DENSO to work on next-gen power devices
by January 10, 2018 4:23 pm 200 views
DENSO, headquartered in Japan with a manufacturing facility in Osceola, Ark., will join Kyoto University startup FLOSFIA Inc. to develop a next-generation power semiconductor device expected to reduce the energy loss, cost, size, and weight of inverters used in electrified vehicles (EVs).
The two companies plan “to improve the efficiency of EV power control units,” a key to drive widespread EV use, “and usher in a future of safer, more sustainable mobility,” DENSO stated in a Jan. 4 press release.
DENSO also has acquired new shares issued by FLOSFIA in its Series C funding round. Professor Shizuo Fujita at Kyoto University pioneered the application of corundum structured gallium oxide for use in semiconductors.
The semiconductors “provide superior performance to other semiconductors on the market” and have “a wide bandgap of 5.3 eV and high electric breakdown field strength, meaning they can better withstand high voltage applications,” the company explained, adding they would use the new semiconductors to “replace today’s current silicon (Si) and silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors and help further develop the technologies that make tomorrow’s electrified vehicles a reality.”
Originally established at Kyoto University in 2011, FLOSFIA specializes in research and development and commercializing corundum structured gallium oxide. DENSO said FLOSFIA aligned with its vision to create the future of mobility through connected, automated driving, and electrification technologies, noting the two companies will further research and develop technology in high-voltage products for hybrid and electric vehicles, including semiconductors.
Since 2007, DENSO has provided power control units (PCUs) for hybrid and electric vehicles. PCUs use an inverter to control the power supplied from the battery to the motor generator. To use electric energy more efficiently, energy losses during the DC to AC conversion by the inverter must be reduced, and so DENSO is conducting research and development on low-loss power semiconductors.