NREL-led lab to look into next gen power electronics

A new NREL-led research centre will conduct research into next generation power electronics, aiming to drive understanding of and advanced manufacturing for transformative materials that will be needed to power the grid, electrified transport and industrial decarbonisation.

NREL was selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science’s Basic Energy Sciences programme to lead A Center for Power Electronics Materials and Manufacturing Exploration (APEX) to advance the research.

APEX aims to enable expanded materials selection and integration of next-generation power electronics through novel interface and substrate design, coupled with pathways to scalable, low-cost, high-speed manufacturing.

According to NREL in a release, the power grid, electrified transport and industrial decarbonisation together will create substantial thermal and power loads for power electronics, which are critical to control and convert electrical power. Thus, creating the need for new materials and innovative devices that can effectively handle such demands.

Hence APEX was founded to conduct research to drive understanding of and advanced manufacturing for the materials that will be needed to meet this demand.

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Specifically, APEX will expand the range of materials choices for substrates, ultrawide-bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors, contacts, thermal sinks and critical interfacial layers while advancing the understanding of properties at key interfaces between different materials.

Commenting in a release was NREL’s Nancy Haegel, senior research advisor and APEX director: “We’re excited to bring APEX to life and conduct foundational research into the creation of materials that will power major segments of the energy transformation.

“Our materials focus will be borides, nitrides, carbides, and/or oxides, which hold potential to enable the design of next-generation devices that are smaller and can handle more current.

“We need the materials, the devices, the manufacturing and the larger system to evolve together to support the energy transformation. APEX will take a ‘codesign’ approach, which means that we bring all these challenges together to inform our research from day one.”

APEX is an Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC), a research programme that bring together multidisciplinary, multi-institutional teams to advance urgent energy science. It is one of 10 EFRCs across nine US states that will receive a share of $118 million in funding to advance fundamental energy research.

APEX was awarded $13.9 million for four years and is a collaboration between NREL, Argonne National Laboratory, Morgan State University, Johns Hopkins University, the Colorado School of Mines, the University of Virginia and Kyma Technologies.

Across the difference EFRCs, research will be conducted in the areas of advanced microelectronics, manufacturing science, quantum information science and environmental management.