RFI Ultra-Fast-Triggered Semiconductor Devices for Enhanced System Resiliency | DE FOA 0002835

FAQs: ARPA-E RFI - Ultra-Fast-Triggered Semiconductor Devices for Enhanced System Resiliency (DE-FOA-0002835)

1) What is DE-FOA-0002835?

DE-FOA-0002835 is a Department of Energy ARPA-E Request for Information (RFI) titled "Ultra-Fast-Triggered Semiconductor Devices for Enhanced System Resiliency." It was issued to gather technical input that could help ARPA-E shape a possible future research and development program.

2) Is this a grant or funding solicitation?

No. This opportunity is explicitly an RFI and is not a grant solicitation. It is not accepting applications for funding.

3) Are there any awards, an award ceiling, or expected number of awards?

No. The listing shows no award ceiling and no expected awards because the RFI is an information-gathering effort rather than a funding opportunity.

4) What is ARPA-E trying to accomplish with this RFI?

ARPA-E is collecting technical feedback to inform and potentially design a future R&D program focused on next-generation semiconductor power devices intended to improve grid resiliency and reliability across a very wide power range (from kilowatts up to gigawatts).

5) What kinds of ideas is ARPA-E looking for?

ARPA-E is looking for early-stage, clearly disruptive ideas that go beyond incremental improvements or straightforward integration of existing commercial technologies. The emphasis is on materials, devices, and module-level concepts.

6) What technical areas or communities is ARPA-E inviting to respond?

The RFI invites input from communities including power electronics, optoelectronics, and photonics, with particular interest in ultra-fast switching devices that may be light controlled or light triggered.

7) What is the high-level technical focus of the RFI?

The RFI focuses on next-generation semiconductor power devices aimed at improving grid resiliency and reliability, including interest in ultra-fast switching, optical (light-based) triggering or control, and concepts that improve protection speed, EMI behavior, and module-level operation at high voltage.

8) Why is ARPA-E interested in power electronics for the electric grid?

ARPA-E notes that power electronic conversion systems can decouple and control interactions between generation sources, distribution networks, and loads, improving efficiency, controllability, and resilience. These types of benefits are already common in transportation and defense platforms (like electric vehicles, ships, and aircraft), and the RFI aims to enable similar performance improvements at grid scale.

9) What grid voltage and current levels are considered "grid-relevant" in this RFI?

The RFI points to grid-relevant voltage and current levels roughly in the 15 kV to 110 kV range, describing this as a key challenge area for semiconductor devices and power electronics modules.

10) What problem does the RFI identify with using single semiconductor devices at high voltage?

The RFI highlights that typical semiconductor devices struggle to directly meet grid-relevant voltage and current levels (about 15 kV to 110 kV). Because single devices cannot easily achieve these ratings, designers often have to stack multiple devices in series or parallel.

11) What are the drawbacks of stacking devices or using multi-level module architectures?

According to the RFI, stacking devices and using multi-level module architectures increases part count and complexity, raises cost, and can reduce reliability because more components and interconnects can fail or drift out of tolerance.

12) Why does faster switching create issues like EMI?

The RFI notes that while faster switching can reduce losses and shrink converter size, it tends to worsen electromagnetic interference (EMI). Steeper switching edges and compressed time scales can require additional filtering, shielding, layout constraints, and control complexity, which add cost and may undermine reliability.

13) How does the RFI suggest optical approaches could help with EMI and isolation?

ARPA-E suggests that removing conventional electrical gate connections could help, and that optical interconnects or optical gate control are promising because they can improve isolation and potentially reduce susceptibility to electrically coupled noise.

14) What role could optical triggering play in stacked high-voltage modules?

The RFI indicates optical approaches could create new options for coordinating stacked devices and improving timing synchronization in high-voltage modules.

15) Why is ultra-fast protection and fault response emphasized?

The RFI stresses ultra-fast protection because modern power electronics often have less thermal headroom than traditional grid equipment, meaning they can be damaged more quickly during faults or surges if they cannot shut down or commutate fast enough.

16) What types of fast-evolving fault scenarios are mentioned as motivation?

The RFI notes that some grid threats, including certain space-weather-driven effects and some man-made threat scenarios, could produce fault conditions that evolve faster than existing protection systems can handle.

17) What kinds of device capabilities are implied by the need for ultra-fast fault response?

The RFI implies interest in devices and triggering methods that can respond on extremely short time scales, enabling rapid isolation of faults before thermal overload or cascading failures occur.

18) How does materials science factor into the RFI?

ARPA-E frames limits of single-device performance as partly dictated by fundamental material properties such as critical electric field. The RFI highlights wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors as an improvement over silicon and expresses particular interest in ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) materials for potentially higher voltage operation, lower losses, and higher temperature capability.

19) What practical hurdles are associated with ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) materials?

The RFI acknowledges major practical hurdles for UWBG materials, especially difficulties related to doping and material quality.

20) What is "optically stimulated ionization of deep dopants," and why is it mentioned?

The RFI mentions optically stimulated ionization of deep dopants as a specific concept that could potentially address doping limitations in UWBG materials and enable device behaviors that are difficult to achieve with purely electrical control.

21) Is ARPA-E focused on new converter topologies or grid integration plans?

No. The RFI states that it is primarily about material, device, and module innovations, not new converter topologies or grid integration plans built around existing devices.

22) If circuit- and system-level integration is not the focus, why does the RFI still discuss grid impacts?

While circuit- and system-level integration is not the main focus, ARPA-E still wants to understand how a device performance demonstration could translate into meaningful improvements in grid protection speed, converter performance, or future grid control capabilities.

23) What grid control trend does the RFI highlight?

The RFI highlights a trend that as power electronics become more prevalent as grid interfaces, control needs may shift toward much faster, lower-latency regulation rather than relying on slow mechanical dynamics and inertia.

24) What time scales for future control are mentioned?

The RFI specifically references potential future needs for sub-microsecond-scale control of power electronic interfaces.

25) Why does ARPA-E connect device speed to grid stability?

The RFI suggests that without adequate speed and stability, even small disturbances can lead to voltage and frequency instabilities and potentially broader outages. That is why ARPA-E is interested not only in faster devices for protection, but also in faster devices that could enable high-bandwidth grid control strategies.

26) What kinds of innovations are respondents encouraged to describe?

Respondents are encouraged to describe novel approaches such as UWBG-based devices, optical stimuli to modulate conductivity, and optical gate triggering to improve switching performance, EMI immunity, efficiency, and reliability.

27) When were responses due?

Responses were due by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on September 9, 2022.

28) How were responses supposed to be submitted?

Responses were to be submitted as a PDF by email to ARPA-E-RFI@hq.doe.gov.

29) Where was the full RFI posted?

The full RFI was posted on the ARPA-E FOA website at arpa-e-foa.energy.gov.

30) What is the central theme tying the RFI topics together?

The core theme is enabling grid-scale resiliency and reliability improvements by advancing semiconductor materials, devices, and module concepts, with special emphasis on ultra-fast switching and ultra-fast triggering (including optical methods) to address high-voltage stacking complexity, EMI challenges, and the need for extremely fast protection and control.