At last week’s ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, Delphi Automotive showcased the gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) technology it is developing in partnership with International Rectifier (IR) and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
The $8.4-million project funded by ARPA-E (earlier post) is creating a 600V GaN-on-Si device combined with sintered interconnects and double-sided cooling. If successful, the device will outperform existing IGBT devices by 3-5 times and enable a roadmap to reduce cost, size and energy losses by 50% for automotive applications within 5-7 years.
The goal is to develop a high power inverter with solid-state electronic switch modules that is significantly smaller and lighter, that works at higher temperatures and that reduces energy lost in the DC to AC inversion process.
—Robert Schumacher, Ph.D., general director of Advanced Engineering & Business Development
ARPA-E notes that the higher voltage market for GaN-on-Silicon is in the classic “Valley of Death” position: the basic technology and devices have been proven superior to Si-based IGBTs in the laboratory, but have not yet been packaged and proven suitable for the automotive market. Without co-investment by the government, the agency said, there is very high risk that industry competitors will not make the much greater investments required to successfully commercialize 600V GaN-on-Silicon for low-cost, high- volume production.
International Rectifier (IR) has developed a GaN-on-Silicon process compatible with standard CMOS lines utilizing 150mm (6”) wafers. Delphi has developed new packaging technologies that allow dual side cooling for higher current densities to better utilize power semiconductor devices. By combining these basic technologies, Delphi and IR are developing GaN-on-Silicon devices packaged for extracting heat from both sides of the device. The team will further develop these technologies to create a lead-free packaging solution using more reliable sintered interconnects. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will provide key support on sintering, as well as device and system benefit characterization.
The deliverable will be a GaN-on-Si-based, electrically stable, packaged 600V depletion-mode HEMT (High Electron Mobility Transistor) power device with a second chip providing anti-parallel diode and normally-off behavior.
This activity aligns with Delphi’s project in Kokomo aimed at establishing a globally competitive facility for manufacturing power electronics. Under that project, the DOE has awarded $89.3 million in federal funds to match Delphi’s investment of $89.3 million in facilities, equipment and engineering.
Resources
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Michael A. Briere, GaN on Si Based Power Devices: An Opportunity to
Significantly Impact Global Energy Consumption (CS ManTech 2010)