Objective: a multilevel inventer for electric traction
The Motorsport business unit of the global automotive supplier Marelli boasts a consolidated experience in the development of hybrid and electric systems for the main motorsport championships and, together with the Power Electronics Innovation Center (PEIC) of the Politecnico di Torino, they have set up a collaboration aimed at designing and prototyping of an innovative 900 V high power multilevel inverter for electric traction, based on GaN technology.Gallium nitride, a cutting-edge technology that can achieve unprecedented switching frequencies and reduced switching energy, allows a drastic reduction of passive components (e.g. inductors, capacitors, transformers), while maintaining extraordinary efficiency. In recent years, GaN technology has been rapidly evolving in terms of conduction and switching performance. Furthermore, as the lateral GaN devices are built on standard silicon wafers, their cost is already extremely competitive.
The opportunities opened by GaN technology
GaN technology opens up new horizons in the field of power converter design, the field in which the collaboration aims to excel in terms of high efficiency multilevel architectures, gate driving, reliable and optimized device parallelization, high frequency capacitor technologies and temperature, integration of capacitors and semiconductors on printed circuit boards to reduce costs, advanced cooling solutions.
Faster development
The collaboration between Marelli Motorsport and Politecnico di Torino allows a faster pace of development in the field of innovative Wide Band Gap technology applied to power converters. In particular, GaN is showing great promise for high-frequency switching devices, even at high voltage and power levels. Everything suggests that this new technology will have a bright future in the vehicle electrification market. The concept study started in 2021 and is currently in the prototyping phase, which includes two development phases by the end of 2022. GaN components selected for the prototyping phase is VisIC Technologies, a world leader in gallium nitride (GaN) solutions for high voltage applications in the automotive sector. In addition to Motorsport, which is always at the forefront of innovation thanks to its ability to design and test technologies quickly and in difficult conditions, the know-how and technologies acquired as part of this collaboration will be fundamental for Marelli also in view of their application in mass production technologies.