IUCRC Phase II Dartmouth: Center for Power Management Integration (PMIC) - Lead Site

Microelectronics and integrated circuits have revolutionized computing, communication, and information technology. However, the size, cost, performance, and battery life in a variety of applications is increasingly limited by systems that process power and energy, which in turn is limited by power electronic circuits, passive and active devices, and integration strategies. The Power Management Integration Center (PMIC), a collaboration between researchers at Dartmouth and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), is addressing these challenges with next-generation power electronic circuits, systems, and components. PMIC's mission is to create innovations that support higher efficiency, smaller size, and reduced cost. The center connects leading academic researchers with a large and growing industry base that has a great need for collaborative, interdisciplinary research as well as workforce development and training, including students from all backgrounds to become leaders in this important STEM area. As part of PMIC’s strategic plan to advance integrated power management, Dartmouth contributes unique, internationally recognized expertise in a number of areas: modelling, design, and fabrication of power electronic passive components, power management integrated circuit (IC) design, and development of integration strategies, packaging, and high-level system design for power management applications. The proposed work will advance the theory and practice in all of these areas. Modeling, design and fabrication of passive components will be advanced through research including optimization of power density and efficiency using advanced models, next-generation materials and integrated resonant passive components. Research on power electronic circuits will focus on novel architectures that maximize utilization of both active devices and passive components, facilitating a roadmap to mm-scale or monolithic integration. Application-specific objectives relevant to industry partners will also be considered such as reliability, robustness, and performance in high temperature, harsh environments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.