POWDERMET INC — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: HR001120S0019-22

Description

Wide Band Gap semiconductors with advanced topographies allow much higher power densities and efficiencies than prior generation power electronics.   Power density is a function of switching speed and cooling requirements, and operating at or above 50KHz allows for a dramatic reduction in size and weight of power electronics for power conditioning, converting, and motor control.  Powdermet has developed high temperature, thermally conducting and insulating ferromagnetic binders as well as nanoencapsulation technologies for applying nanoscale coatings to fine powders to create controlled mesostructured materials.    Using high rate consolidation, near full density mesostructured materials can be produce while retaining engineered nanostructures, allowing hierarchical control over materials structure across the nano-, meso- micro- and macro length scales.  Powdermet, working in  partnership with CWRU is applying this fabrication  and materials technology to nanocrystalline magnetic materials to enable production of  tunable, high efficiency, low loss nanocrystalline magnetic structures for use in inductors, chokes, and cores in wide band gap power electronic systems.  In this program, the design, fabrication, and properties of domestically manufactured, mesostructured "distributed air gap" cores with tunable permeabilities will be conducted by consolidating controlled aspect ratio ferromagnetic insulator-coated soft magnetic flakes from amorphous and nanocrystalline materials.   complex cores can be fabricated directly, with significantly better properties (higher permeability, density, and lower losses) than powder cores with organic binders, and permeability can be tailored to match power converter transformer and inductor needs.  ICME/FEA design of the core mesostructure including shape, size, and properties of ribbon and flake cores to tailor magnetic properties will be validated with powder fabrication, coating, and rapid consolidation and annealing and characterization of core properties and losses.  Design and simulation of cores and circuit topographies >50,000 Hz power electronics  operating at very high power densities will be carried out.