Tag Archive for: power module

ExaGaN turns to consumer applications with a GaN IC

The French start-up Exagan, based in Grenoble and Toulouse, is launching its G-FET power transistors and G-DRIVE intelligent fast-switching solution, featuring an integrated driver and transistor in a single package. The firm claims that the GaN-based devices are easy to design into electronic products, paving the way for fast chargers that comply with the USB power delivery (PD) 3.0 type C standard while providing exceptional power performance and integration.

Exagan is showcasing the use of its high-power-density GaN-on-silicon devices to create ultra-fast, efficient and small 45-65W chargers, including demonstrating its electrical-converter expertise and how both the G-FET and G-DRIVE can benefit new converter product designs and their applications.

“The market potential for our products is enormous including all portable electronic devices as well as homes, restaurants, hotels, airports, automobiles and more,”

reckons president & CEO Frédéric Dupont. “In the near future, users will be able to quickly charge their smart phones, tablets, laptops and other devices simply by plugging a standard USB cable into a small, generic mobile charger.”

The ability of USB type C ports to serve as universal connections for the simultaneous transfer of electrical power, data and video is leading to tremendous growth.

Aiming to accelerate the power electronics industry’s adoption of cost-effective GaN-based solutions for the charger market, Exagan uses 200mm GaN-on-Si wafers, achieving highly cost-efficient high-volume manufacturing. The firm is now sampling its fast, energy-efficient devices to key customers while ramping up production to begin volume shipments of G-FET and G-DRIVE products.

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ROHM plans to expand silicon carbide production capacity

Kyoto based semiconductor manufacturer ROHM, plans a new production building at its Apollo plant in Chikugo, Japan. The expanded production capacity is intended to meet the growing demand for silicon carbide (SiC) power devices.

The global SiC market is forecasted to exceed $1bn by 2021. The largest share comprises power supply applications, such as PV inverters, EV fast chargers and on-board chargers among other main power electronics applications.

Rohm started mass production of SiC power devices:  Schottky diodes and MOSFETs, in 2010. It’s the first supplier to produce complete SiC power modules and SiC trench MOSFETs. Rohm is considered as a Silicon Carbide leader in the Power Electronics world, where it was not a Silicon power devices (IGBT & MOSFET) leader.

Rohm SiC fab Apollo new builidng

The new three levels building at Apollo will increase production area by about 11,000m². Construction work is scheduled to begin in February 2019 and be completed by the end of 2020.

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Denso to invest in GaO start-up FLOSFIA

FLOSFIA is a start-up working on a new wide band gap material: Gallium-Oxide. It’s a spin-off from Kyoto University created in 2013. The company develops what they call a “α-type” Gallium-oxide structure. Professor Shizuo Fujita from Kyoto University developed first this new material. It provides a band gap of 5.3eV, much wider than other semiconductor wide band gap material. You can find more information about FLOSFIA in our last news on the subject.

Today Denso, one of the largest automotive equipment suppliers, announced they will invest in FLOSFIA in C series funding. Denso is the main supplier of Toyota. They helped develop the well-know and established hybrid system in Toyota Prius, Camry or other Lexus hybrid cars.

According to Denso, this material can provide better efficiency, cost, size and weight for Electric Vehicle in the future. At the time Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) are finally hitting market with the first wide band gap based converters, Denso is already looking at the next step. It may be found in Gallium Oxide power semiconductors.

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What’s new with the consumer charger market?

And the prophecy will (most likely) become true…

We (and some other blogs) wrote a lot about the laptop and consumer charger market. We tried to raise awareness and convince you that this trend is a main trend.

Although the market and supply is not going as fast as we would like it to, the market is moving.

There is activity around smaller and better laptop and smartphone chargers. As the battery market has not made the breakthrough to leave us with weeks of battery, technology relies on power electronics engineers to add to smartphones, tablets and laptops some mobility through their chargers.

Dart from Finsix, and Zolt from Avogy are now on the market, and you can buy both.

 

So now we know more about those two chargers that were much expected.

We have seen teardowns of the Zolt, and were (you probably were, too) disappointed to see that they used Silicon Carbide MOSFET. Problably supplied by Cree (which, in the meantime, has spinned-off its RF and Power business units, renamed the new entity Wolfspeed, the later being acquired by Infineon…).

