£11M for University of Bristol WBG/UWBG research centre
REWIRE IKC to focus on power conversion for wind energy, EVs, smart grids, and high temperature applications
UK's University of Bristol will be home to a new £11 million Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC) called REWIRE, looking into next generation high voltage electronic devices using wide/ultra-wide bandgap (WBG/UWBG) compound semiconductors.
The centre will focus on power conversion for wind energy, electric vehicles, smart grids, high temperature applications, device and packaging, and improving the efficiency of semiconductor device manufacture.
The project is being led by Martin Kuball and his team at the University of Bristol, with support from partners at the Universities of Cambridge and Warwick. Industry partners including Ampaire, BMW, Bosch, Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD), Element-Six Technologies, General Electric, Hitachi Energy, IQE, Oxford Instruments, Siemens, ST Microelectronics and Toshiba will also be supporting the project.
The University of Bristol team specialising in semiconductors has also recently been awarded £5 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to develop the next generation of AlGaN Solid-State Circuit Breakers.
It is anticipated these will greatly improve efficiency and voltage range, potentially enabling global energy savings of up to 20% compared to continuing with existing technologies.
Bristol is one of two new IKCs announced being funded by the EPSRC and Innovate UK, both part of UK Research and Innovation.
The second IKC at the University of Southampton will improve development and commercialisation of silicon photonics technologies in the UK.
