GE Reports: Pure Grit: Material With Skateboarding Heritage Could
Make Planes, Trains and Automobiles Use Less Power
Published:
Tuesday, April 14, 2015 - 10:13
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“…The research consortium, which includes GE, New York State, the SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, and other industry partners, will open a shared fabrication plant that will develop and produce silicon carbide power devices on six-inch wafers.
It may not sound like much, but for the power electronics industry this is a big deal. 'This will dramatically open up silicon carbide applications,' says Danielle Merfeld, global technology director for electrical technologies and systems at GE Global Research. 'We want people to come to New York and take advantage of the technology'…”
Like microchips inside computers and laptops, power management chips are pieces of semiconductor as small as a cornflake. But they move electricity (watts), not data (bytes). Their circuits help extend battery life and reduce power consumption for a broad range of devices: from smartphones and tablets to brain scanners and jet engines. They can make machines smaller, lighter, and more efficient.
