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Qorvo® announced the industry’s first 4 milliohm silicon carbide (SiC) junction field effect transistor (JFET) in a TOLL package. It was designed for circuit protection applications including solid-state circuit breakers, where low resistance, superior thermal performance, small size and reliability are paramount.
With RDS(on) of just 4 milliohm, the UJ4N075004L8S offers the industry’s lowest on-resistance among the 650V to 750V class of power devices in standard discrete packages. This low RDS(on) drives significant reductions in heat generation and, when coupled with a compact TOLL package, enables a solution size that is 40% smaller than competing devices in TO-263 packages.
This small solution size supports the space-limited dimensions of today’s electromechanical circuit breakers and operates without the need for elaborate cooling systems, accelerating the transition from electromechanical circuit breakers to semiconductor-based solid-state circuit breakers (SSCBs).
“With the introduction of the UJ4N075004L8S, Qorvo continues to lead the way in SiC power innovation, catalyzing the emergence of applications such as circuit protection with ultra-low RDS(on) FET offerings in very small footprints,” said Ramanan Natarajan, director of product line marketing for Qorvo’s SiC Power Products business. “The SSCB market is growing rapidly, and Qorvo’s newest product marks a significant milestone in the evolution of the technology.”
Qorvo’s JFETs are highly robust devices well suited to meet the challenges of circuit protection, providing the ability to turn off at very high inrush currents during circuit faults. Qorvo’s newest JFET can also withstand high instantaneous junction temperatures without experiencing degradation or parametric drift. The normally-on nature of the JFET lends itself to seamless integration into systems where the switch is in the on-state by default and in turn-off state under fault conditions.
The UJ4N075004L8S is now available for sampling and will enter full production in Q4 2024, accompanied by additional JFET options, including 750V with 5 milliohm and 1200V with 8 milliohm ratings, all in TO-247 packaging. For more details about this transformative power technology and detailed product specifications, please visit UJ4N075004L8S.
Original – Qorvo
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Semikron Danfoss and SMA announced that the Sunny Boy Smart Energy incorporates the SEMITOP E power modules based on silicon carbide. The SEMITOP E features a low-inductance design with superior thermal performance, all in an industry standard housing. The SEMITOP E product offers a variety of circuit topologies based on the latest 650V-1200V silicon carbide technology from multiple sources.
“We strongly believe that the SEMITOP E is the power semiconductor package of choice for applying silicon carbide in advanced solar inverters,” says Roberto Agostini, Product Manager Semikron Danfoss.
“The SEMITOP E has been essential in increasing throughput and efficiency in our assembly,” says SMA Product Manager Petra Nawratil. “The press-fit design and simple mounting approach enabled a higher automation level in the assembly line for the Sunny Boy Smart Energy and following products.”
Residential solar inverters are tasked with generating solar power with the highest efficiency, enabled through silicon carbide technology.
The Sunny Boy Smart Energy is part of the new SMA Home Storage Solution, which enables fast and effective solar generation and storage. It is scalable to meet changing needs and adaptable to additional use cases such as an EV charger, a heat pump, dynamic tariffs, or peak load shaving. The modular SMA Home Storage battery can be expanded anytime to store more solar power.
Original – Semikron Danfoss
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The latest onsemi 7th generation 1200V QDual3 Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) power modules offer increased power density and deliver up to 10% more output power than other available competing products. Based on the latest Field Stop 7 (FS7) IGBT technology, the 800-amp (A) QDual3 module delivers industry-leading efficiency to reduce system costs and simplify designs.
In a 150KW inverter, the QDual3 module will dissipate 200 watts (W) less in losses compared to the closest competition, significantly reducing heatsink size. QDual3 is engineered to work under harsh conditions and is ideal for high-power electronics converters such as central inverters in solar farms, energy storage systems (ESS), commercial agricultural vehicles (CAVs) and industrial motor drives.
