Innovation Award 2016 and the Young Engineer Award

The jury has decided to give the SEMIKRON Innovation Award 2016 to a researcher team from Erlangen for its innovation on 'Zero Tolerance - Silicon Carbide Device Technology for the Smart Grid of the Future.'

The researcher team includes Dr. Michael Schütz (Intego GmbH), Larissa Wehrhahn-Kilian (Infineon Technologies AG), Dr. Patrick Berwian (Fraunhofer IISB) and Dr. Michael Krieger (Friedrich-Alexander University). They have developed and evaluated a new technology for quality assurance during SiC device manufacturing using UV photoluminescence imaging in order to detect harmful material defects in SiC on a full wafer scale. This novel inspection technique detects material defects which are the root cause for later device degradation at an early stage in a fast, contactless and non-destructive way.
This innovation significantly contributes to SiC device reliability which is an important topic in industry. The method has been successfully proven and it is on the way to be adopted by industry. The economic impact and societal benefit of the innovation is related to the energy efficient power electronics based on SiC power devices. The innovation was developed within the SiC-WinS joint project funded by the Bavarian Research Foundation.

The SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award 2016 is given to Mr Erik Lemmen from University of Technology Eindhoven, The Netherlands for his contributions to the development of an ´Extended Commutation Cell - A Path Towards Flexible and Reliable Multilevel Power Conversion´. 

The new modular commutating circuit leads to converter topologies for high voltage-ratio power conversion and multilevel conversion offering more flexibility in electric power applications. The functionality and flexibility of the extended commutation cell has been demonstrated for very relevant conditions with a 4.4kW eight-level inverter prototype using off-the-shelve half-bridge IGBT modules and drivers. The innovation offers high quality waveform, flexibility in control and the possibility for step-up and step-down conversion. The economic impact and societal benefit of the innovation is related to the addressed renewable energy applications as well as to more cost effective and reliable motor drives.

Photo: (from left to right) Bettina Martin (SEMIKRON Stiftung), Prof. Leo Lorenz (ECPE), Dr. Patrick Berwian (Fraunhofer IISB), Larissa Wehrhahn-Killian (Infineon Technologies AG), Dr. Michael Krieger (Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg), Dr. Steffen Oppel representing Dr. Michael Schütz (Intego GmbH), Prof. Dr. Elena Lomonova representing Erik Lemmen 

About SEMIKRON

SEMIKRON is one of the world's leading manufacturers of power modules and systems primarily in the medium output range (approx. 2 kW up to 10 MW). Our products are at the heart of modern energy efficient motor drives and industrial automation systems. Further application areas include power supplies, renewable energies (wind and solar power) and electric vehicles (private cars, vans, buses, lorries, forklift trucks, and more). SEMIKRON's innovative power electronic products enable our customers to develop smaller, more energy efficient power electronic systems. These systems in turn reduce the global energy demand.