Mitsubishi showing new power modules line for EV

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced today new J1-Series high-power semiconductor modules featuring compact 6-in-1 packages mainly for use in electric and hybrid vehicles.

Power modules for automobiles must deliver higher reliability than industrial-use modules due to the extremely high standards for vehicle safety. Mitsubishi Electric pioneered the mass production of power modules for hybrid vehicles in 1997, and since then the demand for these modules has grown in parallel with the expanding global market for electric and hybrid vehicles. The new high-power J1-Series modules feature compact packages with small footprints, low power loss and high reliability for use in the inverters of electric and hybrid vehicles.

Sale Schedule

Series Model Specifications Shipment
J1-Series CT1000CJ1B060 650V/1000A
(6-in-1 package)		 Oct. 2015
CT600CJ1B120 1200V/600A
(6-in-1 package)		 Dec. 2015
Features of Sample Products:
  1. Extra-compact package for automotive inverters
    • The 6-in-1 package design shrinks inverter footprint to about 60% of six 2-in-1 J-Series T-PM (CT300DJH120) inverters.
  2. Low power loss and high reliability for automotive power train
    • Seventh-generation CSTBTTM chip technology enables collector-emitter saturation voltage to be reduced by about 10% compared to 2-in-1 J-Series T-PM (CT300DJH120) chips.
    • Direct cooling package with cooling fin improves heat radiation by about 30% compared to 2-in-1 J-Series T-PM (CT300DJH120) mounting power modules on Al fin by way of thermal grease.
  3. Suppresses surge voltage through internal inductance reduction
    • Low-inductance package adopted for high-frequency switching applications.
    • Internal inductance reduced by about 30% compared to 2-in-1 J-Series T-PM (CT300DJH120).

 

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GaNSystems backed by Chinese investors

GaN Systems Inc., the leading developer of gallium nitride power switching semiconductors, today announced a USD$20 Million venture capital financing. Cycle Capital Management led the round and was joined by BDC Capital and Beijing-based Tsing Capital, as well as existing investors Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital and RockPort Capital. As GaN Systems’ customers launch multiple consumer and enterprise products designed with its gallium nitride (GaN) transistors, this financing will enable the company to ramp up sales and marketing support for its rapidly growing international customer base and to continue manufacturing line expansion. GaN-based transistors are increasingly positioned to disrupt the $15 Billion power transistor market, and GaN Systems is one of the clear leaders in realizing this potential.

The company’s innovative Island Technology® results in devices that are smaller and more efficient than traditional silicon design approaches. Its products enable previously unseen switching efficiencies that lead to more sustainable energy use and increased power efficiency, while reducing costs and environmental impacts of some of the world’s fastest growing industries. GaN Systems’ breakthrough power electronics transistors can be used for a wide range of applications, from more efficient data centers and solar inverters, to thinner TVs, smaller more powerful motors, longer range electric vehicles (EVs), and a multitude of other consumer, enterprise, industrial and transportation applications.

“By dramatically increasing power electronics efficiency while reducing resource consumption and environmental impacts, GaN Systems’ innovative Island Technology is emerging as the leading solution for the power semiconductor industry which now faces a major shakeup. We see great value in supporting a company that is well on its way to becoming a leader in this multi-billion dollar market. This deal was led by Cycle Capital’s Managing Partner Claude Vachet and our semiconductor seasoned investment team, and we are very excited to welcome GaN Systems as the newest addition to our portfolio,”

said Andrée-Lise Méthot, Founder and Managing Partner at Cycle Capital.

“With a long history of cleantech venture capital investing in China, we are pleased to add GaN Systems to our portfolio of energy efficiency companies. China represents one of the largest and fastest growing markets for power electronics globally, and we look forward to helping support GaN Systems’ expansion and product delivery,”

added Michael Li, Managing Partner at Tsing Capital. “We are delighted to welcome a diverse group of investors who collectively will provide critical financing, strategic advice, and additional entry points into growth markets while we establish GaN Systems as a recognized leader in the power semiconductor market,” said Jim Witham, CEO of GaN Systems.

“As I visit customers around the world, they are showing me how our technology is enabling more efficient products that are one quarter the size and one quarter the weight, as well as entirely new products that could only be achieved with our super-high speed switches.”

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AMAT and TEL broke their marriage

Applied Materials, Inc.  and Tokyo Electron Limited today announced that they have agreed to terminate their Business Combination Agreement (BCA). No termination fees will be payable by either party.

The decision came after the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) advised the parties that the coordinated remedy proposal submitted to all regulators would not be sufficient to replace the competition lost from the merger. Based on the DoJ’s position, Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron have determined that there is no realistic prospect for the completion of the merger.

