Due to the continuing growth of automotive, industrial and IoT Industries the request for electronics and therefore also for passive components is still increasing. Especially the new wide bandgap devices are requiring “new” passive components with extended temperature and frequency range.
New capacitors and supercapacitors with new electrolytes, dielectric materials or inductors with new magnetic materials are required. Further on the reliability of the components must be improved.
Research scope
We have a strong interest in developing the next generation passive components matching the performance levels of new semiconductors. We focus on new electrolytic capacitor systems with low ESR behaviour (Polymer electrolytes), film capacitors with new dielectric materials for high temperature application > 150 °C and magnetic materials with low losses. Another focus is on thermal, lifetime and electrical simulation based on the acquisition of physical chemical data.
Accordingly, our research goals are:
- to reduce the ESR behaviour of electrolytic capacitors (by factor 10),
- to develop new dielectric materials for film capacitors for temperature applications above 150 °C,
- to reduce the losses of magnetic materials.
Thereby the impact of our research is
- increased current and power density and efficiency to be used in automotive and industrial drives,
- increased device reliability and lifetime.
Research topics
Aluminium electrolytic capacitors
- Materials for Aluminium electrolytic capacitors
- Electrolyte development
- Conducting polymer electrolytes
- Chemistry of aluminium electrolytic capacitors
- Anodes and cathode materials / Anodic oxides
- Separators / Papers
- Design of Aluminium electrolytic capacitors
- Construction / housing, terminals and insulation
- Thermal models
- Lifetime models
- Application of Aluminium electrolytic capacitors
- Design-in
- Cost and material consulting
- Theoretical analysis of breakdown
- Device lifetime testing and failure analysis
Metalized film capacitors
- High Dk materials
- Incorporation of nanoparticle fillers
- Nanoparticle surface modification
- Film characterisation and testing
- Development of new fabrication techniques based on layer-by-layer printing
- Dielectric design optimisation
- Theoretical research into nanocomposite dielectrics
- High voltage applications > 3kV
- High temperature dielectrics > 125 °C
- The use of advanced polymer formulations for high-temperature self-healing
- Thin film thermal conduction layers - fabrication and analysis
- COMSOL multiphysics simulation of materials' thermal response
- Thomas Ebel (Prof., Dr. rer. nat., Group leader)
- Luciana Tavares (Assoc. Professor)
- William Greenbank (Assistant Professor)
- Shova Neupane (Postdoc)
- Bartosz Gackowski (Postdoc)
- Jonas Wittmaack (PhD Student)
- Odysseas Gkionis-Konstantatos (PhD Student)
- Mark Smith (Engineer)
- Tim Kruse (PhD Student 4+4)
- Martin Henriksen Gornall (student worker)
Projects
Find selected projects here:
- Capacitor challenge, Read more
- Commercial capacitor foil analysis, Read more
- New dielectric materials for next generation high performance capacitors – Villum Fonden, Read more
- Passive components Research - EPCIA - European Passive Components Industry Association
- Development of new high performance Aluminium Electrolytic Capacitor technology for Automotive Use – ECPE GmbH, Read more
- Discharge Capacitors for Medical Application - Universität der Bundeswehr München
- High efficiency, compact, modular motor integrated drives (HiCoMMID) – EUDP, Read more
- Nanoparticle Surface Engineering for Next Generation High Energy Density Film Capacitors - ECPE GmbH
- Self-healing capacitors: increasing the lifetime of capacitors by improving their thermal resistance for more sustainable electric motors (XlinkCap) – DFF Green Transition, Read more