SEMIKRON Foundation and ECPE present Innovation Award to Spanish research team from Univ. Politécnica de Madrid

Spanish research team comprising José A. Cobos, Oscar García, Roberto Prieto, Pedro Alou, Jesús A. Oliver and Miroslav Vasić from Univ. Politécnica de Madrid have been awarded the SEMIKRON Innovation Award for their concept “RF Power Amplifier with Increased Efficiency and Bandwidth”. The SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award goes to Lars Lindenmüller of the TU Dresden for his research on the “Forced Evacuation Switch”.

These awards, presented at this year’s PCIM Europe in Nuremberg, are awarded by the SEMIKRON Foundation and the European Center for Power Electronics (ECPE) for excellent projects, products and services and innovative concepts in the field of power electronics.

“The SEMIKRON Foundation merits innovations with considerable potential to deliver social benefits, such as the improvement of energy efficiency, conservation of resources, sustainability and environmental protection,” explains Dirk Heidenreich, CEO of the SEMIKRON Group, who presented the Innovation Award on behalf of the Foundation.
18 entries were received, 8 of which were also nominated for the Young Engineer Award. The jury’s decision to award the prize to the Spanish research team from Univ. Politécnica de Madrid was based on the fact that their concept “RF Power Amplifier with Increased Efficiency and Bandwidth” is instrumental in saving energy in base stations used in mobile communications systems such as satellite coms or mobile phones. This crucial technological breakthrough is based on a new switching topology featuring new power components in the power amplifier. This new solution will deliver a 30% energy saving in comparison to conventional systems, which, if projected to the many mobile communications systems in use today, will lead to immense cost savings and reduced CO2 emissions.

More efficient high-power converters for intelligent power networks
According to the jury’s statement, the innovation developed by Lars Lindenmüller from the Technische Universität Dresden - “Reduced switching losses by forced evacuation” - is based on high-power medium- frequency resonant converters such as those used in intelligent power networks, renewable energy applications or high-speed trains, for example. In his converter topology, Lindenmüller uses high-power IGBTs, the losses from which could be significantly reduced using dedicated IGBT clocking and a demagnetizing network. Since in most of these applications the converter is in permanent use, this innovation results in an increase in efficiency and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions.

The promotion and support of research and training in the area of power electronics is one of the key focuses of the European Center for Power Electronics (ECPE),” explains Prof. Dr. Leo Lorenz, President of the ECPE, who presented the SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award on behalf of the SEMIKRON Foundation. “Currently, the ECPE comprises 65 members from European universities and research institutes known as ‘competence centres’. The promotion and support of young power electronic engineers is a wonderful thing, and I’d like to express my thanks to the SEMIKRON Foundation for its role in this in presenting these awards,” added Prof. Dr. Lorenz.

About the SEMIKRON Innovation Award and the SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award

The SEMIKRON Innovation Award merits outstanding project, product and service innovations, as well as innovative concepts in the area of power electronics in Europe. The SEMIKRON Foundation merits innovations with considerable potential to deliver social benefits, such as the improvement of energy efficiency, conservation of resources, sustainability and environmental protection.

In future, these awards will be presented annually at the European power electronics fair held in Nuremberg, “PCIM Europe”. The award-winners are selected in conjunction with the European Center for Power Electronics (ECPE). The award carries EUR 10,000 in prize money. The Foundation will also be awarding is the Young Engineer Award, which carries EUR 3,000 in prize money and goes to young engineers under the age of 30 for excellence in the area of power electronics. The criteria for the Young Engineer Award are the same as those for the SEMIKRON Innovation Award.

The winners are chosen by an independent jury comprising well-known representatives from the areas of research and industry. Entrants may be individuals or entire development teams. Entries must include a description of the innovation and set down the social benefits the innovation will deliver.

Contact:
ECPE European Center for Power Electronics e.V.
Bayerischer Cluster Leistungselektronik
Dipl.-Phys. Thomas Harder, Geschäftsstellenleiter und Clustergeschäftsführer
Landgrabenstraße 94, D-90443 Nürnberg
Tel: 0911 / 81 02 88-11
Fax: 0911 / 81 02 88-28
E-Mail: thomas.harder@ecpe.org