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The technology group ZF will, from 2025, purchase silicon carbide devices from STMicroelectronics. Under the terms of the multi-year contract, ST will supply a volume of double-digit millions of silicon carbide devices to be integrated in ZF’s new modular inverter architecture going into series production in 2025. ZF will leverage ST’s vertically integrated silicon carbide manufacturing in Europe and Asia to secure customer orders in electromobility.
“With this strategically important step, we are strengthening our supply chain to be able to securely supply our customers. Our order book in electromobility until 2030 now amounts to more than thirty billion euros. For this volume, we need several reliable suppliers for silicon carbide devices,” says Stephan von Schuckmann, member of the ZF Board of Management responsible for electromobility as well as materials management. “In STMicroelectronics, we now have a supplier whose experience with complex systems meets our requirements and who, above all, can produce the devices in exceptionally high quality and at the required quantities.” With this agreement, ZF has gained a world-class supplier for silicon carbide technology, in addition to ZF’s existing partnership agreement on silicon carbide technology announced in February.
“As a vertically integrated company, we are investing heavily to expand capacity and develop our silicon carbide supply chain to support our global and European customers across automotive and industrial sectors, as they pursue electrification and decarbonization targets,” says Marco Monti, President Automotive and Discrete Group of STMicroelectronics. “The key to success in electric vehicle technology is greater scalability and modularity with increased efficiency, peak power, and affordability. Our silicon carbide technologies help deliver these benefits and we are proud to work with ZF, a leading automotive supplier for electrification, to help them differentiate and optimize the performance of their inverters.”
ST will manufacture the silicon carbide chips at its production fabs in Italy and Singapore with packaging of the chips into STPAK, an ST-developed advanced package, and testing at its back-end facilities in Morocco and China.
ST will supply ZF from 2025 with a volume of double-digit millions of third generation silicon carbide MOSFET devices. ZF can connect a variable number of such devices together to match customers’ performance requirements without changing the design of the inverter. Among others, ZF will use the technology in inverters for vehicles of a European car manufacturer whose production start is planned for 2025.
The inverter is the brain of electric drivetrains. It manages the flow of energy from battery to e-motor and vice versa. Inverters have become more efficient and more complex with every development step. The combination of the inverter design and the semiconductors, like silicon carbide, is the key to improving electric vehicle performance. Silicon carbide devices significantly reduce power losses in electric car inverters, as well as in wind turbine and photovoltaic inverters. Devices made with silicon carbide have decisive advantages over conventional silicon-based products, such as higher efficiency, power density and reliability. At the same time, they enable smaller and more cost-effective system designs. Simply put, an electric vehicle charges faster, drives further and has more space when equipped with silicon carbide-based semiconductors.
Original – STMicroelectronics
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Axcelis Technologies, Inc., a leading supplier of enabling ion implantation solutions for the semiconductor industry, announced the shipment of its 500th Purion™ ion implanter system. The shipment went to a leading semiconductor device maker located in North America.
President and CEO Mary Puma commented, “This 500th Purion shipment validates our market leadership and strong customer partnerships. We look forward to extending this leadership within our broad and diverse global customer base as they continue to expand their manufacturing capacity. This large and growing Purion installed base provides a solid foundation for our Customer Solutions & Innovation aftermarket business.”
Executive Vice President of Marketing and Applications Greg Redinbo stated, “The Purion ion implanter platform provides a winning combination of highly differentiated, enabling technology and productivity, designed to solve customers’ high value, high impact, ion implantation challenges. The advanced Purion Product Extensions have quickly established Purion as the leader in image sensor and power device manufacturing, making Axcelis the only company with a complete family of implant products for both the Si IGBT and SiC power device market segments.”
Original – Axcelis Technologies
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Infineon Technologies AG has changed the name of its Industrial Power Control (IPC) Division to Green Industrial Power (GIP). The semiconductor manufacturer is thus highlighting its consistent alignment with the Decarbonization and Digitalization trends. For the newly named Division, green energies are key growth drivers for the business.
“Infineon is making green, cost-efficient electrical energy possible. We have a leading position in the fields of wind energy and solar power, with our power semiconductors setting the standard for higher efficiency levels throughout the entire energy conversion chain. This represents an enormous amount of growth potential, and we’re putting a name on that potential by rebranding our Division”, says Dr. Peter Wawer, President of the Green Industrial Power Division.
“The focus on industrial business has made us highly successful. This field will continue to grow in the future. At the same time the decarbonization of energy supplies and mobility will additionally accelerate the growth of renewable energies, grid expansion and charging infrastructures. Our extensive product portfolio, technologies, leading-edge expertise in power semiconductors, software and services, together with our highly experienced, global team all mean we are in a perfect position to shape the green transformation of our society.”
Traditionally, one focus of the Division’s sales has been on power semiconductors for efficient energy supplies in the industry and consumer sectors, for example drive technologies for electric motors. In the future, above-average growth will be driven primarily by the energy transformation and among other things will come from the field of renewable energies and the expansion of the necessary infrastructure.
The name change to Green Industrial Power documents the strong orientation of the Division towards its growth segments, with industrial business remaining an important part of GIP’s portfolio in the future as well. There will be no corresponding new organizational structure. The name change took effect as of 1 April 2023.
