The primary goal of the project is to investigate the design and optimization of power semiconductor devices for high efficiency power converters. In particular, improved design features of Schottky diodes and power MOSFETs, which are to be implemented using Silicon carbide (4H-SiC) technology, are to be proposed. This is a natural field and topic of research, due to the substantial reductions in overall unit costs, which could be achieved by means of further progress and enhancement of the aforementioned technology. This would also be in line with the market demand for further advances in the level of hybrid integration of the power, control, communications, and transducer blocks of modern control systems.
Existing commercial 4H-SiC MOSFETs have fallen short of fulfilling their complete potential, due to a plethora of technology limitations. A substantial subset of these are still poorly understood, or haven't been investigated in sufficient depth. That's why this research program also aims to develop a reliable physical model of 4H-SiC devices. Based on this theoretical framework, it would be possible to examine the performance of such structures using both CAD simulators and actual empirical studies. In this way, the project would be able to propose an improved design for a 4H-SiC MOSFET.