The GaN Breakthrough for Sustainable and Cost-Effective Mobility Electrification and Digitalization
Vehicle electrification and digitalization are even more and more increasingly pushed by several aims, such as the improvement in sustainability, wellness, safety, and reliability. The need for onboard power electronics is a common factor for the different types of electric vehicles. Similarly, the...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Electronics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/12/6/1436 |
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| author | Filippo Scrimizzi Federica Cammarata Giuseppe D’Agata Gabriele Nicolosi Salvatore Musumeci Santi Agatino Rizzo |
| author_facet | Filippo Scrimizzi Federica Cammarata Giuseppe D’Agata Gabriele Nicolosi Salvatore Musumeci Santi Agatino Rizzo |
| author_sort | Filippo Scrimizzi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Vehicle electrification and digitalization are even more and more increasingly pushed by several aims, such as the improvement in sustainability, wellness, safety, and reliability. The need for onboard power electronics is a common factor for the different types of electric vehicles. Similarly, the increasing presence of onboard Internet of Things items as well as systems implementing artificial intelligence asks for additional power electronics that ensure supplying them according to their rating plate. Additionally, power converters have to perform this task also for traditional loads (infotainment; climate control, and so on) and new ones (USB and wireless chargers; Light detection and ranging, LiDAR applications, and so on). The transaction towards full electrification and digitalization requires highly efficient and compact power electronics converters. In this perspective, the Gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) are the best enabler device technology. This paper analyses the current and prospective improvement in sustainability and cost achievable with GaN in the automotive sector. Then, the advantages of the system in package GaN devices in power converter supporting this transaction, such as 48 V–12 V converters, onboard charges, and cell phone wireless chargers are experimentally investigated. The results have highlighted that, already in 2023, the use of Si devices in these applications does not enable further a lower overall converter cost with respect to GaN-based solutions. The reduction of passive costs enabled by using higher frequency thanks to the GaN features compensates for its higher cost. On the other hand, GaN HEMT enables high efficiency in all the aforesaid automotive applications as also experimentally proved in this paper, making it the best solution in terms of sustainability. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:37:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-623172557c764eefbd9a424ad9a4f874 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2079-9292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:37:47Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Electronics |
| spelling | doaj.art-623172557c764eefbd9a424ad9a4f8742023-11-17T10:45:31ZengMDPI AGElectronics2079-92922023-03-01126143610.3390/electronics12061436The GaN Breakthrough for Sustainable and Cost-Effective Mobility Electrification and DigitalizationFilippo Scrimizzi0Federica Cammarata1Giuseppe D’Agata2Gabriele Nicolosi3Salvatore Musumeci4Santi Agatino Rizzo5STMicroelectronics, Stradale Primosole 50, 95121 Catania, ItalySTMicroelectronics, Stradale Primosole 50, 95121 Catania, ItalySTMicroelectronics, Stradale Primosole 50, 95121 Catania, ItalySTMicroelectronics, Stradale Primosole 50, 95121 Catania, ItalyDipartimento Energia “G. Ferraris”, Politecnico Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129 Torino, ItalyDepartment of Electrical Electronic and Computer Engineering (DIEEI), University of Catania, 95125 Catania, ItalyVehicle electrification and digitalization are even more and more increasingly pushed by several aims, such as the improvement in sustainability, wellness, safety, and reliability. The need for onboard power electronics is a common factor for the different types of electric vehicles. Similarly, the increasing presence of onboard Internet of Things items as well as systems implementing artificial intelligence asks for additional power electronics that ensure supplying them according to their rating plate. Additionally, power converters have to perform this task also for traditional loads (infotainment; climate control, and so on) and new ones (USB and wireless chargers; Light detection and ranging, LiDAR applications, and so on). The transaction towards full electrification and digitalization requires highly efficient and compact power electronics converters. In this perspective, the Gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) are the best enabler device technology. This paper analyses the current and prospective improvement in sustainability and cost achievable with GaN in the automotive sector. Then, the advantages of the system in package GaN devices in power converter supporting this transaction, such as 48 V–12 V converters, onboard charges, and cell phone wireless chargers are experimentally investigated. The results have highlighted that, already in 2023, the use of Si devices in these applications does not enable further a lower overall converter cost with respect to GaN-based solutions. The reduction of passive costs enabled by using higher frequency thanks to the GaN features compensates for its higher cost. On the other hand, GaN HEMT enables high efficiency in all the aforesaid automotive applications as also experimentally proved in this paper, making it the best solution in terms of sustainability.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/12/6/1436automotivegallium nitrideinternet of vehiclespower electronics |
| spellingShingle | Filippo Scrimizzi Federica Cammarata Giuseppe D’Agata Gabriele Nicolosi Salvatore Musumeci Santi Agatino Rizzo The GaN Breakthrough for Sustainable and Cost-Effective Mobility Electrification and Digitalization Electronics automotive gallium nitride internet of vehicles power electronics |
| title | The GaN Breakthrough for Sustainable and Cost-Effective Mobility Electrification and Digitalization |
| title_full | The GaN Breakthrough for Sustainable and Cost-Effective Mobility Electrification and Digitalization |
| title_fullStr | The GaN Breakthrough for Sustainable and Cost-Effective Mobility Electrification and Digitalization |
| title_full_unstemmed | The GaN Breakthrough for Sustainable and Cost-Effective Mobility Electrification and Digitalization |
| title_short | The GaN Breakthrough for Sustainable and Cost-Effective Mobility Electrification and Digitalization |
| title_sort | gan breakthrough for sustainable and cost effective mobility electrification and digitalization |
| topic | automotive gallium nitride internet of vehicles power electronics |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/12/6/1436 |
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