New semiconductor building blocks make power converters smaller, more affordable

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory incorporated gallium nitride semiconductors to create a high-efficiency power converter that is more compact, affordable and efficient.

A power converter is a type of device that manages semiconductor switching and transforms current or voltage, so electricity flows smoothly and safely among equipment, power sources and users.

Silicon semiconductors are the fundamental building blocks of conventional converters. Manufacturer ROHM Semiconductor provided the ORNL research team with gallium nitride semiconductors that enable switching 10 to 20 times faster than silicon while losing less energy in the process.

In response to growing energy industry interest in gallium nitride, ORNL built converters with these semiconductors in its Grid Research Innovation and Development Center (GRID-C) and validated how the technology could fill performance gaps. GRID-C is a unique constellation of labs and test beds for pioneering research in grid systems integration, modeling, energy storage, analytics and security.

The smaller, lighter ORNL converter can be more affordably delivered, installed and maintained, and it enables a flexible facility footprint that is less expensive for large projects.

“In the future, these are meant to help in artificial intelligence data center applications, which need many systems with these exact requirements,” said researcher Prasad Kandula. “Size and weight add up quickly when you are looking at four to eight converters for each server, with enterprise data centers using hundreds to thousands of servers.”

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. — S. Heather Duncan