PCIM 2025

Saving megatons of greenhouse gas emissions in industry and mobility every year through intelligent power electronics with innovative gallium nitride semiconductors in motor control units?

In order to achieve independence from fossil fuels and switch to renewable energy sources, production and mobility must be extensively electrified. This increases the need for compact, energy-efficient and reliable power electronics. In the PowerCare project, innovative vertical gallium nitride power semiconductors and real-time-capable failure models are being developed and used in a motor drive. PowerCare is pursuing a new approach in the monitoring concept through a miniaturized motor controller with integrated AI failure prediction. The project thus lays the foundation for the next evolutionary stage of intelligent, sustainable power modules.

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From Planar to Vertical: Custom Solutions for Advanced Si- and GaN-based Power Electronics

Fraunhofer ISIT supports the continuous miniaturization of power electronics applications while increasing power density on system and device level and offers the development of devices such as application specific silicon based PowerMOS transistors, IGBTs and diodes with reverse bias capabilities up to 1200V as well as advanced gallium nitride based power transistors and diodes with excellent electrical properties and switching speeds down to the ns range.

Our Use Cases:

• Automotive power inverters for EV drives
• Passive components for high-frequency switched-mode power supplies - Microcoils
• Silicon Membrane Technology for polymer-free realization for filter structures

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Thermal digital twins are simulation models running in parallel of a physical system, with its parameters dynamically updated through the lifetime based on real-time measurements to ensure optimal accuracy.

Our thermal digital twins model the thermal behaviour of power modules to estimate their temperature and overall state of health. By measuring a limited number of temperatures at selected points within a power module, a comprehensive equivalent thermal model is estimated. This model is then used to accurately estimate transistors’ temperatures and asses their level of degradation.

Our technology allows you to get more power and less down-time out of your hardware:

• Online ageing monitoring by continuously monitoring the degradation through the thermal system during online operation to avoid downtimes.
• Optimised maintenance planning enabled by remaining useful lifetime estimation.
• PQ-power curve extension and overload capability thanks to the accurate junction temperature estimation enabling design margin reduction.
• Reduced costs and footprint allowed by minimizing design margins.
• Lifetime extension with dedicated control

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We develop and test power converters for low to medium power for applications such as drives and grid-interfacing. We use state-of-the-art technologies that enable high efficiency and power density, such as GaN, SiC, planar transformers, and integrated multiport topologies. By combining hardware and software approaches, weensure that we can reach optimal operation, at minimal manufacturing and operating costs.

Our approach to Active reliability enabled us to offer high availability solutions, using conjointly hardware and software approaches for fault tolerance - always with minimum redundancy.

Our extensive Power Hardware in the Loop (PHiL) test facilities is used to evaluate the performance of converters under realistic conditions and specific mission profiles.

As power electronics moves to ever increasing compactness and efficiency, while passive devices take up a significant share of the volume, the optimal design of te magnetics is becoming increasingly important. Efficiency, minimisation and repeatability of parasitic elements, compactness and form factor, are some of the main attributes to be designed for. 

At Fraunhofer ISIT, we design and characterise magnetics based on conventional and planar magnetic cores. With a strong background on modelling, we perform multi-objective optimisation of power transformers and magnetics, in particular considering power density and efficiency, but with an eye on cost. Our transformers are designed to operate up to >200 kHz, and with power going beyond 30 kW.  

Our expertise and facilities for power converter design and testing furthermore allows us to take a holistic view of each application, enabling system-level optimisation.

The Module Services working group offers comprehensive quality and reliability analyses as well as process optimization. We use our diverse analysis portfolio such as X-ray (2D, 3D, laminography), optical inspection, metallographic preparation and electrical tests (including active and passive aging and electrical load cycles up to 2000A). This portfolio is supplemented by methods for accelerated ageing such as temperature and climatic ageing, e.g. under electrical load.

Decades of experience in quality and reliability assessment as well as failure analysis of components, modules and systems of electronic assemblies in all areas of application, from control electronics to power electronics, provide the basis for targeted analysis. Complemented by our extensive manufacturing expertise in electronic systems, this provides the basis for qualified root cause analysis and the resulting process and production optimization for the manufacture of production-ready, cost-optimized and reliable electronics.

We are happy to support you with analytics and manufacturing know-how in the introduction of new technologies, the quality assessment of existing products and processes as well as the failure analysis and reliability assessment of your products.

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