Department of Engineering / Profiles / Dr Nazareno Donato

Department of Engineering

Dr Nazareno Donato

nd391

Nazareno Donato

Senior Research Associate in Wide Bandgap Power Devices

Academic Division: Electrical Engineering

Telephone: +44 1223 748311

Email: nd391@eng.cam.ac.uk

Personal website


Research interests

Silicon is a well-established starting material that has been addressing the requirements of energy conversion for more than 50 years. In past few years, the constant development and commercialization of novel wide band-gap power semiconductor devices based on Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) has resulted in a substantial improvement compared with silicon devices in terms of a large variety of key parameters such as switching speed (dV/dt and dI/dt), specific ON state resistance(RON·S), maximum breakdown voltage (BV), maximum operating frequency (fmax) and output capacitance (Cout).  However, even though SiC and GaN can offer significant improvements at device level, questions arise as to what enhancement could be obtained at a system-level and if there is any risk in compromising the reliability of such systems.  In this complex scenario, the role of diamond is still unidentified.The lack of commercially available devices has been mainly caused by the elevated cost for the high-quality diamond substrates and the complex fabrication process required. In addition, technology issues associated to this material such as incomplete ionization of the dopants which for the n-layers could mean less effective doping charge  and the high ohmic contact resistance , have hampered the advancement of this material in power electronics applications.  Nevertheless, the state of the art diamond devices proposed in the literature suggests that the high frequency (>100kHz) and high power (>100kW) area would be the most suitable one to enable the full potential of this material, making diamond a possible competitor of GaN devices for aerospace, satellite, wireless and radar communications and of SiC for data center (DC-DC) and future very high power and frequency applications

My PhD project was mainly focused on the design and modelling of Wide BandGap semiconductors devices and circuits with a special focus on Diamond and 4H-SiC for power electronic applications.

During my PhD, I was also a member of the GreenDiamond EU project , which aimed to fabricate the first high power electronic device with diamond that is competitive with incumbent wide-band-gap semiconductor materials and technologies, opening new commercial and industrial opportunities. Throughout my PhD I have collaborated with several industrial (ABB/Hitachi Energy) and academic partners on many research projects involving TCAD design of power semiconductor devices but also electro-thermal analysis of power modules and discrete devices, mainly focusing on the design and optimisation of advanced SiC power JBS/Schottky diodes and MOSFETs for medium-high power applications (1.2 kV-6.5 kV).

I am currently holding a position as Senior power semiconductor engineer at Cambridge Microelectronics Ltd. and I am a Senior Research Associate within the HVMS Group of Prof. Florin Udrea where I am responsible for R&D activities (design, simulations, and experimental characterisation) of wide/ultra-wide bandgap (SiC, GaN, Ga2O3, AlN) and Silicon (Si) power semiconductor devices and circuits.

Department role and responsibilities