Two Years of research project – HiPERFORM

Reliable and energy efficient drivetrains

HiPERFORM stands for High performant Wide Band Gap Power Electronics for Reliable, energy efficient drivetrains and Optimization through Multi-physics simulation.

The research work in HiPERFORM investigates advanced production processes and methods for GaN based switch technologies for the application in automotive domain and aims to enable a long-term cost reduction of 40 % in comparison to existing samples of these innovative switches. Regarding the high reliability requirements, which are expected to be fulfilled with SiC-switches, HiPERFORM realizes research work to close the gap for GaN-switches. The project HiPERFORM researches and develops architectures for switching topologies and controllers with SiC- and GaN-switches that support switching frequencies of up to 500 kHz and have 30% less energy loss in comparison to existing architectures, enabling energy efficiencies of up to 98 % in power train applications.

The HiPERFORM project is entering year 3. Some very promising results are already available and activities are running very well. However, the COVID-19 crisis has also hit the partners very much and new ways of cooperation have to be found instead of meeting physically. The results obtained during the second year and the ongoing work of the partners is presented in the linked newsletter below.