IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2023 - 4

From the Editor
by Ashok Bindra
Emerging Monolithic Bidirectional
Switches Bring New Energy
to WBG Devices
I
n last ten years or so, wide bandgap
(WBG) devices, such as silicon
carbide (SiC) and gallium
nitride (GaN) power transistors,
have made significant progress in
reliability, performance, and cost,
driving adoption of these devices in
a wide range of applications. As a
result, the GaN market is projected
to be worth about US$2 billion in
revenues by 2027, according to market
research firm Yole Développement.
In 2021, the GaN market was
valued at US$126 million by Yole.
Likewise, Yole expects SiC device
market to grow beyond US$6 billion
by 2027 at a CAGR of 34%.
Concurrently, the emergence of
monolithic bidirectional switches
(MBDS) is expected to open many
more opportunities for WBG devices
and give this market a new drive that
is very much needed. Some mass volume
power applications ready to benefit
from the control of bidirectional
power include electric vehicles (EVs)
with interfaces to grid, home, and
other vehicles. In addition, distributed
and grid-tie power systems
using regenerated energy and/or
energy storage components, and
solid-state circuit breakers are other
applications looking for MBDS technology.
By enabling these and many
other applications with their compelling
advantages of high efficiency,
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3239979
Date of publication: 3 March 2023
high blocking voltage capability, and
low system weight and volume,
MBDS will give SiC and GaN technology
a shot in the arm.
Three cover features shed light on
device development and applications.
The first cover feature " The BiDFET
Device and its Impact on Power Converters "
by B. Jayant Baliga, Douglas
Hopkins, Subhashish Bhattacharya,
Aditi Agarwal, Tzu-Hsuan Cheng,
Ramandeep Narwal, Ajit Kanale,
Suyash Shah, and Kijeong Han, presents
improvements in Gen-2 SiC bidirectional
FET (BiDFET) device with a
new chip design and process technology.
By comparison, the authors show
that the Gen-2 BiDFET device offers
low on-resistance with a remarkable
2X reduction in SiC chip area,
enabling reduction in chip cost and
package size. By successfully validating
the operation of the BiDFET die
and package, the article highlights the
enormous potential of BiDFET for
achieving efficient, power-dense, and
reliable matrix converters, integrated
motor drives, and many other power
conversion systems.
The next feature " Monolithic Bidirectional
Power Transistors: Opening
New Horizons in Power Electronics "
by Jonas Huber, and Johann W. Kolar
identifies converter families that will
benefit from MBDS while briefly discussing
most recent MBDS device
concepts. Besides driving existing
topologies, it will also inspire the derivation
of new topologies.
4 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z March 2023
The third feature " Power Conversion
Systems Enabled by SiC BiDFET
Device " by Subhashish Bhattacharya,
B. Jayant Baliga, Douglas Hopkins,
Ramandeep Narwal, Aditi
Agarwal, Tzu-Hsuan Cheng, Suyash
Shah, Ajit Kanale, and Kijeong Han
demonstrates the feasibi lity of
matrix converter topologies using
monolithic BiDFET, while eliminating
the bulky and unreliable dc link
capacitors or inductors required for
conventional voltage-source or current-source
converters in ac-ac and
ac-dc applications. The article indicates
that the 1.2 kV BiDFET has the
potential to disrupt all the applications
utilizing 1.2 kV switches,
including EV drivetrain, bidirectional
EV chargers, industrial motor
drives, solid-state transformers,
datacenter power supplies, elevator
drives, dc microgrids, energy storage
grid integration, solid-state circuit
breakers, and more.
The next two features are part of
the FEPPCON XI Part II sessions.
While the article by Pat Wheeler is a
road-mapping exercise that discusses
how a particular group of power electronics
engineers view their respective
topics, and gives a list of topics
which the attendees of the road-mapping
session believed were not covered
by any of the PELS TCs, the
feature " Reliability of Power Electronic
Systems " by Huai Wang,
Michael Pecht, Axel Mertens, Rik De
Doncker, and Frede Blaabjerg
IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2023

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