After giving it a closer look, FinSiX Dart does not feature GaN device either. It does not even feature the VHF (30Mhz) they talked about and that the whole industry was expecting.

What does this all mean?

Delta Innergie PowerGEAR 65

Delta Innergie PowerGEAR 65

 

Our job is to predict the future without the use of a crystal ball (though using it is quite appealing sometimes…).

So let’s sit and think.

FinSix and the Dart

History :

  • 2010: OnChip Power was created. The objective is to built and sell power converters operating at high frequency, for the LED and lighting market.
  • 2012: OnChip Power is renamed FinSix. The company now welcomes investors and on board. Vanessa Green takes the CEO position and the strategy is redesigned from scratch. Together they define a new target: the charger market. The moto is clear, FinSix is self named worldwide leader in VHF power conversion technology (30 to 300MHz switching frequency)
  •  2014 April: FinSiX launch a product on pre-sale on a crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. It’s a laptop adapter, much smaller and convenient than comparable power adapters. They claim it wil operate at VHF (more than 30Mhz) and will revolutionize the market. +500,000USD worth of Dart products have been sold in advance of production. Initially claimed delivery date is early 2015.
  • 2016 July: Dart starts shipping to the first pre-sale customers. With more than a +18 months delay.
  • 2016 September: The first discussions on the inside of the FinSix charger, especially it’s topology, design and frequency are starting on social networks.
FinSix Dart VHF power electronics converter topology market

FinSiX Dart

It seems that Dart finally has the following characteristics :

  • Frequency of switching : 300Khz
  • External max. temperature at full load : 80°C
  • efficiency : 93.4%
  • Digital control
  • Topology : Multi-level resonant LLC half-bridge, using 4 Silicon MOSFETs

We are quite far from what we expected from FinSiX. There seems to be no GaN devices used in FinSiX charger, and there are quite far from the 30Mhz promised. On the other side, some discussions on social networks revealed a theory: maybe engineers team could not push the initial design in full production, as it’s very innovative and needs to fill in many safety regulations. So FinSiX developped a plan B, in order to have workaround and develop and alternative solution.

They delivered the product, it fits the first description and makes customer happy. It does not match the initial project design, this makes the engineers we are quite unhappy. But well, it works!

 

Avogy and the Zolt

Avogy is a start-up developping GaN-on-GaN power transistors. The technology is very expensive and at early stage. They created a parallel activity in which they developped a laptop charger called Zolt.

Avogy Zolt Silicon Carbide mosfet

Avogy Zolt

We already talked a lot about :

But we still expect to see different devices in future revisions of this design.

According to us, using Silicon Carbide MOSFET makes no cost sense. It shoudl be easy to replace it with GaN IC (with integrated driver, to ease the building of the new design) and cost effective. It’s quite funny for a company developping GaN-on-GaN power transistors to produce SiC chargers.

Other start-ups  :

The market is expanding now a little. Here are a few start-ups or companies in this field to watch closely :

Nordic Power Converters :

Spin-off from  DTU university, which is working on VHF converter topologies and targetting LED power supplies.

Cambridge Electronics :

Based near Boston, this start-up was created in 2012 and seems to work both at device and system level. They have presented 200V and 650V GaN devices as well as proof of concept for a power supply design.

Appulse Power :

A Start-up out from the University of Toronto, and working on digital control solutions to drastically reduce sub-100W power supplies size.

We probably missed some of the start-ups in this field. If you want us to add one, please let us know.

Conclusion:

Laptop chargers are definitely the future for power electronics innovation, especially for Wide band Gap. TSMC confirmed that by building a production line for GaN power devices and confirming the target market is laptop, smartphone and tablet chargers.

We wish it could go faster, but it looks like device makers were a bit too optimistic when they announced their products to be fully ready and on production. GaN is still a new technology to apprehend and production is not yet mastered.

But it’s coming. And we confirm our prevision of $ 370M for GaN in 2020 with a third of it for these chargers.

