Battery & Electrification Technology - May/June 2024 - 8

Power Electronics
Efficiency and Power Density Comparison
99.0%
98.5%
98.0%
97.5%
97.0%
96.5%
96.0%
95.5%
Best Efficiency
Best Power Density
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.1
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
Si Boost SiC BTP GaN BTP
100 kHz 100 kHz 200kHz
Efficiency
Si Boost SiC BTP GaN BTP
100 kHz 100 kHz 200kHz
Power Density
In 2021, GaN Systems offered this comparison of GaN performance versus silicon and SiC semiconductors.
(Image: GaN Systems)
Vishnu Medisetty, Director of Power
Electronics for Bosch in North America.
(Image: Bosch)
Ozpineci said he worked with a team in
2017 to develop a roadmap for 2025 targets,
which included cutting costs by 50
percent compared to 2015. At the North
American International Auto Show in
Detroit at the beginning of the project, he
noticed that many hybrid vehicles there
had an extra box in the trunk, reducing
cargo area.
" Talking to the OEMs, we heard about
their interest in power destiny, too, " he said.
" At that point, it almost sounded like power
density was as important as cost. So, we
focused on improving the power density by
eight times by 2025 compared to 2015. But
over the years, though, any time I bring up
power density, they always say it's the cost.
Power density is really important, but cost
is still the number one. "
VTO's Support for R&D
The DOE's Vehicle Technologies Office
Fourth generation of Bosch's EV motor inverter. (Image: Bosch)
made (for MOSFET) or the leakage problem
is solved. These new, vertical GaN
devices, like so much of the research that
the DOE supports, are being developed to
hit three key targets. The DOE's power-density
target for 2025 is 100 kW-perliter
for a 300,000-mile lifetime power8
train
that costs, at most, $2.7 per kW.
Ozpineci said that regardless of the technology
the VTO is helping with, money is
always top of mind.
" It's always the cost, " he said. " OEMs are
focused on three important things: cost,
cost, cost. "
(VTO) has a mission to support R&D efforts
that " lower the cost and improve the
performance of power electronics in electric
drive vehicles. " It funds and works on
dozens of power electronics projects to do
that. A glance at the VTO's Annual Merit
Review submissions shows the many ways
companies and the government are working
on these next-gen devices.
Some are working on integrating more
components - heatsinks, power modules,
control circuits - into the inverter, with
the benefit of reducing the overall size so
it won't require as much space on an
OEM's skateboard EV chassis. Capacitors
in an inverter could also be made smaller.
Some projects use AI to redesign heat
Battery & Electrification Technology, May/June 2024
Efficiency (%)
Power Density (normalized)

Battery & Electrification Technology - May/June 2024

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