With long track records for successfully developing highly integrated, low-power electronics in a number of semiconductor processes, research engineers in the Measurement Science and Systems Engineering Division and Energy and Transportation Science Division are addressing the traction drive and charging system challenges through new research funded through ARPA-E, DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy.
Working in collaboration with Toyota USA, Arkansas Power Electronics Center, the University of Arkansas, and CREE, Inc., ETSD’s Laura Marlino and MSSED’s Chuck Britton, Nance Ericson, and Shane Frank are integrating gate drivers into the same substrate as the power transistors using Cree’s silicon carbide (SiC) power electronic semiconductor process. Although risks to successful implementation exist, the outcome of this work has the potential to revolutionize power electronics for electric and hybrid electric vehicles by reducing overall part count and the need for ancillary systems, increasing overall efficiency and reliability.
So far the ORNL team has been successful in implementing, for the first time, gate drivers in the SiC process. These gate drivers are currently undergoing in-lab testing, and the results are promising. In August researchers will attempt to integrate the isolation architecture and the gate drivers onto one substrate. The final step, projected to occur in the spring of 2013, will be to integrate the isolation architecture, gate drivers, and power transistors onto a single SiC substrate configured to function as a bidirectional charging system, which will be tested later in a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.