Automotive, aerospace, and energy production industries can greatly benefit from the development of semiconductor based electronics operating at temperature higher than 150 °C. Wide bandgap semiconductors like SiC and GaN are key enablers as these allow electronics to function at much higher temperatures than silicon. Consequently devices made from these materials can handle more current and thus power compared to Si based ones. However, increasing operating temperatures compromise the performance and reliability of other components in the power electronic system, including capacitors and inductors, interconnects and packaging, and therefore complex cooling systems are required which adds complexity and volume to the device design.

This proposal directly addresses the specific technological challenges of the Call JTI-CS-2013-03-SGO-02-087 entitled “Technology development and fabrication of high-temperature high-frequency capacitors for power switch integration”, in which a thorough programme of work is proposed to develop optimized ceramic formulation and fabrication to provide highly reliable multilayer ceramic capacitors for high-temperature high-frequency capacitors for power switch integration.

The 24 month project will use as its base a new high-K ceramic material (SBFT - Strontium-Bismuth-Ferrum-Titanate) which extends power electronics operating temperature up to 200 C. The SBFT ceramic capacitor is characterized by a low thermal coefficient of capacitance (TCC) of less than 25% up to 200 C. The project will focus firstly on the production of samples with a variety of chemical modifications being performed, subsequently fabrication of MLCCs using non optimised, and optimised materials will be performed and samples delivered to the topic group leader for qualification.