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CISSOID and DDC cooperate for more compact and reliable SiC IPM

CISSOID, the leader in high-temperature and extended lifetime semiconductor solutions, announces cooperation with Data Device Corporation (DDC), the world leader in the design and manufacture of high-reliability data bus, motion control, and solid state power controller products for aerospace, defense, and industrial applications, and with its subsidiary Beta Transformer Technology Corporation (BTTC), the leader in high performance military, commercial and space-level magnetic components, for the development of more compact and reliable Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFET Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) for Aerospace power converters and motor control.

Within this partnership, BTTC will develop high reliability and high temperature transformer modules, embedding both power and pulse transformers, optimized for CISSOID HADES2®  Isolated Gate Driver. This solution will be used in SiC MOSFET Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) developed by CISSOID, making them more compact and reliable. It will address SiC IPM developed for high power density applications (see picture) but also IPM in hermetically sealed packages currently in development for harsh environments, e.g. unpressurized locations and/or extreme temperatures.

SiC high temperature Cissoid Avionics power module

First transformers modules are being developed, validated and qualified for temperature ranges from -55°C and up to +225°C. Magnetic cores and other transformer materials have been carefully selected to offer a stable behaviour and a reliable operation within this range. The transformers will provide isolation in excess of 2500Vdc and are optimized for very low parasitic capacitances in order to support high dV/dt, typically up to 50KV/µs, common with fast switching SiC transistors. These transformers have been optimized to work with HADES2®  Isolated Gate Driver chipset: the power transformer is used inside a Flyback DC-DC converter supplying both low- and high-side isolated gate drivers while pulse transformers are transmitting PWM and Faults signals.

“With DDC and BTTC, we found the right partners to develop high reliability and high temperature transformer solutions for our SiC IPM and gate drivers. They bring to CISSOID their long experience in developing signal and power transformers for data transceivers and power converters as well as their high quality manufacturing facilities. This partnership shows CISSOID’s commitment to work with partners to offer to its customers a complete ecosystem for the development of high temperature system solutions.”, says Dave Hutton, CISSOID CEO. “We believe that this first partnership with CISSOID will trigger others as we see various collaboration opportunities between DDC and CISSOID, e.g. the developement high temperature motor drive or power converter solutions for aerospace, defense, and industrial applications.”, says Frank Bloomfield, VP Power Systems at DDC.

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ROHM Semiconductor introduces SiC technology into Formula E

Semiconductor presented its cutting-edge silicon carbide (SiC) technology at the first race of the new 2016/2017 Formula E season in Hong Kong. At the start of season three, the leading Japanese semiconductor manufacturer started sponsoring and officially partnering with the Venturi Formula E team. The exciting collaboration between ROHM and Venturi in Formula E highlights the key to success in the all-electric racing series – power management. The challenge of Formula E is to find the most efficient way of using the energy provided by the battery and applying it on the road. To do this, ROHM developed new power device technology using silicon carbide. This material can withstand much higher electric fields than conventional silicon, which results in extremely low losses of power and higher temperature resistance. Thus, ROHM and Venturi hope to gain an edge over the competition while also pushing forward the development of new technical solutions to increase power conversion efficiency.

SiC silicon carbide Rohm power electronics formula E electric car

SiC technology at a glance – making power electronics smaller, stronger and faster

Silicon carbide is a compound of silicon and carbon. It is produced using a crystal growth process of sublimation and exposure to high temperatures of about 2,000°C. Using this technology in power devices, ROHM, a leader in SiC applications, has achieved lower power consumption and more efficient operation. There are several benefits compared to conventional silicon:

SMALLER – System miniaturisation means reduced size and weight, which allows for improved weight distribution in motorsports and less power consumption in general.
STRONGER – Devices with SiC can work with higher voltages and currents, which increases power density and reduces switching losses even under high temperatures.
FASTER – The ultimate outcome of ROHM’s partnership with Venturi. The best performance and maximised probability of speed.

Sponsorship and technology partnership embodies the commitment to future development ROHM has been a leading developer of advanced SiC products and SiC power devices in particular. It was the first company in the world to manufacture the SiC MOSFET in 2010. In the automotive sector, an increasing number of EVs and inverters are adopting the use of SiC, and ROHM has already had an overwhelming market share of on-board chargers for rapid charging.

