IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2014 - 44

Next-Generation Power Electronics
Innovation Institute to Bolster
u.s. Leadership

o boost advanced manufacturing in the United States and,
thereby, strengthen the U.S.
manufacturing sector, U.S. President
Barack Obama has announced a manufacturing innovation institute in
partnership with 18 companies and
seven universities. The Next-Generation Power Electronics Innovation
Institute, led by North Carolina State
University (NC State), brings together
a consortium of leading companies
that include some of the world's leading wide-bandgap semiconductor
manufacturers, leading materials providers, and critical end users, such as
John Deere and Delphi, with universities on the cutting edge of technology
development and research.
The formation of this public-private consortium is a part of the U.S.
government's National Network for
Manufacturing Innovation Initiatives, announced last February, to
strengthen U.S. manufacturing in
the power technology space. The
U.S. Department of Energy (DoE)
is awarding US$70 million over five
years, matched by at least US$70 million in nonfederal commitments by
the winning team of businesses and
universities, along with the state of
North Carolina.
The 18 companies are ABB, APEI,
Avogy, Cree, Delphi, Delta Products,
DfR Solutions, Gridbridge, Hesse
Mechantronics, II-VI, IQE, John
Deere, Monolith Semiconductor, RF
Micro Devices, Toshiba International,
Transphorm, USCi, and Vacon. The
seven universities and labs are NC
State (lead), Arizona State University,
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2014.2302903
Date of publication: 11 March 2014

IEEE Power Electronics Magazine

Florida State University, the University
of California at Santa Barbara, Virginia
Polytechnic Institute, the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.
In a statement, NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson said, "NC State
couldn't be more proud to have been
selected to lead this new institute,
which truly embodies everything that
our university stands for-from our
think-and-do mentality to our collaborative spirit and unending commitment to solve to the grand challenges
of society."
The new power electronics innovation institute will be focused on
enabling the next generation of
energy-efficient high-power electronic chips and devices by making wide-bandgap semiconductor
technologies cost-competitive with
current silicon-based power electronics in the next five years. These
improvements will make power electronic devices such as motors, consumer electronics, and the devices
that support our power grid faster,
smaller, and more efficient.
President Obama has declared
2014 a year of action, and while he
will continue to work with Congress
on new measures to create jobs and
grow the economy, he will also use his
executive authority to get things done.
In his 2013 State of the Union
address, the president proposed a
series of three new manufacturing
institutes that the administration
can create using existing resources.
The Next-Generation Power Electronics Innovation Institute is the
first of those institutes. In May, President Obama launched a competition
for these three new Manufacturing

z March 2014

Innovation Institutes with a federal commitment of US$200 million
across five federal agencies-the
Department of Defense, the DoE, the
Department of Commerce, NASA,
and the National Science Foundation-building off the success of
a pilot institute, headquartered in
Youngstown, Ohio. The additional
two institutes, to be led by the
Department of Defense and focused
on digital manufacturing and design
innovation and lightweight and modern metals manufacturing, are still
in the selection process.
Each institute is designed to serve
as a regional hub meant to bridge the
gap between applied research and
product development. They will bring
together companies, universities,
other academic and training institutions, and federal agencies to coinvest in technology areas that encourage investment and production in the
United States.

Power Electronics
Innovation Institute
The Next-Generation Power Electronics Innovation Institute will provide
the innovation infrastructure needed
to support new product and process
technologies, education, and training
to become a global center of excellence for the development of widebandgap semiconductor devices and
industry-relevant processes. The DoEsupported manufacturing innovation
institute's headquarters will be located
on NC State's Centennial Campus. The
university will also host some of the
institute's shared research and development facilities and testing equipment as well as workforce development and education programs.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2014