Japan’s Ministry of the Environment (MoE) has recently selected Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. as one of its partners in realizing innovative carbon emission reduction. Particularly, Toyoda Gosei will develop next-generation gallium nitride (GaN) power devise.

Panasonic Corporation, Nagoya University, and Osaka University will work together with Toyoda Gosei for this endeavor.

Move Towards Carbon Neutrality

Power devices control power in industrial machinery, automobiles, home appliances and many other machines. In addition, next-generation power devices will reduce loss during power control in renewable energy systems and electric vehicles. Hence, the spread of these devices will help move towards carbon neutrality.

Most importantly, Toyoda Gosei will leverage the knowledge it has cultivated on GaN in the development of blue LEDs and deep ultraviolet (UV-C) LEDs. Particularly, the company will harness these strengths in the development of practical GaN power devices.

The MoE project aims to develop vertical GaN power devices, which can provide both high power and high-speed operation. Particularly, the project aims to tap high-quality, large diameter, and low electrical resistance GaN substrates developed by Toyoda Gosei, Osaka University, and Panasonic Corporation. To illustrate, low electrical resistance on substrates decreases power loss on GaN power devices.

Nagoya University will develop high efficiency GaN inverters with these semiconductor chips. They will implement them in battery electric vehicles and demonstrate their performance. The industry-government-academia collaboration will be able to determine the CO₂ reduction effect.