Currently, two products are available depending on the applications – NXH800H120L7QDSG and SNXH800H120L7QDSG.
Increasing renewable energy adoption amplifies the need for solutions that can manage peak demand and ensure continuous power supply. Peak shaving, the practice of reducing electricity use during peak hours, is essential for maintaining electric grid stability and reducing costs. Using the QDual3 modules, manufacturers can construct a solar inverter and ESS that output more power in the same system size, enabling more efficient energy management and storage capabilities, and allowing for a smoother integration of solar power into the grid.
The modules also mitigate the intermittency of solar energy by storing excess power in an ESS, ensuring a reliable and consistent energy flow. For large systems, the modules can be paralleled to increase the output power up to a couple of MWs and compared to traditional 600 A module solutions, the 800 A QDual3 significantly reduces the module quantity, greatly simplifying design complexity and cutting system costs.
The QDual3 IGBTs module features an 800 A half-bridge configuration that integrates the latest Gen7 trench Field Stop IGBT and diode technology using onsemi’s advanced packaging techniques to reduce switching and conduction losses.
With FS7 technology, the die size is reduced by 30%, allowing more die per module, increasing the power density to enable the maximum current capacity up to 800 A or higher. With an IGBT Vce(sat) as low as 1.75V (175°C) and low Eoff, the 800 A QDual3 module dissipates 10% lower energy losses than the next-best alternative. The modules also meet the stringent standards required of an automotive application.
“Increased electrification of commercial fleets such as trucks and busses and the need of renewable energy sources demand solutions that can generate, store and distribute power more efficiently. Transferring energy from renewable sources to the grid, storage systems and to downstream loads with the lowest power losses possible is increasingly critical,” said Sravan Vanaparthy, vice president, Industrial Power Division, Power Solutions Group, onsemi. “With its industry-standard pin-out and market-leading efficiencies, QDual3 enables power electronics designers to plug and play these modules for an immediate performance boost in their systems.”
Original – onsemi
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Texas Instruments introduced the industry’s first 650V three-phase GaN IPM for 250W motor drive applications. The new GaN IPM addresses many of the design and performance compromises engineers typically face when designing major home appliances and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems.
The DRV7308 GaN IPM enables more than 99% inverter efficiency, optimized acoustic performance, reduced solution size and lower system costs. It is on display at the Power Electronics, Intelligent Motion, Renewable Energy and Energy Management (PCIM) Conference, held June 11-13 in Nuremberg, Germany.
“Designers of high-voltage home appliances and HVAC systems are striving to meet higher energy-efficiency standards to support environmental sustainability goals around the world,” said Nicole Navinsky, Motor Drives business unit manager at TI. “They are also addressing consumer demand for systems that are reliable, quiet and compact. With TI’s new GaN IPM, engineers can design motor driver systems that deliver all of these expectations and operates at peak efficiency.”
Improve system efficiency and reliability with TI GaN
Worldwide efficiency standards for appliances and HVAC systems such as SEER, MEPS, Energy Star and Top Runner are becoming increasingly stringent. The DRV7308 helps engineers meet these standards, leveraging GaN technology to deliver more than 99% efficiency and improve thermal performance, with 50% reduced power losses compared to existing solutions.
In addition, the DRV7308 achieves industry-low dead time and low propagation delay, both less than 200ns, enabling higher pulse-width modulation (PWM) switching frequencies that reduce audible noise and system vibration. These advantages plus the higher power efficiency and integrated features of the DRV7308 also reduce motor heating, which can improve reliability and extend the lifetime of the system.
To learn more about the benefits of GaN technology, read the white paper, “How three-phase integrated GaN technology maximizes motor-drive performance.”
Advanced integration and high power density reduce solution size and costs
Supporting the trend of more compact home appliances, the DRV7308 helps engineers develop smaller motor drive systems. Enabled by GaN technology, the new IPM delivers high power density in a 12mm-by-12mm package, making it the industry’s smallest IPM for 150W to 250W motor-drive applications.