ROHM is also an industry leader in system LSI, with a large lineup of AEC-Q-approved ASIC and ASSP products, including LED drivers, motor drivers and gate drivers optimized for engine control units (ECUs), as well as standard discrete components such as transistors, diodes, and general ICs.

For the first time ever, ROHM Semiconductor has become a global sponsor for the brand. This partnership is a big step for the world-leading semiconductor manufacturer, which is based in Kyoto, Japan, and exemplifies their commitment to further development of power and energy management systems. Bringing SiC technology to Formula E and to e-mobility in general is an important step in changing drive technology. Furthermore, ROHM is taking an active role in revolutionising energy policy. When the presentation with Venturi illustrates how effective the new technology works, SiC power devices will make their way into serial production and benefit both industry and society as a whole.

To share and promote the Formula E partnership, ROHM decided to create a special website for clients, employees, motorsport fans and decision makers from electronic industries to showcase the latest news about Formula E along with special background information on the partnership and SiC technology generally.

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ONsemiconductor completes acquisition of Fairchild

ON Semiconductor Corporation and Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. jointly announced today that ON Semiconductor has successfully completed its previously announced $2.4 billion cash acquisition of Fairchild.

“The acquisition of Fairchild is a transformative step in our quest to become the premier supplier of power management and analog semiconductor solutions for a wide range of applications and end-markets,” said Keith Jackson, president and CEO of ON Semiconductor. “Fairchild provides us a platform to aggressively expand our profitability in a highly fragmented industry. With the addition of Fairchild, our industry leading cost structure has further improved in a significant manner and we are now well positioned to generate substantial shareholder value as we integrate operations of the two companies.”

On September 16, 2016, ON Semiconductor received confirmation that clearance related to the completion of its proposed acquisition of Fairchild from the Ministry of Commerce in the People’s Republic of China had been obtained and that ON Semiconductor was entitled to close the transactions under PRC law. As such, the conditions to the acquisition of Fairchild relating to the termination or expiration of required waiting periods, and receipt of required approvals, under applicable antitrust laws were fully satisfied and ON Semiconductor’s tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Fairchild for $20.00 per share in cash (the “Offer”) expired as scheduled one minute following 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on September 16, 2016 and was not extended.

Computershare Trust Company, N.A., the depositary for the Offer, advised ON Semiconductor that at the time of the expiration of the Offer, approximately 87,979,761 shares of common stock of Fairchild (not including 7,327,977 shares tendered by notice of guaranteed delivery for which shares have not yet been delivered) were validly tendered and not properly withdrawn pursuant to the Offer, representing approximately 76.6% of the outstanding shares of common stock of Fairchild. In accordance with the terms of the Offer and the merger agreement, all such shares (and any additional shares tendered by guaranteed delivery unless actual delivery does not occur) were irrevocably accepted for payment, and paid for, earlier today.

Immediately following the payment for the tendered shares, ON Semiconductor and Fairchild completed the acquisition of Fairchild by merging it with a wholly owned subsidiary of ON Semiconductor pursuant to which all remaining Fairchild shares (other than shares directly owned by ON Semiconductor or Fairchild or their respective subsidiaries and shares held by stockholders that are entitled to and properly demand appraisal of such shares under Delaware law) were converted into the right to receive $20.00 per share in cash, without interest and less applicable withholding taxes – the same price that was paid in the tender offer. As a result of the Offer and the merger, Fairchild ceased to be a publicly traded company, its common stock will no longer be listed on NASDAQ, and Fairchild became a wholly owned subsidiary of ON Semiconductor.

The acquisition is expected to be accretive on a GAAP EPS basis in the second half of 2017 and immediately accretive on a non-GAAP basis. ON Semiconductor expects to achieve annual cost savings run rate of $160 million by the end of 2017, $200 million by the end of 2018, and $225 million by the end of 2019. The cost savings targets are based on Fairchild’s 2015 annual results.

