Gourab Majumdar
Senior Fellow of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Japan

Biography

Gourab Majumdar (born:1955 in India) received Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, India in 1977 and Doctor of Engineering (PhD) degree from Kyshuu Institute of Technology (KIT), Japan in 2005. He lived in Japan since September, 1978 and started his career in the country at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation on a special OJT program. He was employed by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation 1980, and since 1983, has worked in the company’s business units responsible for advanced power semiconductor development, design and applications. From April-2012 to March-2017, he served as an Executive Fellow, Semiconductor & Device Group of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. On April-2017, he was reemployed by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and currently acting as a Senior Fellow, Semiconductor & Device Group of the same company. He has published and co-authored many technical papers and books on power devices and holds several patents in the related fields. He is a receipient of the prestigious National Invention Award in Japan in 2005 for invention of the IPM (Intelligent Power Module) fundamental concept and has also received a number of other prestigious awards, including the “Monozukuri Nihon Taishou” (Japan Craftsmanship Grand-prix) award from the honorary Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2013 for contribution in development and commercialization of various generations of IPM devices. He served as the General Chairman of ISPSD 2013 and has been participating as a member of both PCIM’s Advisory Board and ISPSD’s Advisory Committee. He has been a visiting lecturer of advanced power semiconductor device courses run by Kyushu University and Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT) for several years till date. Also, he has been bestowed with Honorary Professorship in 2016 by Amity University, India.

Abstract

To meet challenges of environmental issues, use of electric, partially electrified and hybrid vehicles - such as EVs, PHEVs and HEVs - is spreading rapidly across the globe, particularly in the advanced and the advancing countries, making power electronics and power devices extremely important growth sphere. This effect is also swelling with fact that many of these countries or regions mandated higher fuel efficiency standards amid ever increasing concerns over CO2 emission, climate change and alarming reduction of fossil fuel reserve. For fuel efficiency improvement, implementation of power electronics carry an enormous sense. This is because fuel efficiency implies not only gaining traction distance per litter of fuel injection, but also traction distance per charging of electrified vehicles. Power electronic circuits make the system smaller and lighter and, therefore, provide the basis to improve the fuel efficiency as well. One of the key enabler of power electronics’ growth in automotive technology domain is power semiconductor module, which is progressing rapidly to satisfy the environmental, social and economical requirements. Today, the power electronics employed in automotive systems exclusively use silicon based power semiconductors such as MOSFETs (metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor), IGBTs (insulated gate bipolar transistor) and a variety of diodes. In the near future, wide band-gap (WBG) type semiconductor materials such as SiC and GaN are considered as prospective replacements meeting goals of performance challenges needed by the applied systems.

This keynote presentation covers a review of advanced power modules for power electronics in electrified automotive, such as the pure-electric, partially-electric and hybrid-electric vehicles. The presentation also highlights Mitsubishi’s view on the trends related to module structural and functionality integration technologies to aptly meet the power electronics system requirements of future generation electrified automotive.