Woongje Sung, an associate professor of nanoengineering at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, has received $2,103,000 in funding from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy as part of a collaborative research effort with teams from Ohio State University and North Carolina State University.

Sung’s grant is one of 40 new projects that were approved for $98 million in total funding.

Sung aims to develop Scalable, Manufacturable, and Robust Technology (SMART) for Silicon Carbide  Power Integrated Circuits that open the door to robust switching capabilities in a range of high-performance energy applications, including automotive and industrial, as well as for electronic data processing and energy harvesting.

The three-year grant will help establish a novel manufacturing process, in addition to demonstrating the devices’ functionality.

Two SUNY Poly graduate students will be supported by this project, and, along with a number of undergraduate students, they will gain first-hand design experience by using computer simulations to optimize the devices, review the fabrication process, and document the project’s results.

In addition, Sung also recently received a separate grant for $30,000 to collaborate with NISSIN Ion Equipment on a project to design, fabricate, and characterize SiC Junction Barrier Schottky diodes, which are capable of handling higher voltages with less current leakage, with the ability to enable switching at higher temperatures than silicon-based diodes.