“We viewed the merger as an opportunity to accelerate our strategy and worked hard to make it happen,” said Gary Dickerson, president and chief executive officer of Applied Materials.

“While we are disappointed that we are not able to pursue this path, our existing growth strategy is compelling. We have been relentlessly driving this strategy forward and we have made significant progress towards our goals. We are delivering results and gaining share in the semiconductor and display equipment markets, while making meaningful advances in areas that represent the biggest and best growth opportunities for us.

“I would like to thank our employees for their focus on delivering results throughout this process. As we move forward, Applied Materials has tremendous opportunities to leverage our differentiated capabilities and technology in precision materials engineering and drive a significant increase in the value we create for our customers and investors.”

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VisIC announces 650V GaN devices

VisIC Technologies, Ltd., a technology-leading developer of gallium nitride power switching semiconductors, is proud to announce their first normally OFF gallium nitride (GaN) power switch. Using VisIC’s gallium nitride power transistors, the ALL-Switch (Advanced Low-Loss Switch) will provide the fastest power-switching devices available amongst all low resistance switching components. ALL-Switch will be used in a range of customer applications including photovoltaic inverters, UPS, hybrid electric vehicles/electric vehicles and high voltage DC-DC conversion.

Tamara Baksht (PhD), CEO and founder of VisIC Technologies, said:

“We are very excited to soon be able to sample our products to OEMs. With the combinations of our technology and the cost of GaN on Si, we see ourselves able to meet our goal to deliver GaN performance to OEMs at Silicon MOSFET prices. This is the long awaited “game-changer” for GaN in power conversion devices. Delivering this promise to the very large 650V applications space will rapidly expand the use of GaN-based components since GaN also provides the efficiency gains, cost reductions and size reductions OEMs want to deliver to their customers in systems currently using Silicon IGBTs and MOSFETs.”

VisIC Technologies Ltd is a GaN fabless semiconductor company. VisIC Technologies was founded by Dr. Tamara Baksht (PhD) and Gregory Bunin, physicists who previously developed GaN-based RF components in the Israeli defense industry.

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Infineon acquiring the other share of LS Power Semitech

Infineon today announced that it has purchased all outstanding shares of LS Power Semitech Co., Ltd., a company established in 2009 as a joint-venture of Infineon and LS Industrial Systems in Korea. The strategic acquisition increases Infineon’s global footprint in the market segment of Intelligent Power Modules (IPM).

“Power electronics is a cornerstone of our commitment to address the global challenge of energy efficiency,” said Dr. Helmut Gassel, Division President Industrial Power Control.

“Functional integration is one of the key trends in this industry – with our increased engagement in IPMs we will participate in a fast growing and highly attractive market. Companies we supply in these markets are positive about our strategic approach to move from product thinking towards system understanding.”

Growth in the IPM product segment is a result of the worldwide trend for greater energy efficiency in consumer appliances as well as light industrial drive applications. Depending on the application, variable speed motors using IPMs consume only approximately half of the energy than simple on/off motors. In appliances such as refrigerators, the efficiency gained by using one or more variable speed motors allows reduction in the amount of insulation required for the enclosure, which improves design flexibility while reducing material costs.

IPM products combine power semiconductors (IGBTs in this case) and integrated circuit (IC) components in high reliability and compact single package devices.

In the US, the trend towards higher energy efficiency has been fueled by new US Department of Energy standards aimed at reducing the energy consumption of refrigerators and freezers by at least 10 percent. In Korea, leading manufacturers have started to exclusively make goods with variable speed electric motors controlled by IPMs. The majority of these products are being exported to the global market. Energy efficiency in Europe is propelled by the EU regulation which demands an energy label for home appliances in all member states.

Following the acquisition of International Rectifier, which offers a highly complementary portfolio of IPMs, the acquisition of the outstanding shares in LS Power Semitech represents a strategic move to provide customers worldwide with optimized and unique system offerings.

LS power semitech infineon joint venture creation

Archive picture of the JV creation in 2009 – Courtesy of LS Power semitech

Founded in 2009, LS Power Semitech is a Korea-based supplier of IPMs with Infineon originally holding a 46 percent share of the joint venture with LS Industrial Systems. Infineon previously increased its ownership to 66 percent in June 2014. With its headquarter and development activities based in Seoul and its manufacturing site located at Cheonan, Korea, LS Power Semitech is well positioned to serve the large domestic Korean, Chinese and global consumer white goods markets, serving all major brands in home appliances.

