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Power Management Integration Center (PMIC)

Center Overview

The Power Management Integration Center (PMIC) is developing next-generation technologies for integrated power electronics.

Power electronics technologies are increasingly important for a wide range of applications, from handheld consumer electronics to renewable energy and electric vehicles. Almost anywhere electrical energy is used, power electronics - which convert electrical power from one form to another - offer improved efficiency and control. From advanced electrical and electronic systems to a single chip, nearly all power systems require more control, better management, and enhanced efficiency. Therefore, the need for improved power electronics is growing.

PMIC is developing component, circuit, and system technologies to enable higher performance and new applications of power electronics, aiming for innovations to process and control energy efficiently and cost effectively. Advances in power converter topologies, integrated circuits, and passive components are integrated at the level of single chips, packages, and larger systems to achieve higher efficiency, smaller size, and reduced cost. Considerations are made for system reliability, robustness, and performance in a diverse range of industry sectors and applications including consumer, industrial, and automotive electronics.

Research and development efforts span multiple levels in power electronics to support a variety of industry-sponsored projects and train the next generation of engineers in critical areas. In particular, PMIC explores new circuit architectures and design techniques that leverage high-level integration to expand the boundaries of efficiency and power density.

Universities

Dartmouth University
University of California, San Diego

View Center Website

Center Personnel

Charles R. Sullivan
Director
+1 603 646 2851
charles.r.sullivan@dartmouth.edu

Patrick Mercier
Site Director
+1 858 534 6026
pmercier@ucsd.edu

Research Focus

PMIC emphasizes passive component innovation and integration, magnetic materials and component design, and new high-density resonant structures for power delivery. At the system level, PMIC explores new control techniques, novel circuit operation, and integration strategies that can improve performance and robustness while reducing size and cost. PMIC research focuses on innovations in power electronics in areas relevant to industry, including:

New circuit topologies, power management integrated circuits, and discrete power converters that can achieve high power density and high efficiency.
Next-generation passive components including inductors, transformers, and resonant structures that can operate efficiently at high frequency while reducing size and materials cost.
Integrated passive components for high-density power management that leverage available semiconductor foundry process capabilities and next-generation magnetic materials.
System design, optimization, and control for a variety of converter architectures that leverage small passive components to operate at high frequency or in resonant modes.
Aspects of reliability and robustness in power electronic circuits including design in high temperature, harsh environments, and electromagnetic interference.

Awards

1822140

Phase I IUCRC at Dartmouth College: Center for Integrated Power Management Circuits and Systems - Power One IC

Microelectronics and integrated circuits have revolutionized computing, communication, and information technology. However, in a variety of applications, size, cost, performance, and battery life are increasingly limited by systems that process power and energy. The Center for Power Management Integration (PMIC) will engage with industry partners and conduct targeted research in efficient, high-density power electronics, passive components, and integration strategies. The overall goal of the center is to address bottlenecks related to power and energy management that affect a variety of sectors from performance and mobile computing, to renewable energy, automotive, and industrial electronics. Across these industries, the center will work to help alleviate key performance, packaging, and cost limitations, and enable continued improvements with resulting economic benefits. The center will connect leading academic researchers with a large and growing industry base that has a great need for collaborative, interdisciplinary research as well as workforce development. Educational programs at the graduate and undergraduate levels will address this need while K-12 outreach will help expand awareness of power and energy management disciplines. The program will emphasize recruiting and training engineers from underrepresented backgrounds, building on Dartmouth's success in recruiting and retaining women in engineering. Unlike traditional analog and digital circuits that have dramatically benefited from semiconductor scaling, power management systems depend on passive components and circuit architectures subject to Maxwell's equations, material properties, and practical implementation. Thus, addressing bottlenecks in power management requires multidisciplinary innovation in electronics and circuit architectures, passive and active devices, and integration strategies. The PMIC Center will target a range of innovations that leverage novel materials and passive component implementation, new circuit architectures that maximize utilization of available energy- and power-density, and integration strategies leveraging semiconductor foundries and advanced manufacturing. Modeling, design and fabrication of passive components will be advanced through research including optimization of power density and efficiency using advanced models, on-silicon microfabricated inductors using nanocomposite materials and integrated resonant passive components. Research on power electronic circuits will focus on novel architectures that maximize utilization of both active devices and passive components, facilitating a roadmap to mm-scale or monolithic integration. Application-specific objectives relevant to industry partners will also be considered such as reliability, robustness, and performance in high temperature, harsh environments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. Read More >

2052809

IUCRC Phase I University of California, San Diego: Center for Power Management Integration (PMIC)

Integrated circuits and systems-on-a-chip in modern electronic devices have transformed virtually every aspect of daily life. In these devices, the need for efficient power delivery and management has never been more critical across applications from low to high power: smartphones to data centers, battery-powered components to renewable-energy-powered grids, and from stationary systems to robots and aircraft. The challenge is to satisfy increasingly demanding requirements for efficiency, size, reliability, and cost - all simultaneously. The Power Management Integration Center (PMIC) addresses these challenges. The University of California San Diego (UCSD) joins PMIC as a new site in addition to the original site at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth to significantly expand the overall capability for research and training students, adding new research capabilities to the Center. The UCSD site will work with PMIC to bring together leading academic and industry researchers to develop more efficient systems and higher-density integrated power electronics with the potential to transform transportation, communication, healthcare, and energy generation and consumption. The Center will integrate fundamental research with education in integrated power electronics and energy efficiency by attracting, training and mentoring a broad range of students, including students from underrepresented backgrounds to become leaders in this STEM area. UCSD's focus on power integrated circuits (ICs) complements University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's emphasis on passive components research and opens opportunities for collaborations combining UCSD ICs and Dartmouth passive components. In addition, the UCSD researchers bring unique expertise in high-voltage ICs, power management at very low power levels for applications such as Internet-of-Things devices, wide-bandgap technologies, and special techniques for power management in radiofrequency (RF) applications. UCSD also brings access to faculty expertise in related areas such as materials, devices, and systems. The UCSD site's research focus will be on three thrusts: (I) integrated power delivery and management circuits, including integrated converter topologies, architectures, circuits, and 3-D packaging for high-performance computing and battery management; (II) power management for next-generation communications systems with the focus on next-generation (5G/6G) transmitters and power amplifier; and (III) wide-bandgap materials, devices, and high-voltage circuits for power delivery and management. The contributions from the UCSD site can provide fundamental additions to help PMIC achieve its goals in enabling higher efficiency, smaller size, and reduced cost for a wide range of electronic devices. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. Read More >

The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the Center author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. National Science Foundation.