Because of its high efficiency, the DRV7308 eliminates the need for an external heatsink, resulting in motor drive inverter printed circuit board (PCB) size reduction of up to 55% compared to competing IPM solutions. The integration of a current sense amplifier, protection features and inverter stage further reduces solution size and cost.
To learn about designing more efficient, compact motor systems, see the GaN IPM page on TI.com.
This high-efficiency, high-voltage GaN IPM is the latest example of TI innovations to help solve engineering challenges and transform motor designs.
TI’s reliable high-voltage technology at PCIM 2024
Visitors to PCIM can see new products and solutions from TI that are enabling the transition to a more sustainable future with reliable high-voltage technology in Hall 7, Booth 652. In addition to the DRV7308 GaN IPM, TI highlights at PCIM include:
- Next-generation electric vehicle (EV) propulsion system: TI is demonstrating a new 800V, 750kW SiC-based scalable traction inverter system for EV six-phase motors, in collaboration with EMPEL Systems. The demonstration features high power density and efficiency using TI’s high-performance isolated gate drivers, isolated DC/DC power modules and Arm® Cortex®-R MCUs.
- TI’s manager of high-voltage power systems applications, Sheng-Yang Yu, will speak on June 11 in the Markt & Technik panel discussion: “Will SiC ultimately Hold its Own against GaN?”
- TI’s manager of renewable energy systems, Harald Parzhuber, will speak on June 12 in Bodo’s Power Systems panel discussion: “GaN Wide Bandgap Design, the Future of Power.”
Original – Texas Instruments
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hofer powertrain announced the commencement of a groundbreaking research project in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich), focusing on the development of a state-of-the-art multilevel Gallium Nitride (GaN) traction inverter. Supported by a prestigious funding from INNOSUISSE, the Swiss Agency of Innovation Promotion, which advances science-based innovations in the interest of the economy and society in Switzerland. The next steps in this project will enable the pursuit of cutting-edge advancements in power electronics even further.
The core objective of the project is to rapidly develop an advanced multilevel traction inverter integrating Gallium Nitride (GaN) switches. hofer powertrain has made significant strides in developing advanced multilevel power electronics utilizing Gallium Nitride (GaN) chip technology over the last four years, resulting in enhanced efficiency and power density compared to silicon-based systems.
Their latest 800V GaN inverters have showcased remarkable performance in tests. The collaborative project with ETH Zurich builds on that experience to realize a revolutionary inverter solution, which aims to leverage a novel modulation scheme, operate at very high switching frequencies, and incorporate a wide array of additional pioneering features that the company has been working on in recent years.
ETH has appointed a highly qualified PhD candidate to lead the research efforts, ensuring the project benefits from fresh, innovative thinking and rigorous academic oversight. The project will be supervised by Professor Johann Biela from ETH Zurich, a renowned expert in power electronics, and Lukasz Roslaniec, the division lead of power electronics at hofer powertrain, who brings extensive industry experience to the table and has been working on these technologies proactively.
The funding from Innosuisse underscores the project’s significance and potential impact in the country and the DACH-region. This financial support will facilitate the design of a new, optimized, and highly efficient three-level GaN power inverter, featuring adaptive gate drivers to improve switching controllability and further reduce energy losses. The outcome will significantly enhance the performance and efficiency of powertrain systems for modern electrified vehicles, making a substantial contribution to the future of mobility.
Dr. Lukasz Roslaniec highlights the driving force behind this project, stating, “We eagerly anticipate the fruitful collaboration with ETH, renowned for its groundbreaking work in Power Electronics and Electric Drives. We are confident that our partnership will yield solutions that are not only technologically advanced and unparalleled but also financially accessible, thereby pushing the adoption of electric vehicles and environmental sustainability in the region and beyond.”
Original – hofer powertrain
