About Us

The performance and reliability of power semiconductor devices are governed by a transition region only a few nanometers wide, where the semiconductor meets the gate dielectric. At the Power Device Interface Technology Laboratory, we work primarily on SiC power devices, covering the development of gate dielectric formation processes, the electrical and optical characterization of interface traps, and the analysis of the underlying physics through physical modeling and computation.

Our strength lies in completing the full research cycle — Process, Probe, Physics: creating the interface, measuring it, and explaining it — in-house, from start to finish. By moving continuously between experiment and analysis, we pursue original research that translates into better performance and reliability in power devices.

Toyama is home to a dense cluster of companies working in semiconductor devices, semiconductor production equipment, and electronic components. Through research on gate dielectric deposition, interface control, measurement, and data analysis, we aim to develop next-generation semiconductor technologies and to train researchers and engineers who will support Toyama’s semiconductor industry.

 

Power Device Interface

Power semiconductor devices sit at the heart of efficient energy conversion and control — in electric vehicles, railway systems, renewable-energy systems, industrial equipment, and data centers. SiC devices in particular are being adopted as the next generation, cutting power losses and enabling smaller, more efficient power-conversion systems.

What ultimately limits their performance and reliability is a region only a few nanometers wide: the boundary between SiC and the gate dielectric. Defects there capture and emit carriers over time scales spanning many orders of magnitude, degrading channel mobility and destabilizing the threshold voltage. Our laboratory forms this interface, characterizes it experimentally, and uncovers the physical mechanisms that govern its behavior.

For more on our research, please see the Research page.

VISION

We aim to build the interface-control technologies — and the physical understanding behind them — that will let power semiconductor devices meet the demands of the next ten to twenty years.

  • Advance the efficiency of power electronics and the realization of a carbon-neutral society through interface-control technology developed at Toyama Prefectural University.
  • Pursue original research made possible by our own combination of process, measurement, and physical modeling.
  • Educate engineers and researchers who can create new value for the local community and for Toyama’s semiconductor industry.