Funding your graduate study
Tuition fees
Tuition fees are payable for each year of your course at the start of the academic year, or at the start of your course, if later. Academic fees cover the cost of tuition, examinations and registration and some student amenities. Research course fees are band 2.
Find your perfect research project here:
SiC for energy applications
I welcome enquires at all times from suitable candidates, which include anyone who has a minimum Bachelors degree of 2.1 (UK) or international equivalent qualifications. You should have an interest or experience in experimental engineering/chemistry/physics.
If you fit into this description, please read the areas of research below and contact me (vishal.shah@warwick.ac.uk) with a CV to arrange an informal chat. Depending on the time of year, there may be other funding mechanisms available for UK/EU or international students; I encourage you to search for these alongside making informal queries.
Developing next generation wet processing for Silicon Carbide power electronic devices
Funding available for UK PhD studentship for Oct 2023 Start. Supervisor: Dr Vishal Shah Industrial Sponsor: RENA Technologies.
Students must have a minimum Bachelors degree of 2.1 (UK) or international equivalent qualifications and a degree in experimental engineering/chemistry/physics.
Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor materials such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) have recently been introduced into the power electronics market in the last 5 years, with early adoption of SiC devices in hybrid and fully electric cars as the main driver of industrial uptake. Predictions state that the market will be worth $47bn by 2030 with direct relevance to achieving the green energy adoption for many governments’ net zero carbon emissions commitment.
A major argument for the adoption of SiC device manufacturing is the utilisation of mature processes used in Silicon device fabrication. Due to SiC technology’s only recent uptake some of these transferred processes have not been investigated in detail, or with a view on how it affects the device performance or reliability. In particular, wet chemical processing of SiC simply has not been developed beyond conventional wisdom. The importance of this is that SiC is a “harsh environment” material – it is very chemically resistant and requires radical new wet chemistry to improve the device technology.
Warwick University and RENA Technologies have partnered together to address this important research issue. RENA are a global supplier of wet chemistry processing equipment with a 70% market share of the Silicon wafering industry. They provide high-throughput equipment and processes for the Semiconductor, MedTech, Glass, Additive Manufacturing and Renewable Energy sectors. They have 7 manufacturing sites, 5 innovation hubs and more than 3,300 machines installed worldwide with over 1,200 employees worldwide.
In this studentship, the student will develop wet chemical processes for i) cleaning, ii) planarization, iii) functionalisation and iv) porosification of SiC in the power electronics industry. This studentship will expand on work being performed on a £100k grant won from the Henry Royce Institute, with RENA as partners. The student will learn and implement new wet chemistry with physical characterisation (e.g. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy), Raman Spectroscopy or Secondary Ion Mass spectroscopy (SIMS)). Then they will evaluate these processes in electrical characterisation of test devices and potentially in a full MOSFET device, where they will learn semiconductor device fabrication in our state of the art dedicated SiC cleanroom.
Applications are open, contact Dr Shah for an informal chat (vishal.shah@warwick.ac.uk).
The University of Warwick provides an inclusive working and learning environment, recognising and respecting every individual’s differences. We welcome applications from individuals who identify with any of the protected characteristics defined by the Equality Act 2010.