Silicon Carbide (SiC) Packaging Prize

Silicon Carbide (SiC) Packaging Prize

Funds teams delivering high impact prototypes with milestone support for Silicon Carbide Packaging Prize Competition in energy systems, semiconductors, and photonics.

The Silicon Carbide (SiC) Packaging Prize is a $2.25 million prize competition administered through the DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) via the American-Made Challenges platform on HeroX, targeting innovation in silicon carbide power electronics packaging for solar inverters and grid-connected power conversion applications. Silicon carbide is a wide-bandgap semiconductor that enables inverters and power converters to operate at higher voltages, higher temperatures, and higher switching frequencies than conventional silicon devices, reducing energy losses and component size in photovoltaic systems and grid interconnects. The prize was confirmed as actively open for new entries on the HeroX American-Made Challenges platform as of May 2026, making it one of the few SETO-affiliated funding opportunities confirmed open amid broader solar program pauses under the current administration.

The $2.25 million total prize pool is distributed across competition phases with specific milestone awards; detailed prize structure, eligibility requirements, submission format, and judging criteria are published on the HeroX prize page and were not fully extracted at the time of research cataloging. The prize is open to a broad applicant pool: for-profit companies, nonprofits, universities, research organizations, and individual inventors are all eligible, with U.S. registration required. Unlike a cooperative agreement or grant, prize competitions award cash upon demonstrated performance against a published rubric, not milestone-based reimbursement, meaning contestants bear upfront costs and receive payment only upon qualifying.

Applicants should register and submit entries via the HeroX platform (herox.com/American-Made-Challenges) rather than through grants.gov or EERE Exchange. Given that the broader American-Made Solar Prize Round 8 was in judging with no Round 9 announced as of May 2026, the SiC Packaging Prize represents a narrow but confirmed window. Competitors with packaging expertise in SiC devices — thermal management, electrical interconnects, encapsulants, or reliability testing — are most likely to advance. Applicants should verify the prize remains open before committing engineering resources, as prize competitions can close without advance notice.