Power Electronic Converters (PEC) have played a pivotal role in the steadily increasing global energy efficiency over the past 50 years, across transportation, industrial, commercial and residential sectors. The latest 2018 IPCC report predicts the dire impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, which underscores the urgent need for cheap yet reliable low-carbon technologies. Rapid mass-deployment of Photovoltaics (PV) generation and Electric Vehicles (EV) is needed to alleviate our global energy challenges. Solar generation in Canada will rapidly grow from 2 GW in 2015 to between 8 and 25 GW by 2040, depending on public policy and drastic cost reductions in PV technology. When charged from renewable energy sources, EVs have an efficiency of 73%, compared to 13% for gasoline powered cars, yet EVs represent less than 1% of the car market in Canada today.
The development of wide-bandgap power semiconductor devices, namely Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN), has spawned a revolution in power electronics. This has led to PECs with unprecedented power density, enabled by high-frequency switching and low losses. SiC offers ten times the breakdown field of silicon with three times higher thermal conductivity. 900V and 1200V SiC MOSFETs have drastically improved in reliability over the past the decade, leading to an anticipated market of $1 Billion by 2022. GaN technology promises even better performance than SiC due to a 2.5x higher breakdown field. Furthermore, lateral GaN HEMTs offer unique control and protection integration opportunities leading to further miniaturization and improved PEC performance.
Our research is focussed on accelerating the de-carbonization of global transportation and industrial sectors through efficient, low-cost, high-reliability and resilient power electronic converters, by leveraging the potential of wide-bandgap semiconductors and power integrated circuits.
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