Electrical Power Devices

Research Focus

The research interests mainly concentrate on aspects of semiconductor power devices and all aspects of their integration.

Silicon - material properties

Transport- and recombination processes in silicon are fundamental for the understanding of power devices and solar cell functions. Thus, methods to investigate these parameters are developed. These works are typical for the fringe area between solid state physics and electrical engineering.

Photovoltaics

The activities in the field of silicon parameters and the investigation methods for power electronic devices implicate a close connection to the physics of solar cells.

Simulation and modeling, design of power devices

The behaviour of power devices is investigated by simulating the internal electric fields and current distributions and by analyzing the complicated electrical and thermal interactions. This also leads to concepts for novel devices. Furthermore models for devices in power electronic circuits are developed on this base.

High-voltage integration and "Smart Power"

High voltage integration includes power electronics and micro electronics. It is especially important in the automobile industry. The main problems result from high ambient temperatures as well as internal isolation standards.

Power modules and integrated systems

In the high power range, monolithic integration is not possible. The subsystems are integrated in compact modules. Investigations concentrate on thermal and thermal-mechanical problems of the construction technique as well as internal inductive effects and EMC-problems.