Original – Infineon Technologies
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DENSO CORPORATION announced that it has developed its first-ever inverter with silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors. This inverter, which is incorporated in the eAxle, an electric driving module developed by BluE Nexus Corporation, will be used in the new RZ, Lexus’ first dedicated battery electric vehicle (BEV) model has been released on March 30, 2023.
SiC power semiconductors consist of silicon and carbon that significantly reduce power loss compared with silicon (Si) power semiconductors. The verification of cruising test in a certain condition, which test was performed by BEV consisted of SiC semiconductor inverters, demonstrated inverters with SiC power semiconductor reduce power loss less than half of ones with Si semiconductor. As a result, the energy efficiency of BEVs is improved and cruising range is extended.
Key elements of developing the new inverter:
- SiC power semiconductors with DENSO’s unique trench-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structure improve the output per chip due to reducing the power loss caused by heat generated. The unique structure achieved high voltage and low on-resistance operation.
Key elements of manufacturing the new inverter:
- Based on the high-quality technology jointly developed by DENSO and Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc., we utilize SiC epitaxial wafers that incorporate the results of work commissioned by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). As a result, we have halved the number of crystal defects that prevent the device from operating normally due to the disorder of the atomic arrangement of the crystal.
- By reducing crystal defects, the quality of SiC power semiconductor devices used in vehicles and their stable production are ensured.
DENSO calls its SiC technology “REVOSIC®,” and uses it to comprehensively develop technologies for products ranging from wafers to semiconductor devices and modules such as power cards.
DENSO will contribute to the realization of a carbon-neutral society through development aimed at more efficient energy management for vehicles, while also utilizing the grant from Green Innovation Fund (GI Fund), which was adopted in 2022.
Original – Denso
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Diodes Incorporated (Diodes) introduced the latest addition to its portfolio of Silicon Carbide (SiC) products: the DMWS120H100SM4 N-channel SiC MOSFET. This device addresses demand for higher efficiency and higher power density for applications such as industrial motor drives, solar inverters, data center and telecom power supplies, DC-DC converters, and electric vehicle (EV) battery chargers.
The DMWS120H100SM4 operates at a high voltage (1200V) and drain current (up to 37A) while maintaining low thermal conductivity (RθJC = 0.6°C/W), making it well-suited for applications running in harsh environments. This MOSFET has a low RDS(ON) (typical) of only 80mΩ (for a 15V gate drive) to minimize conduction losses and provide higher efficiency. In addition, the device has a gate charge of only 52nC to reduce switching losses and lower the package temperature.
This product is the first SiC MOSFET on the market in a TO247-4 package. The additional Kelvin sense pin can be connected to the source of the MOSFET to optimize the switching performance, thereby enabling even higher power densities.
Original – Diodes Incorporated
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Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation has launched a 150V N-channel power MOSFET “TPH9R00CQ5,” which uses the latest generation U-MOSX-H process, for switching power supplies of industrial equipment, such as that used in data centers and communications base stations.
TPH9R00CQ5 features an industry-leading low drain-source On-resistance of 9.0mΩ (max), approximately a 42% reduction from Toshiba’s existing product, “TPH1500CNH1.” Compared with Toshiba’s existing product “TPH9R00CQH,” the reverse recovery charge is reduced by about 74% and the reverse recovery time by about 44%, both key reverse recovery characteristics for synchronous rectification applications. Used in synchronous rectification applications, the new product reduces the power loss of switching power supplies and helps improve efficiency. Furthermore, compared to TPH9R00CQH, the new product reduces spike voltage generated during switching, helping lower the EMI of power supplies.
The product uses the popular, surface-mount-type SOP Advance(N) package.
Toshiba also offers tools that support circuit design for switching power supplies. Alongside the G0 SPICE model, which verifies circuit function in a short time, highly accurate G2 SPICE models, which accurately reproduce transient characteristics, are now available.
Toshiba has also developed “1 kW Non-Isolated Buck-Boost DC-DC Converter for Telecommunications Equipment” and “Three-phase Multi Level Inverter using MOSFET” reference designs that utilize the new product. They are available on Toshiba’s website from today. The new product can also be utilized for the already published “1 kW Full-Bridge DC-DC Converter” reference design.
Toshiba will continue to expand its lineup of power MOSFETs that reduce power loss, increase the efficiency of power supplies, and help to improve equipment efficiency.
Applications:
- Power supplies of industrial equipment, such as that used in data centers and communications base stations.
- Switching power supplies (high efficiency DC-DC converters, etc.)
Features:
- Industry-leading low On-resistance: RDS(ON)=9.0mΩ (max) (VGS=10V)
- Industry-leading low reverse recovery charge: Qrr=34nC (typ.) (-dIDR/dt=100A/μs)
- Industry-leading fast reverse recovery time: trr=40ns (typ.) (-dIDR/dt=100A/μs)
- High channel temperature rating: Tch (max)=175°C
Original – Toshiba
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onsemi announced a breakthrough in simulation tools for onsemi’s EliteSiC Silicon Carbide (SiC) product family and its applications. The company launched the online Elite Power Simulator and Self-Service PLECS Model Generator, which provide meaningful insights for complex power electronic applications through system-level simulations at an early stage of the development cycle. The tools save power electronic engineers time by providing state-of-the-art accurate simulation data enabling EliteSiC product selection tailored to customer applications, instead of costly and time-consuming hardware fabrication and testing.
