POWERlab

Redefining power electronics, ultrafast devices and cooling with wide-bandgap semiconductors

POWERlab is a research group at EPFL led by Prof. Elison Matioli. We engineer semiconductor devices at the nanoscale to achieve breakthrough performance in power conversion, THz electronics, thermal management, and ultra-wide-bandgap materials.

Explore Our Research → Meet the Team →
2024 · ERC Advanced Grant

POWERD: Breaking traditional trade-offs in power electronics

A new groundbreaking approach to overcome current limitations in semiconductor devices, enhancing power handling and efficiency for both power and RF applications.

Nature 2023

Electronic metadevices with fT beyond 10 THz

A new class of devices based on collective electromagnetic interactions at deep subwavelength scales, achieving record-high conductance and picosecond switching.

Nature 614, pp. 451–455
Start-up · Corintis

Commercializing microfluidic cooling for data centers

Co-founded with PhD student Remco van Erp to commercialize our Nature-published in-chip cooling. Clients include the major datacenter hyperscalers and chip makers worldwide. corintis.com

Research Topics

Six frontiers of innovation

From fundamental materials physics to system-level power conversion, our research tackles the most pressing challenges in semiconductor electronics.

Wide-band-gap power devices I

Wide-Band-Gap Power Devices

Multi-channel tri-gate and slanted tri-gate GaN HEMTs with record RON of 0.46 mΩ·cm², intrinsic polarization superjunctions, and breakdown voltages up to 1300 V.

Explore →
Nanoscale THz devices II

mmWave and THz Devices

Electronic metadevices and nanoplasma switches for ultra-fast THz electronics, 6G communications, and imaging. Devices with cut-off frequencies beyond 10 THz and picosecond switching speeds.

Explore →
Microfluidic cooling of electronics III

Microfluidic Cooling of Electronics

Co-designed mMMC cooling integrated into chips. Heat fluxes exceeding 1500 W/cm², coefficient of performance surpassing 13000 — a 3× improvement over the state of the art.

Explore →
Vertical power devices and UWBG integration IV

Vertical Power Devices & UWBG Integration

First fully-vertical GaN MOSFETs on 6″ Si with record 2.0 GW/cm² BFOM, p-oxide alternatives to p-GaN, polarization-enhanced SBDs, buffer-less epitaxy, and diamond-on-GaN hetero-integration for next-generation power devices.

Explore →
High power density converters V

High-Density Power Converters

Ultra-compact liquid-cooled power converters leveraging GaN-on-GaN and monolithic integration for maximum efficiency and power density at the system level.

Explore →
Microplasma devices for chemistry and materials sciences VI

Microplasma Devices for Chemistry & Materials Sciences

On-chip nano- and micro-plasma devices for efficient chemistry, ultrafast probing of correlated materials, and chip-scale THz generation. CO2-to-CO conversion with 50% energy efficiency and watt-range THz sources.

Explore →
Key Achievements

Four pillars of impact

Major contributions to the state of the art, with publications in Nature, career advancement for students, and a spin-off serving global industry.

Multi-channel tri-gate nanowire power devices
Nature Electronics 2021 + EDL 2025
Achievement I

Multichannels for state-of-the-art power devices

We introduced multi-channel nanowire-based power transistors, vertically stacking multiple AlGaN/GaN 2DEG channels controlled by a 3D tri-gate architecture to overcome the fundamental trade-off between RON and breakdown voltage. The multi-channel heterostructure achieves a record-low Rsh of 83 Ω/sq with a carrier density of 3.9×1013 cm−2 and mobility of 1,930 cm2/V·s — nearly 4× better than conventional single-channel structures. Most recently, we demonstrated a 2.7 kV enhancement-mode multichannel GaN-on-Si device using a novel p-NiO/SiO2 junction tri-gate, achieving E-mode operation with RON of 2.8 mΩ·cm2 and negligible threshold voltage hysteresis.

0.46
mΩ·cm² RON
2.7 kV
E-mode VBR
4.6
GW/cm² FOM
Nature Electronics 2 Patents 2024 ERC Advanced IEEE EDL 2025
Microfluidic cooling
Nature 2020 + TPEL 2024
Achievement II

In-chip microfluidic cooling for ultra-efficient thermal management

We demonstrated that microfluidics and electronics can be co-designed into the same semiconductor substrate, producing a monolithically-integrated manifold microchannel cooling structure with unprecedented efficiency. When applied to a processor, this achieved a 400-fold improvement in cooling efficiency, 5× clock frequency increase, and 3× reduction in computing time.

>1500
W/cm² heat flux
400×
Cooling efficiency
Nature Spin-off: Corintis 2 Best Paper Awards Sci. American
THz nanoplasma devices
Nature 2023 + Nature 2020
Achievement III

Ultrafast electronics for THz, materials science & sustainable chemistry

We proposed two fundamentally new device concepts: electronic metadevices with cut-off frequencies beyond 10 THz, and nanoplasma switches with >10 V/ps switching speed — 100× faster than conventional transistors. The VO₂ glass-like memory (Nature Electronics 2022) opens routes to neuromorphic computing. Our micro-plasma devices achieve CO₂-to-CO conversion with 50% energy efficiency.

>10 THz
Cut-off freq.
100×
Faster than FETs
600
mW·THz² Pf²
2× Nature Nature Electronics ERC Advanced 2024 Plasma Catalysis
Vertical GaN devices
EDL 2018 (Editor's Pick) + EDL 2019
Achievement IV

Vertical GaN on silicon & ultra-wide bandgap integration

We demonstrated the first quasi-vertical GaN MOSFETs and the first fully-vertical GaN MOSFETs on 6" silicon substrates, achieving a record BFOM of 2.0 GW/cm² — 6× the highest reported value. Our buffer-less epitaxy enables high-quality GaN directly on silicon, sapphire, and novel substrates. Our vision: hetero-epitaxial integration of (Al)GaN, Ga₂O₃, and diamond to harness each material's strengths in a single device.

