A team led by Arkansas Power Electronics International has won a 2014 R&D 100 award for the development of a battery charger for the Toyota Prius. A collaborative research partnership, the project includes four other entities — Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc., the National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission, an academic research center based at the University of Arkansas; Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Cree Inc. The collaboration is funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency in the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Mixed-Signal group worked closely with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Cree to develop the first fully-integrated gate drivers in Silicon Carbide in support of this effort.
In 2009, APEI received its first R&D 100 award for a high-temperature silicon carbide power module that was the result of a collaboration with the University of Arkansas and Rohm Co. Ltd. The module can greatly reduce the size and volume of power electronic system.