PowerAmerica, a private-public partnership led by North Carolina State University, has released a call for projects to advance wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor technology.

Funding is available for projects to accelerate commercialization of WBG power electronics applications in high voltage systems, efficient motors and other transportation- and renewable energy-related fields.

Objectives for eligible projects include:

• Lowering the cost and increasing the availability of wide bandgap power electronic devices by increasing gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) foundry capacity.
• Advancing WBG semiconductor devices from design through qualification and accelerating the pathway for devices to reach volume manufacturing.
• Increasing adoption of WBG power electronics by advanced packaging and demonstrating reliability of SiC and GaN devices.

“The advantages of WBG are tremendous,” said John Muth, Deputy Director of PowerAmerica. “Compared to silicon, in many applications using WBG power electronics the system can be reduced in size and weight, operate at higher temperatures and cut energy losses in half.”

Source: PowerAmerica
Image: IBM Research (CC BY-ND 2.0)