2.0
GW/cm² BFOM
6×
vs. State of art
820 V
Breakdown
First fully-vertical on Si Buffer-less epitaxy UWBG vision
Infrastructure

Platforms & Centers Supporting Research

State-of-the-art facilities that enable our research — from epitaxial growth to device fabrication.

EPiX — EPFL Epitaxy Core Facility

EPiX — Epitaxy Platform

EPFL’s central epitaxy platform, directed by Prof. Matioli, providing MOVPE and MBE growth capabilities for III-nitrides, III-V arsenides/phosphides, GeSi, and ZnP alloys. Houses Aixtron horizontal and close-coupled showerhead MOVPE reactors, a Riber MBE system, and advanced characterization including high-resolution XRD, C-V, and Hall effect measurements.

MOVPE MBE III-Nitrides III-V HR-XRD
Visit EPiX →
CMi — Center of MicroNanoTechnology

CMi — Cleanroom

The Center of MicroNanoTechnology (CMi) is a complex of cleanrooms and processing equipment for training and scientific experimentation devoted to users of microtechnologies. POWERlab leverages CMi’s full suite of lithography, etching, deposition, and characterization tools for the fabrication and prototyping of advanced semiconductor devices.

Lithography Dry Etching Deposition Characterization Cleanroom
Visit CMi →

POWERlab at a glance

Grants
ERC Starting Grant 2015
ERC Advanced Grant 2024
Featured in
Spin-offs
News & Highlights

Latest from POWERlab

All news →
ICNS 2025
Award 2025

ICNS 2025 Presentation Award — Amirhossein Esteghamat & Invited Talk — Cankat Gür

Best Presentation Award at the International Conference on Nitride Semiconductors for E-mode multichannel GaN-on-Si power devices, and invited talk upgrade on Enhanced RF Performance of GaN HEMTs via Displacement Field Coupling with fMAX of 420 GHz.

ERC Advanced Grant
ERC Grant 2024

ERC Advanced Grant awarded to Elison Matioli

The POWERD project aims to break traditional trade-offs in power electronics, approaching UWBG performance levels with a fundamentally new device platform.

Read more →
Gilbert Hausmann Prize
Award 2024

Gilbert Hausmann Prize — Cankat Gür

Best master's thesis in Physics, Electrical, or Mechanical Engineering at EPFL — one prize per year across the school.

TEDx Arendal
TEDx Talk 2023

TEDx Arendal: Can materials mimic the human body?

A TEDx talk on bio-inspired semiconductor device concepts for more efficient electronics.

Watch →
Electronic metadevices
Nature 2023

Electronic metadevices break barriers to ultra-fast communications

A new approach engineering metastructures at the sub-wavelength scale for 6G and beyond.

Read more →
ICNS 2023
Award 2023

ICNS 2023 Best Presentation Award — Mohammad Rezaei

Best Presentation Award at the 14th International Conference on Nitride Semiconductors (ICNS-14), 2023, on Modal Analysis of Electronic Metadevices: Understanding their ultra-high cut-off frequency.

VO2 memory material
Nature Electronics 2022

A material that can learn like the brain

VO₂ remembers the entire history of previous stimuli — the first material with this property, opening a path to neuromorphic computing.

Read more →
Corintis
Spin-off Growing

Corintis: from PhD thesis to the world

Co-founded with Remco van Erp and Sam Harrison to commercialize our in-chip cooling technology. Now serving major datacenter hyperscalers and chip makers globally.

Interview with Linus Tech
Video 2020

Interview with Linus Tech

POWERlab's research featured in an interview with Linus Tech Tips.

Watch on YouTube →
Featured work

Top publications

Nature 2020

Co-designing electronics with microfluidics for more sustainable cooling

R. van Erp, R. Soleimanzadeh, L. Nela, G. Kampitsis, E. Matioli

Nature 585, 211–216
Nature 2023

Electronic metadevices for terahertz applications

M. S. Nikoo, E. Matioli

Nature 614, 451–455
Nature 2020

Nanoplasma-enabled picosecond switches for ultra-fast electronics

M. S. Nikoo, A. Jafari, N. Perera, G. Santoruvo, E. Matioli

Nature 579, 534–539
Nature Electronics 2021

Multi-channel nanowire devices for efficient power conversion

L. Nela, J. Ma, C. Erine, P. Xiang, T.-H. Shen, V. Tileli, T. Wang, K. Cheng, E. Matioli

Nature Electronics 4, 284–290
Nature Electronics 2022

Electrical control of glass-like dynamics in vanadium dioxide

M. S. Nikoo, R. Soleimanzadeh, A. Krammer, … E. Matioli

Nature Electronics 5, 596–603
IEDM 2019

1200 V multi-channel power devices with 2.8 Ω·mm RON

J. Ma, C. Erine, M. Zhu, L. Nela, P. Xiang, K. Cheng, E. Matioli

IEEE IEDM, San Francisco
View all publications →

Join POWERlab

We have open positions for PhD students and postdocs. Work on cutting-edge GaN power devices, THz electronics, microfluidic cooling, UWBG semiconductors, and more at EPFL in Lausanne.

View Open Positions →
Funding

Supported by

We appreciate all the funding sources that contribute and enable our research.

Funding sources: ERC, ECSEL, SNF, ESA, Swiss Space Center, and more