News

Where Does SiC Fit?

August 26, 2014 by Jeff Shepard

The opening day of the 2014 Darnell Energy Summit (DES '14), to be hosted in Richmond, Virginia on 23-25 September, will close with a panel discussion probing the question: "Where Does SiC Fit?" Silicon-Carbide (SiC) appears to be the "most mature" of the new semiconductor materials vying for a place in next-generation power converters. Where will it bring the most value? Where will other new materials be the better choice to replace Silicon? How soon will this become reality? Join our panel of experts in a lively discussion of advanced materials and devices for power conversion!

“Where Does SiC Fit,” Panelists:
• Dr. Daniel Fernández, CTO of INAEL Electrical Systems and Coordinator of Project SPEED
• Jeffrey Cassidy, Vice President, Cree, Inc.
• Baxter Moody, Director of Device Development, HexaTech, Inc.
• Alex Lidow, CEO, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation
• Carl Blake, Vice President, Transphorm, Inc.

On Wednesday, DES ’14 will feature more roundtable panels discussing the latest developments in Energy Harvesting, GaN Power Devices and 380Vdc Power. General session topics will include: Designing for the Smart Grid, Portable and Wireless Power, Micro-Grids, Digital Power Design, Advanced Components, Developments in Power Conversion, and more. There will be hosted receptions on both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings where you’ll be able to network with colleagues from around the world.

DES ‘14 will close with an optional post-conference seminar, GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion, to be presented by Alex Lidow, CEO, and David Reusch, Director of Applications, both with EPC Corporation Gallium Nitride is beginning to be broadly accepted in many power conversion and RF applications. The technology is rapidly developing and product experience in the field is expanding. This seminar will begin with Alex Lidow explaining how GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMT) work followed by an update on the state-of-the art in the technology from the many new entrants into this field. Included in this update will be the latest manufacturing technologies, cost requirements and comparisons, reliability data and acceleration factors.

David Reusch will follow with a tutorial on how to use these high performance devices. They will start with drivers, layout, and thermal considerations for high performance and high frequency power conversion, and then move to several applications examples including high frequency Envelope Tracking (ET), Class-D Audio, RF amplifiers, DC-DC converters, and Wireless Power Transmission. The seminar concludes with a look into future of the relatively young technology.

You will find the complete DES ’14 Schedule here, including details about the Keynote presentation, Plenary sessions, General sessions, and Post-conference Seminar.

Darnell’s Energy Summit will be hosted in Richmond, Virginia, September 23-25. Save the Dates! And Save your Place with an Early Registration today.