iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
A septuagenarian Indian American professor has won the 2024 Millennium Technology Prize for his invention, the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT). Since its development in the 1980s, the IGBT has been the most important semiconductor device for making electrical energy use and petrol consumption more efficient and less polluting during the last 40 years.
Professor Bantval Jayant Baliga, 76, of North Carolina State University, United States, won the $1 million 2024 Millennium Technology Prize for his innovation that enabled a dramatic reduction of electrical energy and petrol consumption worldwide. The award recognizes Baliga’s leadership in the invention, development, and commercialization of the IGBT.
Baliga joins a prestigious list of recipients of this prize. The Millennium Technology Prize, awarded by Technology Academy Finland, honors innovations that benefit millions worldwide. By winning the prize, Baliga joins a notable list of recipients, including Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, who was the first to receive the award in 2004. Baliga will be awarded with the prize in Finland on October 30, 2024.
“The IGBT has already had and continues to have a major impact on supporting sustainability with improved living standards worldwide while mitigating environmental impact,” said Minna Palmroth, chair of the board of Technology Academy Finland. “The main solution to tackle global warming is electrification and moving to renewable energy. IGBT is the key enabling technology in addressing these issues.”
Baliga’s academic journey began at Bishop Cotton Boys’ School in Bangalore. He earned his BTech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in 1969, followed by an MS in 1971 and a PhD in 1974 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His portfolio includes 123 U.S. patents, with several of his inventions already in widespread commercial use. Among these are the split-gate power MOSFET, used in computers and servers, and silicon carbide technologies that power modern electrical systems. During his career, Baliga has received numerous honors including the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest engineering award in the United States, which he received from President Barack Obama in 2011.
The efficiency improvements and reductions of fossil fuels consumption and cost, achieved by the IGBT, revolutionized the power industry. The innovation enables the worldwide green transition and mitigation of global warming by making electrification and the use of renewable energy efficient and profitable.
The technology has reduced global carbon dioxide emissions by over 82 gigatons (180 trillion pounds) in the past 30 years. This is equivalent to setting off carbon dioxide emissions by all human activity for three years, based on the average of the past 30 years’ time frame.
The innovation is used all over the world – in all wind and solar power installations, in electric and hybrid-electric cars, in medical diagnostic machines like X-ray machines, CAT scanners, and MRI units, in microwave ovens and induction stoves, air-conditioning and refrigeration, and portable defibrillators. Today, IGBT-based power converters and inverters dominate nearly every major application with a power rating between 1kW and 10MW.
Baliga and his team are currently working on two new inventions to improve efficiency in solar power generation, electric vehicles, and power delivery for AI servers. Baliga, an electrical engineer born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, is a Progress Energy Distinguished University Emeritus Professor at North Carolina State University, United States. Baliga was described by Forbes as “the man with the world’s largest negative carbon footprint.”
“It is very exciting to have been selected for this great honor,” said Baliga, the Progress Energy Distinguished University Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University. “I am particularly happy that the Millennium Technology Prize will bring attention to my innovation, as the IGBT is an embedded technology hidden from the eyes of society. It has enabled a vast array of products that have improved the comfort, convenience, and health of billions of people around the world while reducing carbon dioxide emissions to mitigate global warming,” he added.