The growing demand for electrical energy combined with the need to eliminate fossil source for electricity requires a new way how to design modern grids. More renewable energy sources will step in, DC grids/microgrids will gain importance, storage in large scale will be installed to enable peak shaving and the end use will not be a consumer but prosumer. Thus, the energy flow will be changed substantially, enabled by highly efficient power conversion systems. SiC based power devices have proven to be key elements for such systems, ranging from pure power conversion up to modern solid-state breaker components. The presentation will sketch on concrete examples how the impact can be quantified and which new solutions become possible based on modern power semiconductors.
Dr. Peter Friedrichs received his Dipl.-Ing. in microelectronics from the Technical University of Bratislava in 1993 and his Ph.D work at the Fraunhofer Institut FhG-IIS-B in Erlangen. His focus area of expertise was the physics of the MOS interface in SiC. In 1996 he joined the Siemens AG and was involved in the development of power devices on SiC. Peter joined SiCED GmbH & Co. KG, a company being a joint venture of Siemens and Infineon, on March the 1st, 2000. Since July 2004 he was the managing director of SiCED. In 2009 he achieved the Dipl.-Wirt.-Ing. From the University of Hagen. After the integration of SiCED’s activities into Infineon he joined Infineon on April 1st, 2011 and acts currently as Vice President SiC.