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DOE OSTI2026

PowerAmerica (Final Technical Report)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (predecessor to AMMTO) established PowerAmerica in December 2014 to develop and accelerate the adoption of wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor chips and power electronics in manufacturing. The objective was to spark early commercialization of energy efficient products; educate and train the workforce; create high-tech jobs; and nurture the growth of the U.S. WBG semiconductor manufacturing industry. PowerAmerica isled by North Carolina State University by way of a five-year, $140M cooperative agreement with DoE. This private-public partnership with DoE includes member companies ranging from startups and small-medium enterprises to large system integrators, world-class universities, and national labs. The WBG power electronic ecosystem formed by our diverse membership is focused on using advanced manufacturing to 1) lower the cost of silicon carbide and gallium nitride semiconductor devices to be comparable to silicon devices; 2) demonstrate the system benefits and energy efficiency advantages of WBG semiconductor power electronics through system demonstrations that validate their effectiveness; and 3) build an education pipeline for a skilled workforce to meet the future demand for emerging WBG semiconductor markets — and enhance U.S. economic competitiveness globally. PowerAmerica was initially funded in six budget periods, each lasting 12 to 18 months. By the end of Budget Period 6 (August 2023), PowerAmerica had achieved its major objectives in technology development, semiconductor device cost reduction, ecosystem growth and engagement, and education and workforce development. Through strategic foundry investments, we helped to establish the first U.S. SiC foundry (X-FAB) and supported a lab (Microchip) to start SiC volume production. We’ve helped bring together companies from different parts of the supply chain, resulting in several successful new partnerships and business relationships. Through projects with some of the largest manufacturers of energy-intensive equipment in the U.S. — John Deere, GE, United Technologies, Raytheon, Carrier, Toshiba, and others — we have successfully demonstrated the energy and system benefits of WBG technology. We have also harnessed the unique capabilities and facilities of national labs — the Naval Research Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Argonne National Laboratory — to help solve challenging technical problems for industry. Thanks to our many webinars, tutorials, annual events, and presence at major energy and electronics conferences around the world, the PowerAmerica name has become synonymous with WBG technology advancement. The commercial interest in WBG technology is higher than ever; companies and governments around the world have announced hundreds of millions of dollarsin future investment to build capacity — and compete with silicon in many markets and applications. We have trained hundreds of engineering students, from universities across the U.S., through hands-on projects and WBG coursework. Working professionals have also benefited through the years from our many targeted short courses, tutorials, and technical webinars. In short, PowerAmerica has made great strides in each of our key objectives, and the organization has been operating without government or NC State

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2020

LCOE Design Optimization Using Genetic Algorithm with Improved Component Models for Medium-Voltage Transformerless PV Inverters

For real-world installations of photovoltaic and other renewable energy resources, the critical design metric is the levelized cost of energy (LCOE); however, many power electronics design optimizations are performed with efficiency and power density as the primary design goals. Recent work has shown that a new LCOE-focused optimization approach can yield improved system designs balancing cost and energy generation. This paper expands the LCOE optimization approach by considering comprehensive optimization parameters, adding new modeling of inductor cost, extending the semiconductor model to include effects of losses on housing cost, and implementing a genetic algorithm to improve computation efficiency.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

DOE OSTI2019

Enabling Technologies for Multinational Interconnected Smart Grid

The multinational interconnected smart grid is a crucial part for the construction of global energy internet, which requires various technologies to support. Based on the key technologies of multinational grid, this paper first states the importance of emerging information communication technologies, such as distributed cloud computing and blockchain, to the safe and stable operation of the grid. Then this paper discusses smart-grid control technologies for power dispatch and grid security. Finally, this paper talks about enabling power electronic technology and analyzes the relationship between power electronics, flexible AC transmission and HVDC transmission technology. To conclude, all these technologies play key roles in enabling multinational interconnected power systems.

Yang, Jianlin↗

DOE OSTI2024

Supervisory genset control in range-extended electric vehicle

A controls system for a range-extended electric vehicle comprising an overall system control unit, an engine control module configured to control a range extender of the range-extended electric vehicle, power electronics configured to control a generator of the range-extended electric vehicle, and a supervisory control module coupled between the overall system control unit and the engine control module and the power electronics, the supervisory control module configured to receive information from the overall system control unit and provide commands to the engine control module and the power electronics.

