This is the Poliflash Magazine Archive for the years 2016-2022.
The articles of the current edition are available on the new site.
The articles of the current edition are available on the new site.
Marelli Motorsport – the Motorsport business unit of the global automotive supplier Marelli, with an extensive experience in the development of hybrid and electric systems for major motorsport championships – and the Power Electronics Innovation Center (PEIC) of Politecnico di Torino are announcing a new collaboration, regarding the Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology area for power electronics, aimed at electric engines. The project is included in a wider framework research partnership between Marelli and Politecnico.
The collaboration is aiming at the design and prototyping of an innovative multi-level 900V high power inverter for electric traction based on GaN technology.
Gallium Nitride, a cutting-edge technology reaching unprecedented switching frequencies and low switching energy, allows a radical reduction of passive components (e.g. inductors, capacitors, transformers), while maintaining an outstanding efficiency. In the last years, the GaN technology has been evolving rapidly in terms of conduction and switching performance. In addition, since the lateral GaN devices are grown on standard silicon wafers, their cost is already highly competitive.
GaN technology opens new horizons in the power converter design innovations, in which the collaboration has the aim to excel in terms of high efficiency multilevel architectures, optimal and robust gate driving and device parallelization, high frequency and high temperature capacitor technologies, integration of capacitors and semiconductors on PCB (Printed Circuit Board) for cost reduction, advanced cooling solutions.
Radu Bojoi, Politecnico di Torino, chairman of Power Electronics Innovation Center (PEIC), commented: “The collaboration with Marelli is a further demonstration of the multiple benefits and synergies possible between University and Industry when they join forces in fast tracking new technologies into cutting edge device development.”
The concept study started back in 2021 and at present it is in the prototyping phase, which is planning to undergo two development steps withing 2022. The GaN component supplier selected for the prototype phase is VisIC Technologies, a global leader in gallium nitride (GaN) solutions for high-voltage automotive applications.
Beyond the motorsport domain, which is always at the forefront of innovation thanks to its capability to design and test technologies in a fast way and challenging conditions, the know-how and technologies developed in the frame of this collaboration, for Marelli will be crucial also to enable a technological flow-down to series production technologies.
