UAlbany-Led Research Team Achieves Rare Milestone in Ultra-High-Voltage Power Semiconductors

Aerial shot of Albany Nanotechnology Complex on a sunny day

An aerial shot of the NY Creates Albany NanoTech Complex on Fuller Road, which is home to UAlbany’s Department of Nanoscale Science & Engineering and Professor Woongje Sung’s lab. (Photo by Patrick Dodson)

ALBANY, N.Y. (Oct. 21, 2026) — A research team led by the University at Albany has successfully designed, fabricated and demonstrated a rare class of silicon carbide semiconductor switch capable of handling voltages far beyond what conventional devices can manage.

The fabrication and demonstration of the 15-kilovolt (kV) silicon carbide (SiC) insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) was supported by sustained, multiyear funding from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, known as DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory, and the achievement makes UAlbany the second institution in the country, and the first academic one, to demonstrate an ultra-high-voltage device at this level.

Devices operating at 15 kV and beyond are poised to become the foundation of next-generation power technologies fueling advances in energy, defense and artificial intelligence.

Power technologies, or the systems and devices that generate, move, control and store electricity, are found in everything from massive power plants and transmission lines to the tiny switches inside your phone charger.

Building an end-to-end domestic pipeline

Significantly, nearly every stage of the process was carried out in the U.S., with UAlbany leading device design and characterization, GE Aerospace handling the majority of fabrication, a DoW fab completing final fabrication steps, and NoMIS Power, a UAlbany spinout, developing the specialized packaging these high-voltage devices require.

A man in a collared shirt poses for a portrait against a glass building — Woongje Sung

“In an era of intensifying global competition in semiconductor technology, this rare end-to-end pipeline in the U.S. creates a strategic domestic advantage and reinforces the nation’s leadership in ultra-high-voltage power device technology,” said Woongje Sung, associate professor in the Department of Nanoscale Science & Engineering in UAlbany’s College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering who led the team.

The IGBT builds directly on the team’s earlier demonstration of a 15 kV SiC MOSFET, a related but distinct type of switching device, in 2021. Because the two devices share roughly 90 percent of the same fabrication process, the team’s work developing the MOSFET laid the groundwork for the more complex IGBT, which can handle higher currents, making it especially valuable for high-power applications.

Why 15 kV matters

Existing power electronics systems using lower-voltage silicon IGBTs often have to stack multiple devices, sometimes three or more, together in order to handle higher-voltage applications. A single 15 kV silicon carbide IGBT could replace an entire stack of devices, simplifying circuits, shrinking equipment size and reducing energy losses.

The development of a compact, ultra-high-voltage switching device opens the door to new and existing applications in areas such as renewable energy conversion, smart grid integration, high-voltage direct current transmission and the rapidly growing power demands of AI data centers, Sung said.

They are also critical for technologies utilizing advanced pulse power, such as high-power microwave systems used in defense applications, fusion energy and deep drilling that uses high-voltage electrical pulses to fracture rock.

With devices of this class currently being produced in China and Japan, the U.S. faces growing competition to establish its own pipeline. These devices are currently being commercialized by NoMIS Power, that was spun out of UAlbany.