Affan Abbasi (left) and Riya Paul

Two electrical engineering graduate students won the highest awards in an international research competition.

Riya Paul and Affan Abbasi respectively won the Best Speech Award and Best Poster Award at the 53rd Microelectronics Symposium of the International Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging Society (iMAPS). The students were commended for their work to make electronic devices more compact and efficient. 

According to the association's website, iMAPS is considered "the largest association dedicated to the advancement and development of microelectronics and electronic packaging technology through professional education." Due to COVID-19, the 2020 International Symposium is held online.  

Paul won first place in the best student speech contest at the iMAPS 2020 seminar because of her work on the thermal benefits of pyrolytic graphite using a new material called TPG.

"TPG has a very high planar thermal conductivity, which can guide the heat generated by high-power devices to the power module cooling system," Paul said. "It reduces the junction temperature, so it can further increase the power density. In daily applications, the size of the power module and the volume of the inverter will be reduced."

As part of her research, Paul uses simulation and experimental analysis to study samples of unique materials.    

Abbasi won first place in the best student poster competition of the iMAPS 2020 seminar because he designed the gate driver in the most advanced silicon carbide 1 µm CMOS technology node and integrated it into the commercial power module to increase power density. 

"This type of research will help companies make more efficient compact power systems," he said. "For example, for an electric car, you can have a large, more efficient power system, but it will be huge, and this weight will increase the overall weight of the car. And due to the huge cost, the overall performance of the vehicle will be degraded."

Abbas said his research can reduce costs and area consumption. His work is carried out under the ARPAe CIRCUITS program.

Paul said that her research has broad significance.

"The work done here is new and has a huge operational advantage for power module packaging developers for many applications such as motor drives," Paul said. "So it is very important to release it for further work."     

Paul said that she thanked her former mentor and consultant Fang Luo, as well as her colleague Amol Deshpande and Wei Fan from TPG supplier Momentive for their support and encouragement to publish her work. 

Abbas said that this award means a lot to him and he is excited about the future. 

"This award confirms that I did a good job," he said. Affan said he thanked Asif Khandoker for his help in the speech. 

Both Abbasi and Paul are researchers at UA Power Group, a multidisciplinary research group dedicated to providing next-generation electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, grid infrastructure, and network security.

To learn more about the 53rd Microelectronics Symposium of the International Association of Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging, please visit the group's website.

Wendy Echeverria, Multimedia Specialist, Department of Electrical Engineering 479-575-3005, wechever@uark.edu

Nick DeMoss, Dean of the School of Communication, School of Engineering 479-575-5697, ndemoss@uark.edu

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