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GlobalFoundries has joined the LOT Network, the world’s largest patent licensing platform and non-profit community of global companies committed to protecting themselves against costly litigation from patent assertion entities (PAEs). With this move, GF joins a community of more than 4,500 companies that include half of the top 20 largest U.S. patent holders, and half of the S&P Global 100 and Fortune 100.
Semiconductors play an ever-increasing and vital role in driving innovation, enabling diverse applications across high-growth markets such as artificial intelligence, automotive, smart devices and advanced healthcare technologies. With a global footprint spanning three continents, GF is a leading innovator of differentiated essential chip technologies and has added its nearly 10,000 global patent assets in semiconductor manufacturing, test, and design to the protections of LOT Network.
PAEs, referred to by some as “patent trolls”, are responsible for more than 87 percent of all patent litigation against the high-tech industry. Many of the patents used are acquired from the industry itself and are used by the PAEs to profit through litigation against other members of the industry.
GF’s membership in LOT Network protects the company and minimizes litigation risk, allowing the company to focus on innovation that will drive advancements in smarter, more secure, connected and efficient devices. LOT Network membership provides a global shield, with members from 56 different countries.
“Semiconductors are the key building blocks for so many products that the world relies on to live, work and connect. We are committed to protecting our technology and securely manufacturing the essential chips our customers, partners and industry rely on,” said Adam Noah, Chief IP Counsel at GF. “By joining the LOT Network, we are further safeguarding our business and our customers against PAE litigation, allowing us to focus on the important work of delivering world-class technology solutions. We encourage others within the semiconductor manufacturing and design ecosystem to address the PAE drain on resources by joining LOT’s protective community, which provides strength in numbers.”
“GF is the perfect role model for a U.S.-based semiconductor supplier,” said Ken Seddon, CEO of LOT Network. “Not only are they protecting their business, but they are also protecting their customers, as all GF products now come with free immunization to over 20 percent of all US patents. GF is a semiconductor visionary for recognizing the critical role it plays in the protection not just of the semiconductor industry, but the many verticals that rely upon its technologies as well.”
Original – GlobalFoundries
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LATEST NEWS / PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY3 Min Read
Littelfuse, Inc. announced the launch of its TPSMB Asymmetrical TVS Diode Series, the first-to-market asymmetrical transient voltage suppression (TVS) diode specifically designed for the protection of Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFET gate drivers in automotive applications.
This innovative product addresses the increasing demand for reliable overvoltage protection in next-generation electric vehicle (EV) systems, delivering a compact, single-component solution that replaces multiple Zener diodes or TVS components traditionally used for gate driver protection. View the video.
The TPSMB Asymmetrical TVS Diode Series provides superior protection for SiC MOSFET gate drivers, which are prone to overvoltage events due to faster switching speeds compared to traditional silicon-based MOSFETs or IGBTs. The unique asymmetrical design of the TPSMB Series supports SiC MOSFETs’ differing positive and negative gate driver voltage ratings, ensuring enhanced performance in a variety of demanding automotive power applications where SiC MOSFETs are used, including:
- Onboard chargers (OBCs)
- EV traction Inverters
- I/O interfaces
- Vcc buses
These applications demand high-performance overvoltage protection (OVP) for SiC MOSFET gate drivers to ensure optimal performance, longevity, and efficiency.
Charlie Cai, Director of Product Management, Protection Business, Littelfuse, emphasizes the value this product brings to automotive engineers: “The TPSMB Asymmetrical TVS Diode Series offers an innovative solution for SiC MOSFET gate driver protection, eliminating the need for multiple components and simplifying the design process for engineers. Its compact, reliable design ensures that critical automotive power systems are safeguarded against overvoltage events, supporting the continued advancement of electric vehicles and other high-performance applications.”
The TPSMB Asymmetrical Series Surface-Mount TVS Diode offers the following key features and benefits:
- A Single-Component SiC MOSFET Gate Driver Protection: Eliminates the need for multiple Zener or TVS diodes, streamlining design and reducing component count.
