The Semikron Danfoss Innovation Award and the Semikron Danfoss Young Engineer Award is given for outstanding innovations in projects, prototypes, services or novel concepts in the field of power electronics in Europe, combined with notable societal benefits in form of supporting environmental protection and sustainability by improving energy efficiency and conservation of resources. Both prizes have been initiated in 2012 by the SEMIKRON Foundation. Semikron Danfoss is awarding the prizes in cooperation with the European ECPE Network.
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Semikron Danfoss and ECPE announced the Call for Proposals for the Semikron Danfoss Innovation and Young Engineer Prizes 2025. Both prizes will be awarded in the frame of the ECPE Annual Event in April 2025. A single person or a team of researchers can be awarded.
Winner of the Semikron Innovation Award 2023
This year, the jury decided that the SEMIKRON Innovation Award 2023 goes to Christian Mentin and his team members Thomas Langbauer, Ismail Recepi, Alexander Connaughton, Milan Pajnic, Franz Vollmaier, Werner Konrad, Philipp Matzick, Lukas Adelbrecht from Silicon Austria Labs (SAL), Austria for their “Tiny Power Box - Next Generation of EV Charging Technologies”.
Winner of the Semikron Young Engineer Award 2023
The SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award 2023 goes to Bo Yao from the Aalborg University in Denmark for his work on "A Robust kV and kA Testing Method for DC/AC Capacitors".
Winner of the Semikron Innovation Award 2022
This year the jury has decided to give the SEMIKRON Innovation Award to Stephan Wirths and the SiC R&D group of Hitachi Energy Ltd. Semiconductors team led by Lars Knoll in Lenzburg, Switzerland for their innovation regarding ‘High-k SiC Power MOSFETs for the Next Generation of E-mobility Power Modules’.
Winner of the Semirkon Young Engineer Award 2022
This year's SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award is given to Michael Basler from Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF in Freiburg, Germany for his work on ‘Monolithic Integration for GaN Power ICs’.
Winner of the Semikron Innovation Award 2021
This year the jury has decided to give the SEMIKRON Innovation Award to Dr. Tobias Geyer from ABB Medium-Voltage Drives, Switzerland to acknowledge his pioneering work in the field of Model Predictive Control awarding his innovation regarding ´Model Predictive Pulse Pattern Control´.
Winner of the Semikron Young Engineer Award 2021
This year's SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award is given to Dr. Jakub Kucka (now EPFL École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) for his work on ´Quasi-Two-Level PWM Operation for Modular Multilevel Converters´ he has conducted at the Institute for Drive Systems and Power Electronics of Leibniz University Hannover, Germany.
Winner of the Semikron Innovation Award 2020
This year the jury has decided to give the SEMIKRON Innovation Award to a research team from Aalto University in Espoo, Finland comprising Prof. Dr. Marko Hinkkanen, Dr. Seppo Saarakkala, Maksim Sokolov and Reza Hosseinzadeh for their joint work on an ´Bearingless Linear Motor Drive for Future Transportation Systems´.
Winner of the Semikron Young Engineer Award 2020
The SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award 2020 goes to Johannes Büdel from Technische Hochschule Aschaffenburg, Germany for his work on a ´Dual Two-Level Inverter for Safe, Reliable and Highly Efficient Operation of Machines with Superconductive Stator Windings´ supervised by Prof. Dr. Johannes Teigelkötter.
Winner of the Semikron Innovation Award 2019
This year, the jury decided that the SEMIKRON Innovation Award 2019 should go to two teams — André Haspel and Urs Boehme from Daimler AG in Boeblingen, Germany for their quasi-isolated converter and Johan Le Leslé and Rémy Caillaud from Mitsubishi Electric R&D Centre Europe in Rennes, France for their work on a high integration, modular 3.3kW AC/DC converter.
Winner of the Semikron Young Engineer Award 2019
The SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award 2019 goes to Andreas Bendicks from the Technical University of Dortmund for his work on "Active EMI Reduction in Power Electronic Systems by Injecting Synthesized and Synchronized Cancellation Signals" supervised by Prof. Stephan Frei.
Winner of the Semikron Innovation Award 2018
The SEMIKRON Innovation Award is given to Stefan Matlok from Frauenhofer IISB in Erlangen for his innovation in "Zero Overvoltage Switching 'ZOS' ".
Winner of the Semikron Young Engineer Award 2018
This year’s SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award has gone to the young engineer Diogo Varajão from AddVolt in Portugal for his concept "ACDC CUBE: Single-stage Bidirectional and Isolated AC-DC Matrix Converter for Battery Energy Storage Systems" which was developed at INESC TEC during his PhD research.
