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Advanced Materials for Power Electronics
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Advanced Materials for Power Electronics

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 May 2019) | Viewed by 27728

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Guoquan Lu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA
Interests: materials (interconnect, encapsulation, and magnetic) and their processing technologies for packaging and integration of power electronics modules and converters.

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Materials are fundamental to the field of power electronics, which relies on semiconductor devices (diodes and transistors) and other electrical components (resistors, capacitors, inductors, and transformers) to control the flow of electrical power. Power electronics researchers are constantly driven to improve the efficiency, power density, and reliability of power electronics converters through incremental advances in device, component, and converter integration technologies. However, breakthrough technologies in the field are enabled by innovative developments in materials. For example, it is the advancement made in the crystal growth of gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon that brought a new excitement in the field and has led to a large number of research activities on GaN-based power electronics converters.

The aim of this Special Issue on “Advanced Materials for Power Electronics” is to capture recent developments in all types of materials for advancing power electronics. These developments include wide bandgap semiconductors for devices, dielectrics for capacitors, soft magnetic materials for inductors and transformers, interconnect and encapsulation materials for packaging, thermal interface materials for cooling, and feedstock materials of additive manufacturing for power electronics packaging and integration. Manuscripts in the form of full research papers, communications, and review articles are encouraged.

This issue will provide an in-depth review of the current work in advanced materials for power electronics, and also point to emerging and future research directions. I look forward to your contribution in this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Guoquan Lu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • wide band-gap semiconductor materials for power devices
  • dielectrics for power electronics capacitors
  • soft magnetic materials for power inductors and transformers
  • die-attach, interconnect, and encapsulation materials for power packaging
  • thermal interface materials for cooling
  • feedstock materials of additive manufacturing for heterogeneous integration

