Power microelectronic systems are essential components in every industrial process, for power delivery, protection, monitoring and control. Today, the requirements for these systems are becoming stricter in terms of efficiency, robustness, and power density. This is driven by the ongoing electrification of traditional industries aimed at reducing CO₂ emissions and industry’s constant push for faster, smaller, and more efficient solutions.

Goals

To meet the increased performance demands, the industry is accelerating the adoption of electronic solutions based on wide bandgap semiconductors like Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN), which enable smaller and more efficient power microelectronics systems. However, key performance metrics still require improvements to ensure the continuous controlled operation of industrial processes. The goal of this project is to develop advanced power microelectronics systems with improved efficiency, control and protection schemes, aimed at enhancing the performance and reliability of electricity-driven industrial processes. This goal will be addressed using two use cases with significantly different power electronics requirements.

Power microelectronics for hydrogen production through electrolysis

The hydrogen economy is growing rapidly and the technologies related to hydrogen production must develop according to the new market needs. One of these technologies is the power electronics converter (rectifier) used to provide DC power to the electrolysis system. Therefore, we will develop a robust power electronics system considering the industrial needs for hydrogen production via electrolysis. The newly proposed system will use wide bandgap devices to achieve high efficiency and compactness and feature a new protection scheme. The proposed system will be demonstrated in a laboratory environment to emulate an electrolysis system, but the solution can be expanded to other applications such as smart industry, safety and security.

Power microelectronics for processing plasmas

Processing plasmas are used in the industry for applications like the deposition of thin films, etching with atomic precision or gas reforming. These systems are often powered by 13.56 MHz radiofrequency (RF) waveforms. However, advances in these fields have been held back by i) lack of precise control of the RF signal and ii) the low energy efficiency of RF generators, which prevents the utilization of RF-driven plasmas in energy-sensitive applications like CO2 conversion. These challenges will be addressed in the project via the application of an advanced RF generator, enabling advanced control over the applied RF signal, faster switching and higher energy efficiency.