Keynote, Main Hall, Mar. 1

From System Requirements to High-Power-Density Power Electronics Integration

Prof. Johann W. Kolar

ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Johann W. Kolar is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, an International Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He joined the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich in 2001 as the Head of the Power Electronic Systems Laboratory, following 15 years as an international consultant and independent researcher. He has proposed numerous novel converter concepts, including the Vienna Rectifier and the Sparse Matrix Converter. He has published extensively in IEEE conferences and IEEE Transactions and is named as an inventor on numerous granted patents. As a Professor Emeritus (since August 2024), he continues to actively pursue research on ultra-compact and efficient WBG converter systems, AI applications in power electronics, Solid-State Transformers, and the life-cycle analyses of power electronics converter systems.

 Keynote, Main Hall, Mar. 3

Prof. Victor Veliadis

North Carolina State University, US

 Invited talk, Main Hall, Mar. 1 – 3   

25 Years of Commercial Power Devices Based on SiC – Lessons Learned

Dr. Peter Friedrichs

Infineon Technologies, Germany

Dr. Peter Friedrichs received his Dipl.-Ing. in microelectronics from the Technical University of Bratislava in 1993 and finished his Ph.D thesis at the Fraunhofer Institute FhG-IIS-B in 1997. 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 like JFETs and power MOSFETs.

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 Technologies AG on April 1st, 2011 and acts currently as Infineon’s Fellow SiC Innovation & Industrialization.

Peter holds positions as a member of the ECPE board, a member of the ICSCRM steering committee since 2005, Chairman of the JEDEC JC70 committee for wide band gap semiconductors and co-convenor of the IEC TC47 working group for wide band gap power devices. Peter was awarded in 2023 as manager of the year by M&T magazine in the category power electronics. In 2026 he was honored by the election in the ISPSD hall of fame. He holds numerous patents in the area of SiC technology and was invited multiple times for invited and plenary talks at leading power electronics conferences worldwide, and has published more than 150 scientific publications.

Abstract

The history of silicon carbide (SiC) at Infineon – including the very early pioneering research in the Siemens Central R&D and later in the joint venture SiCED – reflects more than three decades of continuous innovation in power semiconductor technology, with packaging developments playing a decisive role in the successful commercialization of SiC devices.

Early SiC activities originated within Siemens in the 1990s, when research programs explored wide-bandgap semiconductors for high-efficiency power conversion. Following the spin-off of Infineon Technologies in 1999, these activities were further expanded in both, the commercialization of Sic Schottky barrier diodes and additional device innovations via the joint work with SiCED .

A major milestone was the worldwide first transition from research to industrial-scale production of SiC power devices in 2001, applying the same quality and reliability standards used for silicon power technologies. This early commitment to manufacturability established the foundation for Infineon’s long-term leadership in SiC power semiconductors. Key for the success was a successful application study proving the revolutionary role of this new technology in highly efficient power supplies.

Later, active devices like JFETs and SiC MOSFET became more and more mature. Especially solar inverters were pioneering use case for such new low loss high voltage transistors.

As SiC devices enabled significantly higher switching frequencies and power densities than silicon, packaging rapidly became a strategic differentiator. The smaller die sizes of SiC chips increased the importance of thermal management and interconnect technologies. One of the most influential innovations was Infineon’s .XT interconnect technology based on diffusion soldering. This packaging innovations accelerated the adoption of SiC technology from industrial niche applications into mass-market sectors such as electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, EV charging infrastructure and industrial drives.

Today, Infineon’s SiC roadmap combines advanced trench MOSFET technology, highly optimized package platforms and large-scale manufacturing. Recent milestones include the ramp-up of 200 mm SiC wafer production and initial promising results regarding the performance of superjunction based transistors.

Overall, the SiC journey from early stage Siemens R&D towards Infineon’s broad product portfolio enabling three digit million dollar revenues right now demonstrates that powerful chip technologies merged with packaging excellence and smart strategic portfolio decisions has been instrumental in unlocking the full potential of silicon carbide power electronics.

Dr. Jacek Rudzki

Semikron Danfoss, Germany

Prof. Ivana Kovacevic

ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Dr. Jürgen Leib

Fraunhofer IISB, Germany