ON Semiconductor today also announced a new organizational structure, which reflects the evolution over the years of ON Semiconductor’s product portfolio to highly differentiated power management, imaging, and analog solutions from standard products. The new organization is comprised of three reporting units – Power Solutions Group, headed by Bill Hall, Analog Solutions Group, headed by Bob Klosterboer, and Image Sensor Group, headed by Taner Ozcelik. The operations of System Solutions Group have been absorbed in the three reporting units.

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TDK & Toshiba create a JV for Automotive inverters production

TDK Corporation and Toshiba Corporation have agreed to establish a joint venture , TDK Automotive Technologies Corporation, that will engage in the development, manufacture and sales of automotive inverters for hybrid vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles.

A Joint venture for Automotive inverters

Many countries propose to impose more stringent regulation of automobile exhaust emissions in 2020 and after, in an effort to prevent air pollution and global warming. This trend to stricter regulation is expected to greatly affect the global automobile market, contributing to an increase in demand for hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles in the global market and greatly increased use of electric, fuel-cell, and other eco-friendly vehicles.

Under such market conditions, TDK is currently strengthening its energy unit[1] business, which mainly consists of hardware in power conversion for hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric vehicles, as well as software that controls such hardware as strategic growth products in the medium to long term. TDK offers a lineup of products, such as DC-DC converters, on board chargers and wireless power transfer systems that are currently being developed. The DC-DC converter in particular utilizes the magnetic material technologies that are the strength of TDK. They are one of the smallest in the industry and offer high efficiency and other product advantages that have won global recognition and a delivery record of more than 2.5 million units in aggregate.

Upon the establishment of the JV with Toshiba as described above, TDK’s energy unit business is expected to expand tremendously, as the addition of automotive inverters to TDK’s product lineup will broaden its product range and enable to meet diverse customer demand.

Toshiba develops technologies to meet automobile manufacturers’ requirements for low fuel consumption that combine advanced capabilities in automotive inverters with 120 years of cumulative know-how in motors. By integrating power semiconductor modules, Toshiba’s inverters secure high levels of heat dissipation in a short time, and also contribute to downsizing that reduces space requirements. Toshiba aims to strengthen its competitiveness in the growing market for automotive inverters and motors by combining its highly efficient automotive motors with automotive inverters developed by the JV and DC-DC converters developed by TDK, and proposing them as a system for hybrid and electric vehicles.

 

TDK Automotive Technologies profile:

1) Company name TDK Automotive Technologies Corporation
2) Address of the Head Office 3-9-1 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan  (within TDK Corporation)
3) Address of the business premises 2-15-7, Higashiohwada, Ichikawa-shi, Chiba, Japan (within TDK Technical Center)

2000 Nao, Mie-gun Asahi-cho, Mie, Japan
4) Main business Development, manufacturing and sales of automotive inverters
5) Stated capital 400 million yen
6) Ratio of capital contribution TDK: 75%; Toshiba: 25%
7) Date of establishment October 1, 2016 (scheduled)
8) Date of business start December 1, 2016 (scheduled)
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GE & Shinko Electric to commercialize Power Overlay

GE Ventures and SHINKO ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES CO., LTD. (SHINKO) announced that SHINKO has been granted a patent license and technology transfer of an advanced embedded packaging solution for power electronics called Power Overlay (POL).This patent license and technology transfer deal, signed in early 2015, is a strategic collaboration between GE and SHINKO in both technology and business development.
Developed by GE Global Research as part of a major GE focus in power electronics research over the last decade, POL has been licensed to SHINKO to industrialize the packaging platform to transition POL for manufacturing efforts to be utilized by GE and others. The platform enables higher efficiency and power density with reduced parasitics, and greatly impacting the power, telecommunications and consumer electronics industries. Power modules designed with POL have proven to have power densities up to 50% higher and efficiency improved up to 10%.
GE General Electric Shinko Power overlay POL power module packaging

Extract from “Packaging Challenges and Solutions
for Silicon Carbide Power Electronics” – ECTC 2012 – Ljubisa Stevanovic

