Design of new high-efficiency silicon carbide-based laser power converters
- Autores: Javier Fernández Lozano
- Directores de la Tesis: Natalia Seoane Iglesias (dir. tes.), Antonio García Loureiro (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universidade de Santiago de Compostela ( España ) en 2024
- Idioma: inglés
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Daniel Chemisana Villegas (presid.), Paula López Martínez (secret.), Peter Wellmann (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Energías Renovables y Sostenibilidad Energética por la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: MINERVA
- Resumen
Wireless power transfer has gained increasing interest in recent years. Among the various technologies encompassed, high-power transmission via laser stands out, as it offers solutions when conventional wiring is limited or unfeasible. The technology uses a monochromatic light source to transfer power to a remote system, which performs the conversion using a photovoltaic system or Laser Power Converter (LPC). This technology is in an early stage of development, with the feasible power density limited to about 100 W/cm2 and low conversion efficiencies. Current systems are based on conventional horizontal structures (hLPC), using materials such as GaAs, InGaAs, InGaAsP/InP, or others with energy gaps (Egap) below 1.4 eV, whose manufacturing processes use toxic and polluting agents. This research proposes new high-efficiency LPCs capable of overcoming existing limitations, following two strategies:
1) Introduction of new materials with higher Egap. The polytypes of silicon carbide (SiC), specifically 3C, 6H, and 4H, with Egap values of 2.3 eV, 3.05 eV, and 3.23 eV respectively, are proposed. These materials offer a significant reduction in losses caused by series resistance (identified as the main limiting mechanism of the technology) due to the higher power of the incident light, which reduces the number of photons needed to send the same energy and, thus, reduces the current. Furthermore, recent studies suggest that a high Egap reduces the entropic losses inherent to photon-pair conversion, improving efficiency. These materials use the same manufacturing lines as silicon and do not employ toxic agents in manufacturing.
2) Introduction of vertical architectures (vLPC) and Vertical Epitaxial Hetero-Structure Architecture (VEHSA), which are capable of drastically reducing series resistance to values an order of magnitude lower than the state of the art.
The research objectives are: a) Study of the properties of SiC polytypes and semiconductor layers. b) Modeling of hLPC, vLPC, and VEHSA architectures using TCAD tools. c) Optimization of prototypes using recursive algorithms. d) Proposal of manufacturing processes.
Regarding the transfer of results to the industry, the aim is to patent the optimal designs, conduct a market and feasibility study for a spin-off, and seek collaboration agreements by offering modeling and optimization processes with leading companies in the sector.
