CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 PROGRAMME
Spanish Ministry of Sience and Innovation (MICINN)
Project Number CSD2009-00046
Advanced Wide Band Gap Semiconductor Devices for Rational Use of Energy

Innovation

The RUE Proposal gathers unique multidisciplinary research topics, including research in Semiconductor Materials, Solid State Devices Engineering and Power Electronics Applications. It becomes obvious the synergistic and multidisciplinary nature of this proposal. All the groups in the consortium must interact closely to successfully achieve their objectives.

    Our main goal is to outperform current WBG devices and test them in innovative applications. The innovation of this proposal comes from each individual area by itself and especially from the feedback and synergy as a result of the combination of two or even the three of them. The RUE philosophy is MDA – Materials, Devices and Applications.

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The RUE Proposal: the MDA
(Materials-Devices-Application) concept

 

Regarding innovation related to WBG semiconductor materials and processing, new approaches are oriented to overcome the Si limitations by means of novel R&D to improve materials growth and layer quality, innovative processing based on improved surface preparation, optimized insulator layers, and interface control to a few atomic layers thanks to recent advances in nanotechnology.

Regarding innovation related to WBG semiconductor solid-state devices, the previous innovative approaches will be applied to the process fabrication of cutting-edge WBG devices, summarised in the following diagram:

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Regarding Packaging, Thermal Management, Electrical and Physical Modelling and novel drivers and controllers innovation is required since WBG semiconductor devices have a high temperature operation capability, allowing higher dissipated power densities with higher junction temperatures (>200ºC) with lower heat dissipation requirements than current power semiconductor devices. On the other hand, new controllers and drivers must be developed for SiC and GaN devices, due to their temperature range, frequency range, normal state and activation logic. Finally, powerful models are also required for system design

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Regarding innovations on applications, the RUE proposal joints together world-class researchers in a serious attempt to break the Si limits, especially in temperature (>300ºC), voltage blocking capability and switching speed. These issues are crucial to make easier the use of renewable energies. The WBG semiconductor devices developed in RUE will be designed according to the specifications of particular applications. For this reason, a close collaboration between researchers coming from material research, semiconductor devices and from the field of power converters (applications) is mandatory.

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Project Chair: Prof. José Millán
Centro Nacional de Microelectrónica (CNM) IMB-CSIC
Further information: consolider-rue@imb-cnm.csic.es