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Mobility is an important factor in achieving the European Union’s climate targets: the transport sector is responsible for 28% of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU, 80% of which come from road traffic. Electric vehicles can make a major contribution here.<\/p>\n
The charger installed in them, the so-called onboard charger (OBC), converts electricity from the grid into energy suitable for batteries. However, as charging capacities increase, so do the requirements in terms of efficiency, cooling and space. Traditional silicon solutions can only be optimized to a limited extent. Energy losses lead to heat generation and therefore higher cooling requirements. This in turn has an impact on the size, which is why high-performance OBCs are currently not suitable for all vehicle classes.<\/p>\n
A simple design with fewer components therefore offers advantages in terms of efficiency, costs and distribution. This is why the HiPower 5.0 consortium in the automotive use case, for which the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM is responsible, is working on the development of a powerful 22 kW OBC with a volume of four liters, which is significantly smaller than the twelve liters currently in use.<\/p>\n
New gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors, which are provided by project partner Infineon, are central to this further development. The monolithically integrated bidirectional GaN switches enable more efficient current conversion and more compact designs, as they are designed in such a way that they can block the flow of current in both directions. This means that one component takes over the function of what were originally two interconnected semiconductors. This opens up new technical possibilities and makes circuit designs possible that could only be realized with conventional components with compromises.<\/p>\n
However, it is not only the material itself that is decisive, but also the way in which all components work together in the vehicle. This is where Fraunhofer IZM’s many years of experience in packaging and system development come into play. The components are not optimized individually, but are considered as a complete system from the outset. Electronic components are sometimes integrated directly into printed circuit boards (“embedding”), which shortens distances, reduces losses and saves space.<\/p>\n
One of the first demonstrators to show the potential of innovative technical approaches was a compact, powerful 22 kW charging system for electric vehicles, which Fraunhofer IZM presented at PCIM Europe in 2024, but which still did not use bidirectional GaN elements.<\/p>\n
The aim of the Hi-Power 5.0 consortium is to make the advantages of modern GaN and other wide bandgap semiconductors usable in marketable products in an end-to-end European value chain. In addition to the automotive sector, use cases in the shipping industry are also being addressed.<\/p>\n
In total, partners from ten European countries, including two OEMs, 21 Tier 1\/2 manufacturers, six power electronics companies, ten universities and seven research institutions, are working on six use cases in the HiPower 5.0 project. The project, which runs from August 2025 to June 2028, is being funded by the EU and its member states to the tune of 33.7 million euros. The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space is contributing 5.74 million euros and the Free State of Saxony 0.12 million euros.<\/p>\n
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\ud83d\udc49 www.izm.fraunhofer.de<\/a> Photo: Fraunhofer IZM | Volker Mai<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" April 28, 2026. Electric vehicles should be climate-friendly, powerful and affordable. An elementary component of this is the charger installed in the vehicle. Current models are increasingly reaching their limits in terms of efficiency, size and reliability. This is precisely where the EU-funded HiPower 5.0 project comes in. Fraunhofer IZM is playing a central role in the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4691],"tags":[1975,1952,4763,1954,1970],"class_list":["post-540316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-smart-systems-en","tag-ecology-energy-transition","tag-electronics","tag-mobility","tag-research-development","tag-sustainability"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\ud83d\udc49 https:\/\/hipower50.eu\/<\/a> <\/p>\n