1 megawatt: Hong Kong researchers build a gallium oxide power module
A module of six devices switched 1,000 V and 1,000 A in pulses, a lab result published in Nature Communications.
Researchers made an electrical part from a special material that handles a lot of heat and voltage. It worked in the lab at high power for short moments, and it is still far from any product.
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Why it matters
Semiconductors that handle higher voltage and heat could one day make big electrical equipment smaller and more efficient, but this is still in the lab.
Watch: a neat idea about materials that handle high voltage and heat.
The details
- A team from the University of Hong Kong and CASIC built a power module from gallium oxide, an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor, and published it in Nature Communications.
- A single packaged device conducted 234 A at 1,000 V in pulses and kept working at junction temperatures above 250°C.
- The team integrated six devices into one module that switched 1,000 V and 1,000 A at 1 kHz, a peak power of one megawatt.
- The researchers describe it as more than 100 times what earlier devices of this class had shown.
- This is peak power in pulses, not continuous power, and no commercial timeline or product has been announced.
Receipts
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