UB, partners awarded $2.8 million grant to improve nation’s power grid

A UB-led research team has been awarded a $2,847,754 grant from the Department of Energy to advance semiconductor technology that will help modernize the nation’s power grid.

The award, part of $48 million in projects announced in February by the energy department, will support development of next-generation, high-voltage power switches that more effectively control the flow of electricity.

Improved power switches will boost the power grid’s overall efficiency and help ensure its resilience against unforeseen outages — often caused by extreme weather — that are estimated to cost the U.S. economy $150 billion annually, according to the energy department.

They also will help ensure the U.S. can meet future power demands, which are expected to increase substantially due to, among other things, the growth of data centers that power artificial intelligence systems, cloud computing and other electricity-hungry applications.

“Much of the nation’s power grid was built in 1960s and 1970s. This explains, in part, why we have blackouts during periods of excessive demand and extreme weather,” says Uttam Singisetti, the grant’s principal investigator and professor of electrical engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

“The semiconductor technology we’re developing will address these limitations and ultimately improve the resiliency of the grid so it’s ready to support the nation’s growing number of clean energy projects and transportation options such as electric vehicles,” he adds.

Singisetti will lead a team that includes researchers from Ohio State University and University of Illinois Chicago. The team will develop power switches made from an “ultra-wide-bandgap” semiconductor called beta-gallium oxide, a powerful and rugged material that’s relatively easy and inexpensive to fabricate high-voltage power devices using established silicon microelectronics processing technologies.

The projects aligns with UB’s recently launched Center for Advanced Semiconductor Technologies, which aims to cement the university’s position nationally and globally as a leader in microelectronics and research innovation for the semiconductor industry.

Singisetti serves as co-director of the center, which supports the Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse region’s designation as a federal tech hub under the CHIPS and Science Act. The tri-city region is aiming to be named among the finalists, potentially receiving tens of millions of dollars to boost microchip research and production in the United States.

Co-principal investigators of the $2.8 million grant include Prof. Xiu Yao, UB associate professor of electrical engineering; Hongping Zhao, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State; and Sudip K. Mazumder, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois Chicago.

The grant comes from the energy department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). It is part of ARPA-E’s Unlocking Lasting Transformative Resiliency Advances by Faster Actuation of power Semiconductor Technologies (ULTRAFAST) program, which aims to improve control and protection of the domestic power grid.

“A reliable and resilient grid is the key to protecting our power supply from outside threats and expanding America’s clean energy and transportation options,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in a news release announcing the awards. “Federal investments in tools and analysis to modernize our grid will put the nation on a path to meet President Biden’s climate goals and extend the benefits of a decarbonized energy and transportation sector to all corners of the country.”