Diamond Based Semiconductor for Smaller Chargers

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

http://www.anl.gov/articles/argonne-announces-new-licensing-agreement-akhan-semiconductor?utm_source=Argonne+Today&utm_campaign=e2e684005e-AT+11%2F21%2F14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_91cdd2aa04-e2e684005e-237425181

I've been tangently working on this for a couple of months in a non-technical capacity, and it is one of the more exciting technologies I have seen come across my desk in the last couple of years. Basically if you were to make a whole 3KW charger out of this stuff, it would be about the size of an IPhone with no need for cooling. Same thing with motor controllers or anything that moves a lot of current and is heat-limited. The immediate path forward is to start swapping out silicon parts from high power electronics, and not make the whole compenent out of the expensive diamond material. But who knows how the technology will improve (or get worse) as it is scaled up for manufacturing. As more of this stuff is incorporated, components will get smaller and smaller.

Unfortunately I get the impression they are more interested in super computers than EV components, but the technology will trickle down. And since research super computers are spending a signficant amount of their processing power doing battery material modeling, we won't be completely left out!

Diamond based semiconductors can make high power electronics an order of magnitude smaller than the Silicon Carbide that will be in the next generation of high power electronics we'll see in EVs. I think there was a video on the forum somewhere that showed a 3wk Silcon Carbide charger for the Leaf next to the Leaf's stock charger, if you remember that.

Exciting times!

[Brammofan]

This sounds promising. Diamonds don't have to be as expensive as they are. Thank DeBeers for the artificially inflated price.

[protomech]

I posted about the silicon-carbide chargers here:
http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=3941.0

Improving efficiency and specific power handling (W/L or W/kg) of power electronics has some pretty huge implications, especially if it can be done cheaply.

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

This sounds promising. Diamonds don't have to be as expensive as they are. Thank DeBeers for the artificially inflated price.

Diamonds in this context are not pulled out of the ground, or even manufactured. This technology involves atomic layer deposition to create a layer of carbon in the semiconductor to make whatever component is desired. The material is not expensive, but the process for doing the coating is complicated and relatively slow when compared to manufacturing traditional silicon integrated circuts. The hard part is the doing, not the actual material. And that is why the scale up of the technology is so important.

[Virtually Yours]

So my understanding is an on board charger that is 1/3 the size/weight and twice the power?
So it looks like I could fit two of those instead of the 3kw on the Empulse?
How fast would the Empulse charge with 2 6kw on board chargers? Would that be possible?
Also someone posted something about new battery tech (titanium dioxide?) that was able to accept a charge really fast as well. It sounds like being able to charge the Empulse from 0% to 100% in less then an hour could be a reality when?