- Asymmetrical Gate Driver Voltage Protection: Designed to protect SiC MOSFET gate drivers, which require different negative and positive voltage ratings.
- Compact Design: Available in a DO-214AA (SMB J-Bend) package, the series is ideal for space-constrained automotive designs.
- Automotive-Grade Quality: AEC-Q101-qualified, ensuring the highest reliability for automotive applications.
- High Power Dissipation: 600W peak pulse power dissipation (10×1000μs waveform) offers robust protection against transient overvoltage events.
- Low Clamping Voltage: VC < 10 V @ 30 A (8/20 µs) for optimal negative gate drive protection.
- Wide Frequency Stability: Stable capacitance across a wide operating frequency range, up to 2 MHz, making it ideal for SiC MOSFET applications.
- Compatible with Leading SiC MOSFETs: Suited for use with Littelfuse and other market-leading automotive SiC MOSFETs.
Original – Littelfuse
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Ideal Power Inc. secured its first design win for solid-state circuit breakers (SSCBs) with one of the largest circuit protection equipment manufacturers in Asia serving the industrial and utility markets.
In connection with this design win, the Company entered into a joint development agreement for a SSCB product incorporating multiple B-TRAN® devices. The agreement includes the product design, prototype builds and testing of the SSCB which is targeted for completion in the second quarter of 2025 to be followed by commercial sales later in the year.
For Ideal Power, the opportunity from this customer’s first B-TRAN®-based product could potentially translate to revenue of several hundred thousand dollars in the first year of sales, with the opportunity to exceed a million dollars in revenue in the second year of sales. We expect this product to be their first of multiple products incorporating B-TRAN® into SSCBs as the customer is interested in offering a suite of B-TRAN®-enabled SSCBs with a wide range of ratings. As a result, the overall opportunity with this customer could eventually lead to sales of a million units per year based on the customer’s projections.
The customer’s products are focused on renewable energy, circuit protection for industrial equipment and facilities, utility grid infrastructure and power distribution. They currently sell over 200 thousand circuit breakers per year to their large established customer base in the Asian market. They have a decades-long legacy of innovation to meet the current and future needs of their customers. Their initial B-TRAN®-enabled SSCB will be marketed to grid-tied solar and energy storage equipment providers and utility electric distribution network companies.
Other potential applications with the customer include data centers, lighting and air conditioning systems, electric vehicles, including vehicle-to-grid power conversion and EV contactors, and other energy storage solutions. The customer evaluated B-TRAN® against SiC MOSFETs and selected B-TRAN® due to its ultra-low conduction losses and inherent bidirectionality.
“Today’s design win is a milestone representing significant validation of B-TRAN® as an enabling technology for SSCBs and a catalyst for our revenue ramp in industrial markets. Now that we have captured our first design win for SSCBs, we will leverage this win to secure additional design wins with other SSCB customers in the coming months to drive long-term value creation for our shareholders,” stated Dan Brdar, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ideal Power.
For SSCB applications, the Company’s B-TRAN® technology dramatically lowers conduction losses compared to IGBT and silicon carbide MOSFET-based SSCBs while offering inherent bidirectionality, reducing the number of devices required for a given circuit breaker rating. Compared to conventional electromechanical breakers, B-TRAN®-based SSCBs are expected to offer orders of magnitude faster operation along with programmability and diagnostic capability and enhanced safety and reliability. B-TRAN® potentially lays a path to broad SSCB adoption by industrial, utility and military customers. The Company estimates a $1 billion serviceable addressable market (SAM) for B-TRAN® for the solid-state switchgear market, inclusive of SSCBs.
Original – Ideal Power
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LATEST NEWS2 Min Read
Infineon Technologies AG and Eve Energy Co., Ltd., a manufacturer of lithium batteries, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU). The two companies aim at enabling comprehensive battery management system solutions for the automotive market.