Li, Ke↗

DOE OSTI2020

Thermal conductivity of rutile germanium dioxide

Power electronics seek to improve power conversion of devices by utilizing materials with a wide bandgap, high carrier mobility, and high thermal conductivity. Due to its wide bandgap of 4.5 eV, b-Ga 2 O 3 has received much attention for high-voltage electronic device research. However, it suffers from inefficient thermal conduction that originates from its low-symmetry crystal structure. Rutile germanium oxide (r-GeO 2 ) has been identified as an alternative ultra-wide-bandgap (4.68 eV) semiconductor with predicted high electron mobility and ambipolar dopability; however, its thermal conductivity is unknown. Here, we characterize the thermal conductivity of r-GeO 2 as a function of temperature by first-principles calculations, experimental synthesis, and thermal characterization. The calculations predict an anisotropic phonon-limited thermal conductivity for r-GeO 2 of 37W m –1 K –1 along the a direction and 58W m –1 K –1 along the c direction at 300K where the phonon-limited thermal conductivity predominantly occurs via the acoustic modes. Experimentally, we measured the value of 51W m –1 K –1 at 300K for hot-pressed, polycrystalline r-GeO2 pellets. The measured value is close to our directionally averaged theoretical value, and the temperature dependence of ~1/T is also consistent with our theory prediction, indicating that thermal transport in our r-GeO 2 samples at room temperature and above is governed by phonon scattering. Furthermore, our results reveal that high-symmetry UWBG materials, such as r-GeO 2 , may be the key to efficient power electronics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2020

High-Frequency Signature-Based Fault Detection for Future MV Distribution Grids: Preprint

Increased deployment of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and microgrids are significantly changing the operation of distribution grid. Increasing penetration of power electronics based DERs also raise several operational problems such as protection coordination issues, voltage raise, recloser synchronization, stability, and frequency control. Legacy systems are designed for unidirectional power flow. Bidirectional power flows, and varying short circuit levels are some of the major challenges in implementing these legacy protection schemes for future power grid with high penetration of power electronics based DERs. Inverter based DER’s can contribute to a maximum of 2 p.u. fault current. Interconnection standards might require even lower fault current contribution. If these protection related challenges are not addressed, it will result in limiting the penetration of DERs in distribution feeders. In this paper, the feasibility of high frequency signature generated by transients is evaluated to identify and locate faults in a distribution system. The paper will discuss the need for an accurate line modeling approach to accurately capture the high frequency signatures. These high frequency signatures are naturally occurring electromagnetic transients for events such as switching events in the network, faults events, etc. This is different than that implemented in transmission systems as the proposed approach utilizes advanced signal processing techniques to retrieve valuable information from the high frequency signatures generated during faults and does not just rely on time delay measurements between reflections of the high frequency signals. In the full paper, information of a modified IEEE distribution feeder test system to accurately model the high frequency signatures will be provided. The distribution lines will be modeled using universal line modeling (ULM) technique in an electromagnetic transients program (EMTP) modeling platform. Different test cases will be simulated and these test cases will include different fault types, multiple fault locations, capacitor bank switching, etc. The feeder system modeled for these simulations will also include power electronics based DERs. Additionally, experimental results demonstrating the high frequency signatures generated due to a transient event in a medium voltage (13.8 kV) distribution line will also be presented in the full paper. Furthermore, the analysis combined with simulation and experimental results in the full paper will help demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed protection scheme. The developed protection scheme will not just help solve problems generated by bidirectional current flow, varying short-circuit current capacity, but also help in proliferation of DERs in distribution systems.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Electrifying Aircraft Propulsion: Thermal Issues of Megawatt Scale Power Dense Electric Machines and Material Solutions