 

Source: Infineon official

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Mersen shows a hot-plug Power stack demonstrator

Mersen will exhibit a demo of a  KVA 3-phase power stack showcasing state-of-the-art integration technologies at next PCIM Europe 2015 19-21 May Nürnberg, Germany.

Their vision for Integrated Architecture drove them to customize a full plug-and-play modular multi connection system, enabling Power Stack rack-mounting with hot-plug capability.  This results in a front and backplane that connect at the same time high-current signals (Vdc and U, V, W phases), low-current signals (GDU control and monitoring) as well as water inlets and outlets.

Mersen agileswitch electronic concepts Fuji electric staubli powerstack power electronics stack converter

Mersen’s integrated architecture approach helps inverter designers save time by optimizing the selection of key components, benefiting from a solution that is pre-designed for their specific application. Busbar, fuses, cooling, gate-drivers, capacitors, connectors can be now optimally designed together, in one step to meet electrical, mechanical and thermal challenges of the system.

Mersen’s Integrated Power Stack Demonstrator is built around a 3-phase, 1,100V DC-bus, 57×37 cm² conversion stack which is powered by three modules 1.7kV/650A IGBTs. Mersen has developed an efficient vacuum-brazed aluminum water-cooled heat sink to cool the electronics as well as a multi-layer laminated “smart busbar” with embedded small-signal control connector to power the components. The Power Stack is protected by two Power Semiconductor Protection fuses at the DC input terminals. Both a small form-factor and a high integration level are also achieved thanks to highly compact capacitor bank with several thousands of µF at high DC voltage.

Mersen’s philosophy being: “Design, driven by function not by component”

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Chinese manufacturer Hua-Hong now producing 700V BCD MOS

Today, Hua Hong Semiconductor, a pure-play 200mm foundry, announced that it has achieved mass production of its new-generation ultra-high voltage 0.5um 700V BCD series process platform with over 98% yield. This process platform mainly focuses on the applications of green energy such as AC-DC converters and LED lighting.

While maintaining the original cost advantage of at least 12 pieces per 1P1M (1 poly layer and 1 metal layer), the new process further integrates 7.5V CMOS, 20V/40V medium-voltage LDMOS and 200V to 700V high-voltage power LDMOS for a broader scope of ultra-high voltage options to meet the needs of different voltage applications. This solution can provide difference-oriented Junction Field-Effect Transistor (JFET) and high-voltage resistance devices for start-up circuits as well as a lot of other options.

“Hua Hong Semiconductor’s ultra-high voltage 700V BCD technology caters for the trend of energy saving. Supported by this process platform, the high-voltage, low-current LED lighting drivers have a very broad market prospect”

said Dr. Kong Weiran, Executive Vice President of Hua Hong Semiconductor,

“We intend to continue to further enhance our advanced and differentiated process technology portfolio applied to LED lighting to manufacture high-performance, cost-effective LED driver ICs. In the future, we will expand our advanced power management platform to offer a comprehensive suite of cost-effective solutions for customers.”

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EPC corp. is “relaxing” Gallium Nitride pitch

EPC corp. announce the extension of their power transistor portfolio with a high performance, wider pitch chip-scale package for ease of high volume manufacturing and enhanced compatibility with mature manufacturing processes and assembly lines.

 

The first in a new family of “Relaxed Pitch” devices,  the  EPC2029 80 V, 31 A eGaN  FET features a 1 mm bal l pitch.  The wider pitch allows for placement of additional and larger vias under the device to enable high current carrying capability despite the extremely small 4.6 mm x 2.6 mm footprint.

Compared to state-of-the art silicon power MOFSETs with similar on-resistance, the EPC2029 is smaller and has many times superior switching performance.  TheEPC2029 is ideal for applications such as high frequency DC-DC converters, synchronous rectification in DC/DC and AC/DC converters, motor drives, and class-D audio.

To simplify the evaluation process of this latest high performance eGaN FET, the EPC9046 development board, featuring two EPC2029 eGaN FETs in a half-bridge topology with onboard gate drive is available.  TheEPC9046 allows for easy “in circuit” performance evaluation of the EPC2029 by including all critical components and is laid out for optimal switching performance with additional area to add buck output filter components.

The new 80 V EPC2029 and corresponding development board EPC9046 are both available for immediate delivery from Digi-Key.

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1 million Euros R&D for GaN nano-structures use in Power Electronics

Tyndall National Institute has partnered with US and Northern Irish research institutes to secure €1 million in funding to develop new ways of harnessing converted electricity. The Nano-GaN Power Electronic Devices project has the potential to have a global impact across the entire power electronics industry.

The Nano-GaN Power Electronic Devices project will seek to improve the efficiency of converting electrical power by up to 25%.

