Meeting: Thursday, April27
The Virginia Mountain Sectioin of IEEE is pleased to sponsor a virtual presentation of
“SiC Power Technology Status and Barriers to Overcome”
by Dr. Victor Veliadis, Executive Director & CTO of PowerAmerica
VTools Link: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/350692
Abstract:
Silicon devices are dominating power electronics due to their excellent starting material quality, streamlined fabrication, low-cost volume production, proven reliability and ruggedness, and design/circuit legacy. Although Si power devices continue to make progress, they are approaching their operational limits primarily due to their relatively low bandgap and critical electric field that result in high conduction and switching losses, and poor high temperature performance.
In this presentation, the co-existence of Si, SiC, and GaN will be discussed, and their respective competitive advantages highlighted. The favorable material properties of Silicon Carbide, which allow for highly efficient power devices with reduced form-factor and cooling requirements, will be outlined. High impact application opportunities, where SiC devices are displacing their incumbent Si counterparts, will be reported. Fab models and the vibrant SiC manufacturing infrastructure (that mirrors that of Si) will be presented. Barriers to SiC mass commercialization will be identified and analyzed. These include the higher than silicon device cost, reliability and ruggedness concerns, defects that degrade device performance, and the need for a trained workforce to skillfully insert SiC into power electronics systems.
Bio
Dr. Victor Veliadis is Executive Director & CTO of PowerAmerica, a member-driven consortium of industry, universities, and national labs accelerating the commercialization of energy efficient SiC and GaN power semiconductor technologies. At PowerAmerica, he has managed a budget of $150 million that he strategically allocated to over 200 industrial and University projects to catalyze SiC/GaN semiconductor and power electronics manufacturing, workforce development, and job creation. His PowerAmerica educational activities have trained 420 full-time students in collaborative industry/University WBG projects, and engaged over 4500 attendees in tutorials, short courses, and webinars.
Dr. Veliadis is an ECE Professor at NCSU, an IEEE Fellow, and an ΙΕΕΕ EDS Distinguished Lecturer. He has 27 issued U.S. patents, 6 book chapters, and over 150 peer-reviewed publications to his credit. Prior to entering academia and taking an executive position at Power America in 2016, Dr. Veliadis spent 21 years in the semiconductor industry where his work included design, fabrication, and testing of SiC devices, GaN devices for military radar amplifiers, and financial and operations management of a commercial semiconductor fab. He has a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from John Hopkins University (1995).