Aircraft are the last major mode of transportation to undergo electrification for many reasons, where the underlying reason is the sensitivity of aircraft performance to mass. This sensitivity demands that efficient, megawatt (MW)-scale high specific power density powertrains be developed to impact regional, single aisle and larger aircraft that account for the majority of fuel burn in commercial aviation. Developing MW-scale high specific power electric powertrains (machines, cables/busbars and power electronics) remains a significant challenge. While advanced power semiconductors have enabled higher voltages, densities, and operational frequencies this also leads to passing high current through smaller volumes when considering electric machines and power electronics. This poses significant thermal challenges. This is particularly true for electric machines that strive to surpass 13 kW/kg, which studies have shown to be desirable for electric aircraft propulsion. The necessity of handling high current densities to achieve MW power levels dictates that greater than 10kW of waste heat will be generated. Moreover, most of the heat is generated in the stator winding which is a mixture of electrical conductor (copper or aluminum), potting material, magnet wire (electrical) insulation and high voltage electrical insulation. Although the electrical conductor is a fantastic thermal conductor, it is also the source of the heat (carrying the electrical current) and is thermally isolated by the other materials. Simply letting the machine run at increased temperatures is an attractive idea, however the reality is that most of the suitable electric insulations and potting material candidates are not likely to satisfactorily operate at higher temperatures with reasonable life expectancies. The likelihood of developing new polymers that can satisfy the necessary functions (mechanical and electrical), operate at higher temperatures with acceptable lifetime in the near term is small. This has led the researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center to examine electrically insulative materials in high power destiny electric machines, their thermal environment, and what solutions are realistic from a materials point of view. This presentation will touch on both the thermal challenges of electric machines and NASA Glenn’s research into material solutions.

Electric Aircraft Propulsion↗

DOE OSTI2023

Defect Chemistry and Doping of Ultrawide Band Gap (III)BO 3 Compounds

New wide band gap semiconductors are needed to increase the power, voltage, and switching frequency limits of power electronic devices. A recent computational search identified a family of ultrawide band gap (4.8-7.8 eV) group-III orthoborates as promising materials for power electronics, assuming n-type doping could be attained. In this report we test this assumption by investigating the defect chemistry and dopability of rhombohedral calcite-structured AlBO 3 , GaBO 3 , and InBO 3 using first-principles calculations. Of the three, we find InBO 3 to have the most potential for n-type doping without significant compensation by native acceptor defects. Furthermore, Zr is predicted to readily substitute for In and behave as a shallow donor with maximal net donor concentrations exceeding 1 x 10 18 cm -3 under growth conditions typical for this class of materials. We also demonstrate thin film growth of InBO3 and measure its absorption onset, which we find to be consistent with theory. Ultimately, our results confirm the promise of InBO 3 as an n-type ultrawide band gap semiconductor and point to alloying with GaBO 3 and AlBO 3 for further optimization of band gap and electron concentration for high-power applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Power Module Precursors and Prognostics

This project focuses on finding and utilizing electrical properties (precursors) of power electronic devices and modules whose changes have strong correlations with different modes and levels of degradations in order to realize online and lightweight state of health evaluation and fault diagnosis. Results from this project will contribute to higher safety, reliability, and power density of power electronic components. The approaches mainly include reviewing academic literature and industry practices for state of the art precursor identification and extraction, accelerated life cycles (ALC) of various power modules to create different degradations in-house, and developing techniques for gate-driver-integratable precursor detection circuit. In FY24, the results includes two sets of definitively detected aging precursors (on-state resistance and gate threshold voltage) for two sets of power modules respectively, controlled accelerated lifetime cycling of multiple silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) modules, and the development and validation of a gate voltage detection system.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Experimental Demonstration and Characterization of a Ceramic Sintered Wick Heat Pipe Evaporator

As electrified aircraft propulsion (EAP) matures and power electronics, electric machines, and batteries achieve higher power density, the thermal management of these devices becomes ever more critical. In this paper, a heat pipe made from a dielectric ceramic material is proposed, which enables its use in the thermal management of a high frequency filter inductor for an EAP power electronics application. The manufacturing process for the sintered powder wick was developed and its performance characterized. The heat pipe is further experimentally demonstrated via an open evaporator test and shown to behave analogous to a constant conductance heat pipe.

