Impact of wide-bandgap technology on renewable energy and smart-grid power conversion applications including storage

Abstract

Wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductor devices are making their way into large-volume applications, including pivotal domains of societal infrastructure such as sustainable energy generation and conversion. Presented for a long time mainly as a synonym of high-temperature electronics, hands-on experience has highlighted a number of gains that can be drawn from this technology even when used as a straightforward drop-in substitute of silicon in established applications and field-proven designs. Incremental in nature, these gains enable interesting progress beyond state-of-the-art forms, which, though not corresponding to the full exploitation of the potential of this technology, are oftentimes suffcient to justify its adoption. With particular reference to renewable energy power conversion and solid-state transformation, in the context of transport applications and incorporating a storage device, this paper reports on the understanding generated over the past few years and points out some specifically tailored technology and circuit design requirements to ensure overall beneficial impact of the adoption of WBG technology.