2023 Innovation Award
US 11474145B2: “Methods of determining operating conditions of silicon carbide power MOSFET devices associated with aging, related circuits and computer program products”
Issued in 2020, this influential research was generated from the following projects 2712.026 titled "Fault Characterization and Degradation Monitoring of SiC Devices" and 2810.054 titled "Reconfigurable AC Power Cycling Setup and Plug-in Condition Monitoring Tools for High Power IGBT and SiC Modules".
https://patents.google.com/patent/US11474145B2/
https://www.src.org/library/patent/p1861/
These patents aim to monitor the aging of SiC MOSFETs caused by device/package degradations and provide in-situ/online fault diagnosis/failure prognosis methods that can be integrated into the gate driver to establish early warning alerts for power electronics systems. The superior features of SiC devices over silicon (Si) based counterparts are poised to revolutionize electric vehicles, grid-integrated renewables and military systems. Continuously monitoring these systems is essential to prevent unexpected shutdowns and catastrophic failures that may result in fatal accidents or significant operation loss. The developed tool enables self-monitoring of the SiC devices in the system, recognizes failure precursors at the earliest stage, and ensures robust operation of the converter system. Some of the findings have been deployed in Texas Instruments' UCC5870 gate driver, the latest high-end gate driver for EVs, and have been used by more than 10 automotive OEMs.