“GE is extremely pleased to work with SHINKO on the commercialization of the POL technology – SHINKO brings world class manufacturing process and ability to transition new technologies to production,” said Pat Patnode, President of Licensing for GE Ventures.
GE Ventures accelerates innovation and growth for partners by providing access to GE technologies and inventions through licensing and joint development partnerships. This advanced microelectronics packaging technology is being licensed to leading global manufacturing partners to provide advanced solutions back to businesses worldwide and also to GE, as part of the GE Store.
“Through SHINKO’s extensive manufacturing knowledge, we will be able to achieve value added solutions in order to positively impact the power electronics industry,” said Masato Tanaka, Corporate Officer, General Manager – Research and Development Div. of SHINKO. “We look forward to these outcomes and collaborating with GE in the future.”
SHINKO is a worldwide semiconductor packaging supplier with diverse technology driven initiatives and industry leading manufacturing capabilities. The company is currently testing the POL packaging platform, with plans to release solutions in 2016.

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Infineon announces HybridPACK Double Sided Cooling for October 2016

Infineon Technologies AG presents its latest power module family HybridPACK™ Double Sided Cooling (DSC) for hybrid and electric vehicles at the PCIM 2016 tradeshow. The new power modules have dimensions of 42 mm x 42.4 mm x 4.77 mm. They target HEV applications such as main inverters and generators with a typical power range of 40 to 50 kW. In order to support higher power, they can be used in parallel configurations.

Infineon hybrid vehicle power module double side cooling

With only 15 nH, the stray inductance is very low while blocking voltage was increased to 700 V. Both factors support the development of inverter systems with reduced switching losses of about 25 percent and very high efficiency. Thanks to the integrated isolation, the module can be directly attached to a cooler without external isolation thus simplifying system integration. Each integrated IGBT chip is equipped with an on-chip current sensor for overcurrent protection. In addition, an on-chip temperature sensor provides derating and fast shut-off in case of over-temperature. The direct and precise sensing improves system monitoring. It also helps to simplify the functional safety architecture of automotive system suppliers and car manufacturers.

By combining double sided chip cooling with electrical isolation of the heat sinks, the thermal resistance R thJC of the HybridPACK DSC is significantly reduced to 0.1 Kelvin/Watt (K/W). In comparison, today’s power module HybridPACK 1 has a thermal resistance of 0.12 K/W. The HybridPACK DSC module technology also improves the electrical performance. Stray inductance is one major parameter, defined by module size and the careful routing of the current path through the module. The HybridPACK DSC value of only 15 nH is about 40 percent lower compared to reference modules. The result is a reduction of switching losses by 25 percent.

Availability of HybridPACK DSC power modules

The first member of the HybridPACK DSC family is the FF400R07A01E3_S6 implementing I Cnom of 400 A and V CES of 700 V in half-bridge configuration. Engineering samples will be available in September 2016. A further product in the family implementing I Cnom of 200 A and V CES of 700 V in a full-bridge configuration will be offered as engineering samples in October 2016. Further variants featuring different power ranges are under development.

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CISSOID delivers first full-SiC IPM to Thales

CISSOID, the leader in high-temperature and extended lifetime semiconductor solutions, announces the delivery of the first prototypes of a 3-phase 1200V/100A SiC MOSFET Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) to Thales Avionics Electrical Systems. This module, developed with the support of Clean Sky Joint Undertaking, will help increasing power converters density, by decreasing weight and size, for power generation and electromechanical actuators in More-Electrical Aircrafts.

This IPM offers an optimal integration of the gate driver with power transistors together in order to take advantage of the full benefits of Silicon Carbide (SiC), i.e. low switching losses and high operating temperature. Leveraging on HADES2® Isolated Gate Driver that incorporates years of development in driving SiC transistors, it combines advanced packaging technologies enabling a reliable operation of power modules in extreme conditions.

For this Aerospace module, a 3-phase power inverter topology was selected while other topologies are being investigated for HEV and Railways projects. In this 3-phase topology, each of the 6 switch positions includes a 100A SiC MOSFET transistor and a 100A SiC Schottky free-wheeling diode. These devices can block voltages up to 1200V, which provide enough headroom against over-voltages in a 540V Aerospace DC bus, and the module is designed to be easily upgraded with 1700V/150A SiC devices. The transistors have a typical On resistance of 12.5mOhms or 8.5mOhms depending on their current rating, either 100A or 150A.

