A crew led by Huili (Grace) Xing, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, has been awarded a $ 2,496,428 grant from the U.S. Division of Energy’s Innovative Study Projects Agency-Vitality (ARPA-E) system for tasks aimed at developing up coming-generation power conversion gadgets that could drastically transform how energy is controlled and converted via the grid.
Her project was funded beneath ARPA-E’s “SWITCHES” plan, short for “Strategies for Broad-Bandgap, Inexpensive Transistors for Controlling Substantial-Efficiency Programs,” whose aim is to decrease the expense and boost the efficiency of electrical power electronics.
The analysis task of Xing’s team is titled “PolarJETT Novel Vertical GaN Energy Transistor,” which was initially an concept of Kazuki Nomoto, Debdeep Jena and Xing, all in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Notre Dame. It is created to produce an progressive higher-efficiency gallium nitride (GaN) electrical power switch. Their design is substantially smaller sized and operates at much increased efficiency ranges than traditional electrical power switches, producing it ideal for use in a selection of electrical power electronics applications. Their task also will reuse expensive GaN resources and make use of typical low-expense manufacturing techniques to hold charges down. If effective, the miniature, higher-functionality, lower-value GaN electrical power transistors could make silicon switches obsolete.
Xing’s analysis focuses on the design, fabrication and characterization of semiconductors, products and nanostructures wafer bonding substantial-pace, higher-performance electronics and tunnel FETs, particularly making use of wide bandgap III-nitride semiconductors and two-dimensional crystals such as graphene and MoSe.
A member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, The Electrochemical Society, American Society for Engineering Schooling and Resources Investigation Society, Xing joined the Notre Dame faculty in 2004. She earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Peking University, a master’s degree in materials science from Lehigh University and a doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Grace Xing receives U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy grant
