IIT Guwahati, IIT Mandi and Vienna University Develops Cost-effective Semiconducting Material

Researchers from the IIT Guwahati, IIT Mandi and the Vienna University of Technology have devised a cost-effective semiconductor material to boost power electronics efficiency in high-power uses. Check complete details here 

Researchers from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) in Guwahati and Mandi, in collaboration with the Vienna University of Technology, have developed an economical approach to create a semiconductor material, which has the potential to enhance the performance of power electronics in applications that require high power like high-voltage transmission, electric vehicles and industrial automation.

The team has developed an innovative and cost-effective technology to grow gallium oxide - an ultrawide bandgap semiconducting material through a customised low-pressure chemical vapour deposition system. This innovation is expected to be used widely as it makes high-power devices function efficiently even at very high temperatures, such as 200 degrees Celsius. 

The findings of this study have been published in multiple research papers in the "Journal of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices" and "Thin Solid Films". While researchers have been working on improving the efficiency of power electronic systems using materials such as gallium nitride and silicon carbide, these materials have limitations, particularly in terms of cost, for high-power applications. 

Ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor (UWBGS) materials are a subset of wide-bandgap semiconductor (WBGS) materials. They are defined as those WBGS materials, including diamond and gallium. UWBGS materials have the potential to support the realisation of devices with even higher levels of performance than other devices. 

This technology has applications in electric vehicles, high voltage transmission, traction systems, and industrial automation. The research faced a significant challenge in developing a gallium oxide thin film on a sapphire substrate, which marks a departure from the traditional use of gallium oxide substrates.

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