CISSOID SiC power module Avionics more electric aircraft

Special care was put on thermal aspects during the design of the module. First, all the materials have been selected to allow reliable operation at high junction temperatures, up to 200°C with peaks at 225°C, in order to decrease cooling requirements. This materials selection also enables high case and storage temperatures, up to 150°C. Finally, the module is based on high-performance materials such as AlSiC baseplate, AlN substrates and Silver Sintering in order to offer near perfect CTE matching with SiC devices and high robustness against thermal and power cycling.

Co-designing the gate driver with the power module in a single IPM allowed CISSOID to optimize the gate driver circuit taking into account parasitic inductances of the power module while minimizing them when possible. Minimizing parasitic inductances allows to switch SiC transistors faster and to lower switching losses. An IPM also offers a plug-and-play solution to power electronic designers who save a lot of time in the design of the gate driver board, which is particulary challenging with SiC transistors. They can then focus on the design of high density power converters taking advantage of SiC.

“It was a pleasure to work with CISSOID team in the frame of this Clean Sky program. They showed a great flexibility in proposing us solutions addressing the requirements of the next generation of high density power converters for the More-Electrical-Aircraft”

said Taoufik Bensalah, Power Converter Design Team Manager at Thales Avionics. Etienne Vanzieleghem, VP Engineering at CISSOID added: “We are very glad with this fruitful cooperation with Thales and with the open discussions we had in specifying this IPM. We also thank Clean Sky for making this cooperation possible which is a good example of CISSOID combined expertise in packaging and circuit design. This project was also an opportunity to strengthen our cooperation with PRIMES platform in Tarbes which is hosting CISSOID packaging team.”

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Mitsubishi Electric to release standardized HVIGBT Module X-Series

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced today that it has developed a next-generation power module called X-Series New Dual HVIGBT module for traction and electric power applications in heavy industries. The new module features higher power density and efficiency for inverters, as well as a standardized package that allows for a flexible design of inverter systems.

Samples of the 3.3kV (LV100) version of the New Dual module will be available for shipping from March 2017. That will be followed by 1.7kV, 3.3kV (HV100), 4.5kV and 6.5kV versions in that order from 2018 onwards. The company also plans to add a lower-than 1.7kV version to the lineup in the future.

High-power modules are key devices for controlling power conversion in electronic systems in a wide range of power classes from several kilowatts up to several megawatts. Until now, modules with a maximum voltage rating of up to 6.5kV and a maximum current rating of several thousand amperes have been commercially available.

The New Dual HVIGBT module will satisfy demand for efficient, high power density semiconductor devices with a range of current and voltage ratings, while contributing to higher power output and efficiency in inverters by adopting the latest seventh-generation IGBTs and RFC diodes. Meanwhile, the standardized package dimensions will allow manufacturers of industrial electronics to simplify design and secure multiple sources for inverters.

Product Lineup (plan)

Model Package
type		 Isolation
voltage		 Collector-emitter
voltage		 Maximum
current
rating		 Connection Dimensions Sample
availability
HVIGBT
module
X-Series
New Dual		 LV100 6kV 1.7kV 900A 2in1 W:100mm
x
D:140mm
x
H:40mm		 2018 or later
3.3kV 450A March 2017
HV100 10kV 3.3kV 450A 2018 or later
4.5kV 330A
6.5kV 225A

 

Product Features:

  1. Contributing to high energy efficiency and high power density
    • The seventh-generation IGBTs adopting CSTBTTM and RFC diodes realize low power loss in inverter systems.
    • Improved package technology and low parasitic inductance enable maximum performance.
    • Three AC main terminals on the LV100 package spread and equalize current density, contributing to increased inverter capability.
  2. Common frame size supports more diverse inverter configurations and capacity
    • LV100 and HV100 modules have a common package design.
    • Simple, standard connections allow for optimal system design and a range of current ratings.
    • Lineup ranges from 1.7 to 6.5kV.
    • Improved flexibility and scalability for system configuration.
  3. Contributing to higher design efficiency by the use of a standardized new package
    • Compatible with terminal and attachment locations of Infineon Technologies AG (Germany) products.

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