Winner of the Semikron Innovation Award 2017
This year’s SEMIKRON Innovation Award went to a team of three engineers: Mario Gommeringer, Johannes Kolb and Alexander Schmitt from KIT Karlsruhe. The award-winning team has developed a new innovative power electronic circuit at the Institute of Electrical Engineering (ETI) of KIT Karlsruhe that will help maximize power output in solar power generators. The new circuit known as the HILEM circuit or “High Efficiency Low Effort MPP Tracking Circuit” can be connected between any number of photovoltaic strings and a common inverter.
Winner of the Semikron Young Engineer Award 2017
This year’s SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award has gone to two young researchers. The first award winner Pierrick Ausseresse from Infineon Technologies was selected for his work on the development of a new digital IC for use in PC power supplies. The other joint winner of the Young Engineer Award is Marco Schilling from Ilmenau Technical University. Mr Schilling’s award-winning development Opti-PAC is a new, versatile tool for optimum active and passive component selection in automotive power systems such as electric drivetrains or DC/DC converters.
Winner of the Semikron Innovation Award 2016
The Semikron Innovation Award 2016 is given to Dr. Michael Schütz (Intego GmbH, Erlangen), Larissa Wehrhahn-Kilian (Infineon Technologies AG, Erlangen), Dr. Patrick Berwian (Fraunhofer IISB, Erlangen) and Dr. Michael Krieger (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg) for their innovation on ´Zero Tolerance - Silicon Carbide Device Technology for the Smart Grid of the Future´.
Winner of the Semikron Young Engineer Award 2016
The SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award 2016 is given to Mr Erik Lemmen from University of Technology Eindhoven, The Netherlands for his contributions to the development of an ´Extended Commutation Cell - A Path Towards Flexible and Reliable Multilevel Power Conversion´.
Winner of the Semikron Innovation Award 2015
This year the jury has decided to equally share the SEMIKRON Innovation Award among two candidates. Therefore, the SEMIKRON Innovation Award 2015 is given to:
Otto Kreutzer and Alexander Wirth from Fraunhofer IISB in Erlangen, Germany for their innovation on a ´Full SiC DC/DC Converter with a Power Density of more than 140 kW/dm³´.
Mickey Madsen from Technical University of Denmark, in Lyngby, Denmark for his outstanding work on an ´Efficient and Cost Effective Gate Drive for Resonant Converters Enabling Small Low-Cost Power Converters with long Lifespan´.
Winner of the Semikron Young Engineer Award 2015
The SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award 2015 is given to Mr Marco Denk from University of Bayreuth, Germany for his contributions to the development of an ´IGBT Junction Temperature Measurement within a Working Voltage Source Inverter´.
Winner of the Semikron Innovation Award 2014
The SEMIKRON Foundation and the ECPE European Center for Power Electronics e.V. jointly honoured Prof. Dr. Johann Walter Kolar, Power Electronic Systems Laboratory, ETH Zurich, Switzerland and Dr. Johann Miniböck, M-PEC Power Electronics Consulting, Austria with the SEMIKRON Innovation Award 2014 at the PCIM 2014 for their outstanding innovation on ´Multiple-Interleaved Triangular-Current-Mode Converters´.
Winner of the Semikron Young Engineer Award 2014
The SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award goes to Benjamin Zeller, Fujitsu Technology Solutions in Augsburg, Germany for his contributions to the development of a high-efficient and high volume 65W power supply on a PC mainboard.
Winner of the Semikron Foundation Award 2013
The SEMIKRON Foundation and the ECPE European Centre for Power Electronics e.V. jointly honoured the team of Michael Eberlin, Florian Reiners, Dr. Olivier Stalter, Sebastian Franz (all of Fraunhofer ISE, Freiburg) and Frank Seybold (KACO new energy) with the SEMIKRON Innovation Award 2013 at the PCIM Europe 2013 for their “Innovative Power Electronics for the next generation village energy supply“ concept.
Winner of the Semikron Young Engineer Award 2013
The SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award goes to Jordi Everts, PhD student and research assistant at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium, Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), for his concept of a “Bidirectional Isolated ZVS DAB DC-DC Converter with Ultra Wide Input and/or Output Voltage Range, being Applied in a Single-Stage PFC AC-DC Electric Vehicle Battery Charger”.
Winner of the Semikron Foundation Award 2012
The SEMIKRON Foundation and the ECPE European Centre for Power Electronics e.V. jointly honoured the team of José A. Cobos, Oscar García, Roberto Prieto, Pedro Alou, Jesús A. Oliver und Miroslav Vasić Univ. Politécnica de Madrid ) with the SEMIKRON Innovation Award 2012 at the PCIM Europe 2012 for their “RF Power Amplifier with Increased Efficiency and Bandwidth“ concept.
Winner of the Semikron Young Engineer Award 2012
The SEMIKRON Young Engineer Award goes to Lars Lindenmüller (TU Dresden), for his concept “Forced Evacuation Switch”. Lars Lindenmüller’s innovation addresses the area of high power converters for smart grids, renewable energy, and traction using high voltage IGBTs in resonant converter topologies.
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