Next-generation Digital Infrastructure Construction

Increasingly electrified and digitalized society can realize Carbon Neutrality in all fields including manufacturing, services, transportation, and infrastructure. Therefore, the semiconductor/information and communication industries, as a foundation for digitization and electrification, are the key to advancing green and digital initiatives at the same time.

Power semiconductors are used to control various electrical products related to everyday life, such as automobiles and industrial equipment, electric power generation and railways, and home appliances.
To realize a carbon-neutral society, the energy efficiency of such electric devices is extremely important. Demand is expected to increase with the development of electric and digital technologies in the following areas:
1. Medium-capacity electric vehicles, 2. Large-capacity renewable energy power generation systems, and 3. Power supplies for small-capacity data centers.

Moreover, data flows are increasing rapidly (at an annual rate of approximately 30%), resulting in a steady expansion in the market for data center servers. Because of this rapid increase in large-scale data centers, power consumption for all data centers is expected to increase, and thecurrent pace of power reduction of technological evolution will not be able to keep pace with increases in power consumption.

In the field of IoT sensing, large volumes of data are sent from sensors and other edge devices to the cloud. However, if the current approach continues, the increased data is expected to place a greater load on networks and lead to higher power consumption. As a result, edge computing technology, which enables efficient data processing for edge devices, is gaining traction.

The aim of this project, therefore, is by 2030 to: reduce the power loss of next-generation power semiconductors by more than 50%, reduce the cost of such semiconductors to a level similar to that of silicon(Si) power semiconductors, improve data center efficiency by over 40%, and develop edge computing technologies to achieve a 40% reduction in power consumption of the entire system.

Focusing on power semiconductors, which are the key to power conservation, we will work on (1) the development of innovative devices and modules using compound materials (SiC, GaN) and (2) the development of large diameter SiC wafers. By enhancing the performance, efficiency, and cost competitiveness of power semiconductors, we aim to accelerate their widespread adoption and promote energy savings.

Through innovative photonics-electronics convergence technology that converts electrical wiring in servers to optical wiring, etc., we aim to achieve energy savings of 40% or more, compared with existing data centers in FY2021.

We aim to develop edge computing technologies at the device level in order to reduce total system power consumption by 40%. In parallel, we seek to promote digital transformation (DX) by building an application development platform that allows diverse end users to easily access and utilize these technologies.