Federal Grant Award Summary

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems awarded $300,000 to the University of Texas at Austin under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) on July 1, 2026, for collaborative research on integrated piezoelectric resonators for power conversion in transportation applications. This three-year Project Grant (completion date: June 30, 2029) supports the development of a new generation of power converters that replace bulky magnetic inductors and transformers with microfabricated piezoelectric resonators operating at megahertz frequencies. The research deliverables include fundamental design rules, validated models connecting resonator material properties and geometry to converter efficiency and scalability, and co-designed electrical and mechanical subsystems that function as an integrated energy-conversion platform capable of reducing size, weight, and energy losses in electrified vehicle and aircraft power electronics.

The project's broader impacts include advancing efficient, compact power conversion technology to accelerate adoption of clean electric vehicles and emerging electric aircraft, improving national energy efficiency, and generating openly accessible educational modules and hands-on research training. The research addresses a core bottleneck in modern power converters by establishing methodologies to overcome impedance frequency-selectivity, spurious modes, parasitics, temperature drift, and nonlinearity challenges inherent in piezoelectric acoustic resonators, thereby enabling higher power density while maintaining high efficiency and meeting stringent size and weight constraints for transportation applications.