Thermal Management↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Experimental Demonstration and Characterization of a Ceramic Sintered Wick Heat Pipe Evaporator

Thermal management↗

NASA NTRS2018

Robust, Radiation Tolerant Command and Data Handling and Power System Electronics for SmallSats

In today's budgetary environment, there is significant interest within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to enable small robotic science missions that can be executed faster and cheaper than previous larger missions. To help achieve this, focus has shifted from using exclusively radiation-tolerant or radiation-hardened parts to using more commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components for NASA small satellite missions that can last at least one year in orbit. However, there are some portions of a spacecraft's avionics, such as the Command and Data Handling (C&DH) subsystem and the Power System Electronics (PSE) that need to have a higher level of reliability that goes beyond what is attainable with currently available COTS parts. While there are a number of COTS components that can withstand a total ionizing dose (TID) of tens or hundreds of kilorads, there is still a great deal of concern about tolerance to and mitigation of single-event effects (SEE).

6U satellite↗

DOE OSTI2019

Bond Wire Damage Detection and SOH Estimation of a Dual Pack IGBT Power Module using Active Power Cycling and Reflectometry

High thermal and electrical stress, over a period of time tends to cause deterioration of the health of power electronic switches. A huge fraction of research efforts involves the study of power electronic device reliability and development of novel techniques with higher accuracy in health estimation of such devices. Until today, no other existing techniques can determine the number of lifted bond wires and their locations in a live IGBT module. Through this paper, a new method for online condition monitoring of IGBTs and IGBT modules using SSTDR has been proposed. Unlike traditional methods, this research work concentrates at the gate terminals of the device instead of looking at the collector side. In addition, the RL-equivalent circuit to represent a bond wire has been developed for the DUT and simulated in CST Studio Suite to measure the reflection amplitudes. Both the experimental and simulation results have been compared. These results prove that a single measurement is sufficient to predict the failure of the device instead of looking at the traditional precursor parameter. With only two sets of measurements, it is possible to locate the aged device inside a module and detect the number of bond wire lift offs associated to that device.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

DOE OSTI2013

High Energy Yield Distributed Architecture for Large Commercial and Utility-Scale PV Systems

Photovoltaic energy has come a long way from its early days when small cells were fabricated in the labs in the early 50s. While it took a long time for PV modules to mature into what we now see in the market and in rooftops across the world, the power electronics has been lagging behind & was always the weakest point in the PV plant, being responsible for the majority of failures & robbing the PV plants of their full potential by losing precious Watts in the process of converting power from DC to AC. Since the early days of PV power, it has been recognized that the modules need to operate at their maximum power point in order to extract as much power as is available from the PV modules at a given time of day and year. Numerous maximum power point devices were developed to do just this. While effective at extracting as much power as they can, soon after there was a realization that in a PV installation where a central inverter is used, many losses occur, hence energy yield losses. This has led to thinking about alternative architectures where the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is performed much closer to the modules rather than at a central inverter. Several architectures were proposed ranging from a microinverter, microconverter, string inverter, string optimizer, and to a multi-string inverter or optimizer. While these architectures promise to increase the energy yield by 5% to 25% (depending where MPPT is located), & recovering losses due to shading, soiling, mismatch … there were no real studies and implementations in the field to corroborate these numbers. The program that GE Global Research proposed & received funding for is aimed at a type of distributed architectures, namely the dc architectures where only the MPPT function is distributed across the PV plant. Further, the project is concerned with choosing the right architecture for large scale commercial & utility scale plants but not residential installations. Findings from Task 1- Define Requirements & Develop Architecture- showed that for large scale commercial & utility PV plants, locating the MPPT at the string level with a string size of >3kW is the most cost effective solution & that the increase in energy yield of 6% to 8% is more than enough to make up for the increased cost due to additional power electronics. Our study also shows that in addition to an increase in energy yield, having a dc/dc converter at the string level brings additional benefits such as increased array visibility, allowing for increased monitoring and diagnostics; high and constant dc bus voltage which allows for reducing losses further and optimizing the inverter; and ability to detect ground and arc faults. Task 2 focused on designing a suitable dc/dc converter that meets the requirements defined in Task 1: Efficiency, Cost, & Reliability. For this task, we surveyed and simulated all candidate topologies known by the practitioners in the field. We also generated a novel topology, simulated it, & compared it to existing topologies. Our novel topology being a partial power processing converter came out on top due to its simplicity (fewer parts), it high efficiency, its reliability, and its lower cost. In the remaining tasks of the project, we built the hardware, tested it first in the lab, then in the field and once we worked out all the bugs and issues and were confident our system was robust, we installed it on the rooftop and started collecting the data by mid-Q3 2012. We shared our work with the scientific community in the form of conference & Journal papers, hence contributing to the general understanding of this technology area. The methods, techniques, and hardware developed under this project have all been tested in the field over long periods of time, and under many conditions and have been shown to be robust and reliable. The converters built and developed under this program have been in operation in the field since mid-June 2012, and no hardware failures have been recorded. While some software issues have been seen, none have been showstoppers. The cost analysis of the hardware showed that it meets the cost target set in the requirement document developed in the trade-off study. Improving the performance of solar installations for commercial and utility scale plants contributes to reducing their cost of ownership, hence spreading them to a larger section of the society and making them affordable. Our project contributed to the understanding of the distributed architectures, showed that PV plants’ cost of electricity can be reduced through additional power electronics which allows for harvesting more energy from the plant. When the project started in 2009, the cost of PV energy was still high, hence there was a real need to increase the energy yield, hence reduce the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). While costs have come down significantly, the need for increasing the energy yield is still relevant, hence the project results, hardware, and techniques developed are still pertinent today. By taking this project from concept to rooftop demonstration, we showed that the technology is mature enough, robust enough, and has the potential to be used by many more customers, hence benefiting the public in general through the spread of PV energy, which ultimately contributes to reducing our dependency on fossil fuel, improving the environment, and creating more jobs.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2016

