My Quest for the Ideal Power Switch
My invention and commercialization of the IGBT in 1980 created an ideal power switch that fundamentally transformed power delivery to a digital format. The use of IGBTs in every sector of the economy has benefited billions of people with energy savings of 103,000 TWh, gasoline savings of 1.8 Trillion gallons, cost savings of $ 37 Trillion, and carbon dioxide reduction by 180 Trillion pounds during the last 30 years.
My Baliga’s-Figure-of-Merit postulated in 1979 prophesied 1000-fold improvement by replacing silicon with silicon carbide to create another ideal power switch. The first high performance devices were demonstrated at NCSU in the 1990s. Significant enhancements were recently achieved at NCSU with PowerAmerica Institute support to enable a quantum leap in power electronics performance for electric vehicles.
My BiDFET invention in 2018 creates an ideal power switch for enabling matrix converters. Devices manufactured in a 3-year DOE-SETO funded effort were used to demonstrate solar inverters with high efficiency and power density.
B. Jayant Baliga
Progress Energy Distinguished University Professor, NC State University on September 15, 2023 at 10:15 AM in EB3 2207
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Dr. Baliga spent 15 years at the GE R&D Center leading their power device effort and was bestowed the highest rank of Coolidge Fellow. He invented and commercialized the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) at GE. Since joining NCSU in 1988, he has been recognized with the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal and the O. Max Gardner Award. He has launched four start-up companies with successful products: the Super-Linear RF MOSFET, the TMBS rectifier, the SSCFET, and the GD-MOSFET, which are in production.
Dr. Baliga has authored 27 books and over 700 publications. He was honored with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2011 by President Obama; the IEEE Medal of Honor in 2014; and the Global Energy Prize in 2015. He holds 123 U.S. patents and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame as the sole inventor of the IGBT in 2016.
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