Innovate UK Driving the Electric Revolution (DER) Project PE2M completion after 3 years of collaboration

And that’s a wrap for DER PE2M project, nearly 3 years of teamwork that brought together vision, ambition and passion. In late December 2024, the project was successfully completed and CIL is very proud and grateful to have been able to be a part of it.

Project PE2M is about restructuring the UK supply chain for power electronics modules for aerospace (and other) industries, in response to the increased need for power system integration to support the electrification of aircraft. This change will be facilitated by the introduction of power electronics modules containing Silicon Carbide (SiC) & Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductors by packaging using thermoplastic encapsulants.

In project PE2M, a new UK focused supply chain will be assembled to demonstrate the benefits of the thermoplastic encapsulation technology and the opportunities which this approach creates for suppliers, and users in aerospace.

One key advantage is that end users will be able to integrate their power electronic systems more easily through the use of specific modules, and this will support the electrification of the aerospace sector from more Electric aircraft, to hybrid, hydrogen and All Electric aircraft.

SHOWCASE DEMONSTRATOR EVENT WITH ALL PROJECT PARTNERS AT CIL's BP2 SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGING FACILITY

Project Partners:

Ultrawise Innovation
Tribus-D
The University of Warwick
DZP Technologies
Custom Interconnect
HPM
Bioniqs

CIL have heavily invested, designed, develop and optimised innovative and unique manufacturing processes required to produce high performance SiC & GaN power modules for electric vehicle applications. Focusing on silver sinter die attach and high pressure AMB to baseplate attach, all developed to minimise thermal impedance and increase overall system performance. High pressure sintering was also employed to attach copper clips in place of historical wire bonds for high current paths. Typically, wire bonds in these paths have been shown to fail in service over prolonged use, with sintered copper clips greatly improving product robustness and life expectancy. This project combined with other “Net Zero” projects and CIL’s existing commercial customers resulted in CIL creating its BP2 facility which opened in June 2023. This 64,000sq ft facility already houses a 15,000sq ft Class 7 Cleanroom and a further 12,000sq ft high volume SMT PCBA assembly and test area with further room for expansion. The BP2 facility houses the UK largest Semiconductor packaging facility which today finds itself manufacturing SiC and GaN power modules as well as CIL’s expanding Si device packaging. This project in combination with APC15@FutureBEV with BMW and APC20 EleVAIT with JLR, confirmed CIL's place as the UK's principle wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor packaging facility. CIL is at the very forefront of SiC and GaN packaging both a die stage and PCBA level. The DER PE2M project played a role in creating CIL and the UK’s largest Semiconductor packaging facility.