Electronic stopping power calculation for water under the Lindhard formalism for application in proton computed tomography

Because of the behavior that charged particles have when they interact with biological material, proton therapy is shaping the future of radiation therapy in cancer treatment. The planning of radiation therapy is made up of several stages. The first one is the diagnostic image, in which you have an idea of the density, size and type of tumor being treated; to understand this it is important to know how the particles beam interacts with the tissue. In this work, by using de Lindhard formalism and the Y.R. Waghmare model for the charge distribution of the proton, the electronic stopping power (SP) for a proton beam interacting with a liquid water target in the range of proton energies 10{sup 1} eV - 10{sup 10} eV taking into account all the charge states is calculated.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

NASA NTRS2007

Thin, nearly wireless adaptive optical device

A thin, nearly wireless adaptive optical device capable of dynamically modulating the shape of a mirror in real time to compensate for atmospheric distortions and/or variations along an optical material is provided. The device includes an optical layer, a substrate, at least one electronic circuit layer with nearly wireless architecture, an array of actuators, power electronic switches, a reactive force element, and a digital controller. Actuators are aligned so that each axis of expansion and contraction intersects both substrate and reactive force element. Electronics layer with nearly wireless architecture, power electronic switches, and digital controller are provided within a thin-film substrate. The size and weight of the adaptive optical device is solely dominated by the size of the actuator elements rather than by the power distribution system.

Knowles, Gareth↗

NASA NTRS2008

Thin, nearly wireless adaptive optical device

Knowles, Gareth↗

NASA NTRS2009

Thin nearly wireless adaptive optical device

A thin nearly wireless adaptive optical device capable of dynamically modulating the shape of a mirror in real time to compensate for atmospheric distortions and/or variations along an optical material is provided. The device includes an optical layer, a substrate, at least one electronic circuit layer with nearly wireless architecture, an array of actuators, power electronic switches, a reactive force element, and a digital controller. Actuators are aligned so that each axis of expansion and contraction intersects both substrate and reactive force element. Electronics layer with nearly wireless architecture, power electronic switches, and digital controller are provided within a thin-film substrate. The size and weight of the adaptive optical device is solely dominated by the size of the actuator elements rather than by the power distribution system.

Knowles, Gareth J.↗