be setting the basis for a world centered on greener technologies: improved energy conversion efficiencies, faster switching, and more compact, lighter systems with better thermal management and tolerance will have tremendous impact on industrialization and energy systems, encompassing energy savings, renewable energy systems, and
Francesca Iacopi, Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University, Australia; f.iacopi@griffith.edu.au Marleen Van Hove, Interuniversity Microelectronics Center, Belgium; [email protected] Matthew Charles, Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, Minatec Campus, France; [email protected] Kazuhiro Endo, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan; [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/mrs.2015.71
390
MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 40 • MAY 2015 • www.mrs.org/bulletin
© 2015 Materials Research Socie
Data Loading...
