APEX logo with tagline: A Center for Power Electronics Materials and Manufacturing Exploration.

Mission

A Center for Power Electronics Materials and Manufacturing Exploration (APEX ) will enable a wider selection of materials and manufacturing methods built for speed and scale for next-generation power electronics.

To enable a wider selection, APEX seeks to understand chemical, physical, thermal, and electrical requirements at dissimilar interfaces. We are motivated by a co-design vision for “A on B,”  encompassing a range of materials and interfaces for power electronics—e.g., active layer on substrate, contact on active layer, dielectric on active layer, or device on heat sink.

Research Aims

APEX focuses on four crosscutting research aims:

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Aim 1: Power Electronics Interface Co-Design for "A on B"

Developing design rules for broader “A on B” heterointegration through a co-design approach that includes first-principles theory and experimental studies of the formation and design of highly dissimilar interfaces.

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Aim 2: Synthesis of "A on B"

Demonstrating novel "A on B" synthesis to enable transformative manufacturing, including growth of novel conductive bulk single crystal carbide and boride substrates and related innovation in active layer heterogeneous integration, liftoff, and transfer.

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Aim 3: Transformative Manufacturing: "A on B" at Speed and Scale

Revolutionizing "A on B" manufacturing via hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) to achieve both scale and speed, including studying AlGaN growth kinetics on novel substrates, incorporating in situ diagnostics, and combining HVPE with layer liftoff as a transformative manufacturing pathway.

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Aim 4: Interface Characterization and Real-World Resilience of "A on B"

Understanding and controlling interfacial phases, reactions, and evolution to further the science for real-world performance, stability, and resilience of "A on B," applying multimodal, multiscale structural, thermal, and electronic characterization.

Partners

The following organizations are participating in APEX.

  • National Renewable Energy Laboratory
  • Argonne National Laboratory
  • Colorado School of Mines
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • Kyma Technologies
  • Morgan State University
  • University of Virginia

APEX is funded as an U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Energy Frontier Research Center.

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Last Updated July 2, 2025