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Trusted European SiC Value Chain for a greener Economy

Project description

Greening the European SiC value chain

As people worldwide are impacted by climate change, novel solutions for delaying or reducing its effects are more important than ever. The EU-funded TRANSFORM project will build a complete and highly competitive European supply chain for power electronics based on silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors. The project aims to fill a massive application space for a wide range of needs – from industrial drives and power conversion to renewable energy and electric mobility. To enable a holistic optimisation of power electronic systems – required for a cleaner and sustainable European economy, the project will develop a trusted and strong European supply chain for the application.

Objective

Silicon Carbide based power electronics use electrical energy significantly more efficient than current silicon-based semiconductors: gains from 6% to 30% are expected depending on application. TRANSFORM will provide European downstream market players with a reliable source of SiC components and systems based on an entirely European value chain - from substrates to energy converters. Its technical excellence strengthens the global competitive position of Europe. TRANSFORM improves current SiC technologies beyond state-of-the-art to serve large emerging markets for electric power conversion in renewable energies, mobility and industry. Substrate manufacturing process innovation will establish a new global standard: smart-cut technology allows high scalability, superior performance and reliability. Substrate and equipment manufacturers plus technology providers cooperate to increase maturity of the new processes from lab demonstration to pilot lines. Device manufacturers develop and tailor processes and device design based on the new substrate process, including adaptation of planarMOS and development of new TrenchMOS technology. Performance and reliability of devices is expected to increase greatly. For exploiting the potential of SiC devices, integration technologies and system design are improved concurrently, including new copper metallization processes for higher reliability and performance, module integration for high reliability and reduction of cost, and dedicated integrated driver technologies to optimize switching modes and parallel operation in high current applications. The project will demonstrate energy savings in applications (DC/AC, DC/DC, AC/DC) in the renewable energy domain, industry and automotive. TRANSFORM contributes to European societal goals and the green economy through significantly increasing energy efficiency by providing a competitive, ready-to-industrialized technology, strengthening Europes technological sovereignty in a critical field.

Coordinator

ROBERT BOSCH GMBH
Net EU contribution
€ 3 789 023,00
Address
ROBERT-BOSCH-PLATZ 1
70839 Gerlingen-Schillerhoehe
Germany

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Region
Baden-Württemberg Stuttgart Ludwigsburg
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
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Total cost
€ 18 945 115,00

Participants (35)