Working with Gallium Nitride (GaN), used in LED lightbulbs, Wireless communications and more and more in power electronics, the collaborators from Tyndall National Institute, Cork, Illinois Institute of Technology and Queens University Belfast, will look to stabilise the material so it can be used to convert high voltages to more manageable levels, without the current high energy losses. The new technology is expected to be particularly impactful on the development of electric and hybrid vehicles.

Commenting on the announcement, Prof Peter Parbrook, Stokes Professor of Nitride Materials & Devices at Tyndall National Institute stated:

“This will be the first time nanostructures using Gallium Nitride will be used for power electronics. We will attempt to bend out material’s defects, making it more stable and hence more reliable in the conversion process. It has the potential to produce significant energy saving efficiencies that will be benefit people in the home and at work.”

Nano-GaN is funded through the US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme, a single-proposal, single-review mechanism, which supports tri-jurisdictional projects. The project will employ four new post-doctorate positions across the three partners.

The US-Ireland Collaborative Research on Nano-GaN Power Electronic Devices GaNnano will be led by Prof Peter Parbrook and Anne-Marie Kelleher in Tyndall; Prof. John Shen at the Illinois Institute of Technology; and Dr Miryam Arredondo-Arechavala of Queens University Belfast.

Project Investigators at a meeting in Tyndall, with the growth tool to be used to prepare the GaN materials for the device programme.

About Tyndall National Institute
Established with a mission to support industry and academia in driving research to market, Tyndall National Institute is one of Europe’s leading research centres in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) research and development and the largest facility of its type in Ireland. Established in 2004 as a successor to the National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC founded in 1982) at University College Cork, the Institute employs over 460 researchers, engineers and support staff, with a full-time graduate cohort of 135 students generating over 200 peer-reviewed publications each year.

With a network of 200 industry partners and customers worldwide, Tyndall generates around €30M income each year, 85% from competitively won contracts nationally and internationally. Tyndall is also a lead partner in European research partnerships in its core areas of ICT, communications, energy, health and the environment worth €44M, including €6M accruing to industry in Ireland (from Framework 7). Hosting the only full CMOS (metal oxide semiconductor) integrated circuit construction, Micro Electronic Mechanical systems (MEMS) and III-V Wafer Semiconductor fabrication facilities and services in Ireland, Tyndall is capable of prototyping new product opportunities for its target industries – electronics, medical devices, energy and communication. Tyndall is a globally leading Institute in its four core research areas of Photonics, Microsystems, Micro/Nanoelectronics and Theory, Modeling and Design. Tyndall is the lead institution for the Science Foundation Ireland funded Irish Photonics Integration Centre (IPIC)

www.tyndall.ie

About US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme
The US-Ireland Research and Development Partnership, launched in July 2006, is a unique initiative involving funding agencies across three jurisdictions: United States of America (USA), Republic of Ireland (RoI) & Northern Ireland (NI). Under the US-Ireland R&D Partnership programme, a ‘single-proposal, single-review’ mechanism is facilitated by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) who accept submissions from tri-jurisdictional (USA, NI and ROI) teams to a number of their existing funding programmes.  All proposals submitted under the auspices of the Partnership must have significant research involvement from researchers in all three jurisdictions.

As part of this funding process, the governments and relevant research funding agencies within the Partnership contribute to the research costs of researchers based in their jurisdictions.  The partner agencies in the USA are the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  The partner agencies in RoI are Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Health Research Board (HRB).  In Northern Ireland, the Health & Social Care R&D Division (HSC R&D) supports health-related projects, while the Department for Employment and Learning Northern Ireland (DELNI), and Invest Northern Ireland (InvestNI) support projects related to Sensors & Sensor Networks, Nanoscale Science & Engineering, Telecommunications, and Energy & Sustainability.  InvestNI and DELNI support health-related projects in the area of Sensors & Sensor Networks and Nanoscale Science & Engineering.

http://www.sfi.ie/funding/funding-calls/open-calls/us-ireland-rd-partnership-programme.html

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Amantys, the Gate driver innovator ran out of business

Amantys, the UK based Gate driver manufacturer ran out of business on March 2nd this year.

Amantys was a highly innovative company developing a new type of power module gate drivers for 1200V to 3.3kV power modules from Infineon or Fuji electric. Gate drivers are the PCB and devices that helps driving the IGBTs, which require a specific amount of current to be correctly triggered.

The initial idea was to harness the possibilities offered by digital control of power modules. They were in competition with AgileSwitch which partnered with Methode, Fuji electric and SBE to go up in the food-chain and deliver powerstacks.

