SMARTPOWER · Smart integration of GaN & SiC high power electronics for industrial and RF applications

For industrial motor-drive, UPS and solar inverters applications and aerospace or telecom RF applications, new emerging power semiconductor technologies, respectively SiC and GaN, have demonstrated their higher performances than the actual technologies (Si and GaAs) in terms of reduction of losses, increase of efficiency and power handling. But to increase the efficiency of the power modules and in the same time reduce their size and make them more cost effective, these SiC and GaN technologies still have to be associated with new efficient cooling and packaging solutions. The goal of SMARTPOWER is to carry out the packaging and thermal management developments required to achieve the efficient and cost-effective implementation of SiC- and GaN-based power modules respectively into industrial power inverters and RF transmitters systems. This main objective is supported in the project by two routes of research:- The developments of key enabling technologies required to the integration of the power modules into viable systems: efficient and reliable thermal interface materials and electrical interconnect, highly efficient thermoelectric modules andintegrated temperature sensor.- The development of new 3D packaging techniques and the associated thermal architectures that will allow to integrate the core chips, together with the enabling technologies, in a viable and cost effective manner.The RTD developments will be demonstrated into the realisation of two high power modules: (i) SiC-based inverter for UPS, solar and motor-drive applications (ii) GaN-based RF transmitter for aerospace and telecom applications. The SMARTPOWER consortium (15 partners from 7 European States) gathers all the competences required to achieve these objectives. It is well balanced and involves all the supply chain partners in order to anticipate the cost-effective introduction of these new technologies and future products on the market.