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

7 pages, 1507 KiB  
Article
Connection between Carbon Incorporation and Growth Rate for GaN Epitaxial Layers Prepared by OMVPE
by Timothy Ciarkowski, Noah Allen, Eric Carlson, Robert McCarthy, Chris Youtsey, Jingshan Wang, Patrick Fay, Jinqiao Xie and Louis Guido
Materials 2019, 12(15), 2455; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12152455 - 01 Aug 2019
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3216
Abstract
Carbon, a compensator in GaN, is an inherent part of the organometallic vapor phase epitaxy (OMVPE) environment due to the use of organometallic sources. In this study, the impact of growth conditions are explored on the incorporation of carbon in GaN prepared via [...] Read more.
Carbon, a compensator in GaN, is an inherent part of the organometallic vapor phase epitaxy (OMVPE) environment due to the use of organometallic sources. In this study, the impact of growth conditions are explored on the incorporation of carbon in GaN prepared via OMVPE on pseudo-bulk GaN wafers (in several cases, identical growths were performed on GaN-on-Al2O3 templates for comparison purposes). Growth conditions with different growth efficiencies but identical ammonia molar flows, when normalized for growth rate, resulted in identical carbon incorporation. It is concluded that only trimethylgallium which contributes to growth of the GaN layer contributes to carbon incorporation. Carbon incorporation was found to decrease proportionally with increasing ammonia molar flow, when normalized for growth rate. Ammonia molar flow divided by growth rate is proposed as a reactor independent predictor of carbon incorporation as opposed to the often-reported input V/III ratio. A low carbon concentration of 7.3 × 1014 atoms/cm3 (prepared at a growth rate of 0.57 µm/h) was obtained by optimizing growth conditions for GaN grown on pseudo-bulk GaN substrates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Materials for Power Electronics)
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9 pages, 4453 KiB  
Article
A (Permalloy + NiZn Ferrite) Moldable Magnetic Composite for Heterogeneous Integration of Power Electronics
by Chao Ding, Yunhui Mei, Khai D. T. Ngo and Guoquan Lu
Materials 2019, 12(12), 1999; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12121999 - 22 Jun 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4673
Abstract
Soft magnetic moldable composites (SM2Cs) would be ideally suited for the integration of magnetic components in power electronic converters because they can be formed into magnetic cores by low-temperature and pressure-less processing. However, most SM2Cs have low relative magnetic [...] Read more.
Soft magnetic moldable composites (SM2Cs) would be ideally suited for the integration of magnetic components in power electronic converters because they can be formed into magnetic cores by low-temperature and pressure-less processing. However, most SM2Cs have low relative magnetic permeability, typically less than 30, and high core-loss densities at switching frequencies over 1 MHz. To improve their magnetic properties, we combine powders of Permalloy and a NiZn ferrite with an acrylic polymer to formulate a paste of SM2C. The paste can be molded and then cured below 200 °C without pressure to form cores with a relative permeability over 35 and a core-loss density at 1 MHz, 30% lower than those of commercial cores. The ease of its processing and high-performance properties makes the SM2C a good candidate material for the integration of power magnetics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Materials for Power Electronics)
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12 pages, 3761 KiB  
Article
Structural and Electrical Characterization of 2” Ammonothermal Free-Standing GaN Wafers. Progress toward Pilot Production
by Daryl Key, Edward Letts, Chuan-Wei Tsou, Mi-Hee Ji, Marzieh Bakhtiary-Noodeh, Theeradetch Detchprohm, Shyh-Chiang Shen, Russell Dupuis and Tadao Hashimoto
Materials 2019, 12(12), 1925; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12121925 - 14 Jun 2019
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2730
Abstract
Free-standing gallium nitride (GaN) substrates are in high demand for power devices, laser diodes, and high-power light emitting diodes (LEDs). SixPoint Materials Inc. has begun producing 2” GaN substrates through our proprietary Near Equilibrium AmmonoThermal (NEAT) growth technology. In a single 90 day [...] Read more.
Free-standing gallium nitride (GaN) substrates are in high demand for power devices, laser diodes, and high-power light emitting diodes (LEDs). SixPoint Materials Inc. has begun producing 2” GaN substrates through our proprietary Near Equilibrium AmmonoThermal (NEAT) growth technology. In a single 90 day growth, eleven c-plane GaN boules were grown from free-standing hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) GaN substrates. The boules had an average X-ray rocking curve full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 33 ± 4 in the 002 reflection and 44 ± 6 in the 201 reflection using 0.3 mm divergence slits. The boules had an average radius of curvature of 10.16 ± 3.63 m. The quality of the boules was highly correlated to the quality of the seeds. A PIN diode grown at Georgia Tech on a NEAT GaN substrate had an ideality factor of 2.08, a high breakdown voltage of 1430 V, and Baliga’s Figure of Merit of >9.2 GW/cm2. These initial results demonstrate the suitability of using NEAT GaN substrates for high-quality MOCVD growth and fabrication of high-power vertical GaN switching devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Materials for Power Electronics)
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9 pages, 1841 KiB  
Article
Tailoring a Silver Paste for Additive Manufacturing of Co-Fired Ferrite Magnetic Components
by Lanbing Liu, Chao Ding, Yunhui Mei and Guoquan Lu
Materials 2019, 12(5), 817; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12050817 - 11 Mar 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3583
Abstract
Additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D-printing, has the potential for rapid prototyping of innovative designs of magnetic components used in power electronics converters. In this study, we tailored a silver paste as the metal feedstock of an extrusion 3D printer so that the metal [...] Read more.
Additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D-printing, has the potential for rapid prototyping of innovative designs of magnetic components used in power electronics converters. In this study, we tailored a silver paste as the metal feedstock of an extrusion 3D printer so that the metal would be compatible with a ferrite paste feedstock for 3D-printing of ferrite magnetic components. We focused on adjusting the metal formulation to match its shrinkage to that of the ferrite and to improve adhesion during the co-sintering process of the printed part. We found that a 5 wt % addition of ferrite powder in the metal paste can achieve matched shrinkage and strong adhesion. Evaluation of the co-sintered magnetic components showed no significant defects, such as cracks, warpage, or delamination, between the metal and ferrite. The shear strength between the two sintered materials was greater than 50 MPa, and the electrical resistivity of the sintered metal winding was less than twice that of the bulk silver, which is lower than those of most 3D-printed winding metals reported in the literature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Materials for Power Electronics)
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11 pages, 7477 KiB  
Article
Fully Ion Implanted Normally-Off GaN DMOSFETs with ALD-Al2O3 Gate Dielectrics
by Michitaka Yoshino, Yuto Ando, Manato Deki, Toru Toyabe, Kazuo Kuriyama, Yoshio Honda, Tomoaki Nishimura, Hiroshi Amano, Tetsu Kachi and Tohru Nakamura
Materials 2019, 12(5), 689; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12050689 - 26 Feb 2019
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4014
Abstract
A normally-off GaN double-implanted vertical MOSFET (DMOSFET) with an atomic layer deposition (ALD)-Al2O3 gate dielectric film on a free-standing GaN substrate fabricated by triple ion implantation is presented. The DMOSFET was formed with Si ion implanted source regions in a [...] Read more.
A normally-off GaN double-implanted vertical MOSFET (DMOSFET) with an atomic layer deposition (ALD)-Al2O3 gate dielectric film on a free-standing GaN substrate fabricated by triple ion implantation is presented. The DMOSFET was formed with Si ion implanted source regions in a Mg ion implanted p-type base with N ion implanted termination regions. A maximum drain current of 115 mA/mm, maximum transconductance of 19 mS/mm at a drain voltage of 15 V, and a threshold voltage of 3.6 V were obtained for the fabricated DMOSFET with a gate length of 0.4 μm with an estimated p-type base Mg surface concentration of 5 × 1018 cm−3. The difference between calculated and measured Vths could be due to the activation ratio of ion-implanted Mg as well as Fermi level pinning and the interface state density. On-resistance of 9.3 mΩ·cm2 estimated from the linear region was also attained. Blocking voltage at off-state was 213 V. The fully ion implanted GaN DMOSFET is a promising candidate for future high-voltage and high-power applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Materials for Power Electronics)
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8 pages, 2121 KiB  
Article
Aluminum Nitride Transition Layer for Power Electronics Applications Grown by Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition
by Heli Seppänen, Iurii Kim, Jarkko Etula, Evgeniy Ubyivovk, Alexei Bouravleuv and Harri Lipsanen
Materials 2019, 12(3), 406; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12030406 - 28 Jan 2019
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3959
Abstract
Aluminum nitride (AlN) films have been grown using novel technological approaches based on plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) and in situ atomic layer annealing (ALA). The growth of AlN layers was carried out on Si<100> and Si<111> substrates at low growth temperature. The [...] Read more.
Aluminum nitride (AlN) films have been grown using novel technological approaches based on plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) and in situ atomic layer annealing (ALA). The growth of AlN layers was carried out on Si<100> and Si<111> substrates at low growth temperature. The investigation of crystalline quality of samples demonstrated that PEALD grown layers were polycrystalline, but ALA treatment improved their crystallinity. A thick polycrystalline AlN layer was successfully regrown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on an AlN PEALD template. It opens up the new possibilities for the formation of nucleation layers with improved quality for subsequent growth of semiconductor nitride compounds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Materials for Power Electronics)
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14 pages, 12617 KiB  
Article
Highly Ductile and Ultra-Thick P-Doped FeSiB Amorphous Alloys with Excellent Soft Magnetic Properties
by Zongzhen Li, Shaoxiong Zhou, Guangqiang Zhang and Wei Zheng
Materials 2018, 11(7), 1148; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11071148 - 06 Jul 2018
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4386
Abstract
Herein, we demonstrate the successful synthesis of novel Fe80Si9B(11−x)Px (x = 0, 1, 3, 5, 7) ultra-thick amorphous ribbons by planar flow casting. The influence of P alloying on glass forming ability (GFA), [...] Read more.
Herein, we demonstrate the successful synthesis of novel Fe80Si9B(11−x)Px (x = 0, 1, 3, 5, 7) ultra-thick amorphous ribbons by planar flow casting. The influence of P alloying on glass forming ability (GFA), microstructure, thermal stability, soft magnetic properties, and ductility has been systematically investigated. The results reveal that introduction of P into Fe80Si9B11 alloy can remarkably enhance the GFA and increase critical thickness (tc) of the alloy from 45 to 89 um. Furthermore, the annealed FeSiBP amorphous alloys exhibited excellent soft magnetic properties, including high saturation magnetic flux density of 1.54 T, the low coercivity of 1.5 A/m, and low core losses of 0.15 W/kg. In addition, the representative Fe80Si9B8P3 ultra-thick amorphous alloy demonstrate excellent ductility even after annealing at 400 °C for 10 min, which indicates the superior performance of P-doped FeSiB alloys as compared to the commercial Fe78Si9B13 (Metglas 2605 S2) alloy. The combination of high GFA, excellent ductility, and low core losses of newly developed FeSiBP amorphous soft magnetic alloys makes them attractive candidates for magnetic applications in the high-frequency and high-speed electric devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Materials for Power Electronics)
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