They were manufacturing and selling Gate drivers for power modules in direct competition with CT-concept (acquired by Power Integrations in 2012), which olds more than 60% share of the Gate drivers open market. Their R&D department was, on the other side, actively developing drivers for Wide Band Gap semiconductor.

They were working hand in hand with the main Gallium nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) power device companies and especially start-up companies. They produced IP and patents together with a high knowledge about driving wide band gap semiconductors.

They could not manage to survive until these devices began to be widely used. Today’s GaN and SiC markets are just taking off. GaN devices require specific drivers as they are normally on devices in a Cascode assembly, or Normally-off devices called Gate Injection Transistor as developed by Panasonic.

 

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ON Semiconductor and Transphorm partner to deliver GaN-Based power modules

ON Semiconductor Corp., and Transphorm have announced a newly formed partnership to co-develop and co-market gallium nitride (GaN) based products and power system solutions for a variety of high voltage applications in the industrial, computing, telecom and networking sectors.

This strategic partnership leverages strengths inherent in both companies:

  • Transphorm is recognized as the first company to bring to market production qualified 600 volt (V) GaN on silicon transistors and has unrivalled experience working with this advanced technology.
  • ON Semiconductor is a leading supplier of energy efficient power solutions, provides significant expertise in system design, and offers an impressive portfolio that ranges from power discretes, high performance AC/DC controllers and integrated switchers to full custom ASIC power management solutions.

For power applications, GaN has been shown to deliver significant performance advantages compared to silicon based devices. The new generations of packaged products currently being co-developed by ON Semiconductor and Transphorm will provide reliable, qualified solutions that will enable designers to achieve previously unobtainable levels of efficiency and power density.

“ON Semiconductor clearly recognizes the inherent benefits that GaN technology can bring to the power electronics market and we are excited about partnering with a recognized and proven leader in this area in addition to pursuing our own GaN development work,”

said Bill Hall, executive vice president and general manager of ON Semiconductor’s Standard Products Group. “This important new collaboration strategically combines our impressive power system solution capabilities with Transphorm’s GaN expertise. Together we can bolster customer confidence in this new technology and accelerate broad market adoption.”

“Partnering with a leading power semiconductor company like ON Semiconductor reaffirms Transphorm’s GaN leadership and will provide our customers a broader set of GaN based products and solutions,” said Fumihide Esaka, CEO of Transphorm.

“This relationship is not only significant for faster penetration of GaN in the marketplace but also meaningful for the entire power conversion industry.”

The first co-developed solutions based on 600 V GaN transistors are expected to be available for sampling before the end of 2014. These solutions will address high power density applications in the 200 W to 1000 W power range for compact power supplies and adapters addressing the telecom and server markets. Under the terms of the partnership, the co-developed packaged transistor products will include low voltage MOSFET silicon from ON Semiconductor for the cascoded switch, and proven GaN high voltage High-Electron-Mobility Transistors (HEMT) from Transphorm. Co-packaging, assembly and test of the devices will be done at ON Semiconductor production facilities.

Power system reference designs will be provided to customers, enabling implementation of new solutions with GaN-based transistors and the high performance AC/DC controllers required to take full advantage of the technical benefits of GaN devices.

Source

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Infineon is back in the GaN race, thanks to Panasonic

Infineon Technologies and Panasonic Corporation have announced an agreement under which both companies will jointly develop Gallium nitride (GaN) devices based on Panasonic’s normally-off (enhancement mode) GaN on silicon transistor structure integrated into Infineon’s surface-mounted device (SMD) packages. In this context Panasonic has provided Infineon with a license of its normally-off GaN transistor structure.

This agreement will enable each company to manufacture GaN devices. Customers will have the added advantage of having two possible sources for compatible packaged GaN power switches

A setup not available for any other GaN on silicon device so far. Both parties have agreed not to disclose any further details of the contract. For the first time the companies will showcase samples of a 600V 70mΩ device in a DSO  (Dual Small Outline) package at the trade show Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition(APEC), which will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, March 15-19, 2015.

GaN on silicon has been receiving significant attention as one of the next compound semiconductor technologies that will on the one hand enable high power density and therefore a smaller footprint (e.g., for power supplies and adapters), and on the other hand serve as a major key for energy efficiency improvement. In general, power devices based on GaN on silicon technology can be used in a wide range of fields, from high voltage industrial applications such as power supplies in server farms (a potential application of the showcased 600V GaN device) to low voltage applications such as DC-DC conversion (e.g., in high-end consumer goods).

GaN power device application in laptop chargers has been highlighted in our blog article: Is GaN’s power devices future in Laptop chargers.

 

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