Recent Successes in Accelerating the Adoption of Wide Bandgap Power Electronics

Organizers: Victor Veliadis, Jim LeMunyon, Power America

Abstract:
In accelerating adoption of wide bandgap semiconductors, their must be a focus on increasing the number of applications for both SiC and GaN technologies that are most likely to deliver near term improvements in systems that can benefit from the superior efficiency, reliability, and total cost of ownership offered by SiC and GaN. This session will focus on challenges and recent successes in several key applications for SiC and GaN that have been identified by PowerAmerica’s members in the PowerAmerica Technology Roadmap.

Short Bio of Organizers:
Dr. Victor Veliadis is Deputy Executive Director and CTO of PowerAmerica, which is a U.S Department of Energy wide bandgap power electronics public-private Manufacturing Institute. Dr. Veliadis manages a budget in excess of $30 million per year that he strategically allocates to over 35 industrial, University, and National-Laboratory projects, to enable US leadership in WBG power electronics manufacturing, work force development, job creation, and energy savings.
Dr. Veliadis has given over 60 invited presentations/keynotes/tutorials and is an IEEE Fellow and an IEEE EDS Distinguished Lecturer. He has 25 issued US patents, 3 book chapters, and 115 peer-reviewed technical publications to his credit. Dr. Veliadis is also Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University. He received the Ph.D. degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1995 in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Prior to being named Deputy Executive Director and CTO of Power America in 2016, Dr. Veliadis spent 21 years in the semiconductor industry where his technical work included design, fabrication, and testing of 1-12 kV SiC SITs, JFETs, MOSFETs, Thyristors, and JBS and PiN diodes.

Mr. LeMunyon is the Director of Membership and Industry Relations at PowerAmerica. He is responsible for facilitating PowerAmerica’s member-led initiatives and implementation of the organization’s value proposition, in addition to member recruitment. Mr. LeMunyon was co-founder of Sterling Semiconductor, the second SiC substrate companies in the United States, which is now a unit of SK Siltron. He is also a former CEO of Hexatech, an aluminum nitride semiconductor company. In addition to his career in business, Mr. LeMunyon has served on the adjunct faculty of George Mason University and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Export Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He earned a B.S. in physics and mathematics from Valparaiso University and an M.S. in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin.

Speakers and presentations:

  1. Chingchi Chen, Ford Research and Engineering
    Wide-Band-Gap Power Semiconductor Devices for Automotive Applications
  1. Ryan Kennedy, Atom Power
    Solid-State Circuit Breakers –  a Uniform Platform for Power Distribution
  1. Joshua MacFie, GROUPNire
    Challenges in Testing SiC Devices