Users have ultimate power and flexibility to create high-fidelity system-level PLECS models when the Elite Power Simulator is deployed in conjunction with the Self-Service PLECS Model Generator. Whether uploaded to onsemi’s Elite Power Simulator or downloaded for direct use, the self-service PLECS models deliver the optimization and accuracy required for demanding power electronic simulations. The models are generated based on typical or worst-case conditions to let the customer design within the technology boundaries. The capability to define application-specific parasitics ensures that the generated PLECS models provide highly accurate results for the customer’s system-level simulations.
“Our PLECS simulator has proven very popular with power designers due to speed and ease of use,” said Jost Allmelling, managing director and co-founder, Plexim. “It is particularly exciting to see the truly novel aspects here, including the ability to simulate soft switching accurately, the customized models via the onsemi Self-Service PLECS Model Generator and the ready-made models for corner cases.”
To date, system-level simulators and their associated PLECS models have only been valid for hard switching topologies, with simulation results for soft switching applications such as LLC (inductor-inductor-capacitor) or CLLC (capacitor-inductor-inductor-capacitor) being highly inaccurate. onsemi’s industry-first PLECS models break this trend and solve this problem for customers.
“This is a significant step for the industry, increasing its ability to get both hard and soft switching designs to market quickly,” said Asif Jakwani, senior vice president and general manager of the Advanced Power Division, which is part of the Power Solutions Group at onsemi. “Our tools enable our customers to understand how our devices perform in their application environment and fully optimize the performance within the boundaries of the technology.”
Original – onsemi
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While the adoption of GaN devices has expanded in recent years due to their superior high-speed switching characteristics, the speed of Control ICs, which are responsible for directing the driving of these devices, has become challenging.
In response, ROHM has further evolved its ultra-high-speed pulse control technology Nano Pulse Control™. It is cultivated for power supply ICs, succeeding in significantly improving the control pulse width from the conventional 9ns to an industry-best 2ns. Leveraging this technology allowed ROHM to establish its ultra-high-speed Control IC technology that maximizes the performance of GaN devices.
When pursuing miniaturization of the power supply circuit, it is necessary to reduce the size of the peripheral components through high-speed switching. Achieving this requires a Control IC that can take advantage of the drive performance of high-speed switching devices such as GaN devices.
To propose solutions that include peripheral components, ROHM established ultra-high-speed Control IC technology optimized for GaN devices utilizing proprietary analog power supply technology Nano Pulse Control™.
ROHM is currently working to commercialize Control ICs utilizing this technology, with plans to start sample shipment of 100V 1ch DC-DC Control IC in the second half of 2023. Using in conjunction with ROHM GaN devices (EcoGaN™ series) is expected to result in significant energy savings and miniaturization in a variety of applications, including base stations, data centers, FA (Factory Automation) equipment, and drones.
Going forward, ROHM will continue to develop products that solve social issues by pursuing greater ease-of-use in applications centered on its strengths in analog technology.
Original – ROHM
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CISSOID and Silicon Mobility have announced a far-reaching partnership to deliver a complete and modular Silicon Carbide (SiC) inverter reference design supporting electric motor drives up to 350kW/850V. The reference design includes CISSOID’s high voltage SiC-based power module, integrated Gate Driver board, Control board with Silicon Mobility’s ultra-fast and safe OLEA T222 FPCU, DC and phase current sensors, DC link capacitor and EMI filtering together with integrated liquid cooling. CISSOID will also sell and deliver Silicon Mobility’s OLEA® APP INVERTER Software for Electric Vehicle Powertrain Control providing the customer with a development platform ready for integration work.
Dave Hutton, CISSOID’s CEO commented: “Up until now, customers only really had 2 options. The first was to develop all the hardware, then integrate with third party software into their design environment. This was extremely time consuming and required in depth knowledge of SiC-based power system design. The second option was to buy an off-the-shelf inverter that, however, does not offer the ability to fully customize for the application requirements.”
Following this agreement, customers can now buy a complete SiC inverter reference design from CISSOID together with a license to use the Silicon Mobility’s OLEA® APP INVERTER control software and design on top its software application. CISSOID will also provide the technical support to integrate the inverter into the end-application.
Once the design is completed, the customer can choose to purchase the entire inverter Bill-of-Material (BOM) from CISSOID or just the SiC Intelligent Power Module (IPM) and Control Board, while purchasing other components and Inverter housing from their preferred suppliers. The customer can then integrate the inverter into their motor drive system prior moving to production.
David Fresneau, VP Marketing and Business Development at Silicon Mobility added: “This is a great opportunity for our customers to get access to our advanced e-motor control hardware and software platform and a fully integrated high performance inverter reference design from CISSOID which will significantly simplify the design process and reduce Time-to Market.
Original – CISSOID