As part of the MoU, Infineon will supply a complete chipset, including microcontroller units, balancing and monitoring ICs, power management ICs, drivers, MOSFETs, controller area networks and sensor products. Equipped with these solutions, EVE Energy’s battery management system can provide high safety, high reliability and optimized cost. It also enables more accurate monitoring, protection and optimization of electric vehicle battery performance and improves driving experience and energy efficiency.
“The rapid growth in electrification has driven the need for advanced battery solutions. The partnership between Infineon’s advanced battery management ICs and EVE Energy`s advanced battery technologies will pave the way for the next generation of intelligent battery packs,” said Andreas Doll, Senior Vice President and General Manager Smart Power at Infineon. “Infineon offers a comprehensive and advanced system-level solution that meets the diverse needs of customers. We believe that further cooperation between the two sides will foster positive interaction and collaborative development at various levels.”
“EVE Energy has experienced rapid growth in the field of battery management systems in recent years, and we are determined to continue this development. Therefore, we highly value the partnership with Infineon,” said Liu Jianhua, co-founder and president of EVE Energy. “Our goal is to jointly introduce more advanced solutions to the market that meet customers’ needs and drive the development of reliable and efficient systems.”
Original – Infineon Technologies
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LATEST NEWS / PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY / Si3 Min Read
Nexperia announced the launch of 16 new 80 V and 100 V power MOSFETs in the innovative copper-clip CCPAK1212 package, delivering industry-leading power density and outright performance. The innovative copper-clip design provides high current conduction, reduced parasitic inductance, and excellent thermal performance. These features make the devices ideal for motor control, power supplies, renewable energy systems, and other power-hungry applications.
The range also includes application-specific MOSFETs (ASFETs) designed for AI server hot-swap functions. With top-side and bottom-side cooling options, these MOSFETs in CCPAK provide high power density and reliable solutions. All devices are supported by JEDEC registration and Nexperia’s interactive datasheets for seamless integration.
The benchmark PSMN1R0-100ASF is a 0.99 mΩ 100 V power MOSFET capable of conducting 460 A and dissipating 1.55 KW of power, yet in a CCPAK1212 package footprint that occupies only 12mm x 12mm of board space. The PSMN1R0-100CSF offers similar statistics in a top-side cooled version.
The secret to this impressive performance is the internal construction of the devices. The “CC” in CCPAK1212 stands for copper clip, meaning that the power MOSFET silicon die is sandwiched between two pieces of copper, the drain tab on one side and the source clip on the other. With wire bonds entirely eliminated, such an optimized assembly offers a low on-resistance, reduced parasitic inductances, high maximum current ratings and excellent thermal performance.
CCPAK1212 NextPower 80/100 V MOSFETs are recommended for power-hungry industrial applications where high efficiency and high reliability are critical, including brushless DC (BLDC) motor control, switched-mode power supplies (SMPS), battery management systems (BMS) and renewable energy storage. The availability of such power-capable MOSFETs in a single package reduces the need for parallelism, simplifying designs and offering more compact, cost-effective solutions.
The Nexperia CCPAK1212 announcement also includes some new application specific MOSFETs (ASFETs) targeting the hot-swap function in increasingly powerful AI servers. These devices feature an enhanced safe operating area (SOA), providing superior thermal stability during linear mode transitions.
Across all these applications, the availability of top-side and bottom-side cooling options provides engineers a choice of thermal extraction techniques, especially helpful where dissipating heat through the PCB is impractical due to the sensitivity of other components.
“Despite offering market-leading performance, we know that some customers will be reticent to design-in a relatively new package”, stated Chris Boyce, Product Group General Manager at Nexperia. “For this reason, we have registered the CCPAK1212 with the JEDEC standards organization (reference MO-359). We followed a similar approach when we introduced the first LFPAK MOSFET package some years ago and as a result there are now many compatible devices available in the market. You are never on your own for long when your innovations offer genuine value to your customers”, concluded Boyce.
All the new CCPAK1212 MOSFET devices are supported with a range of advanced design-in tools, including thermally compensated simulation models. Traditional PDF datasheets are supplemented with Nexperia’s user-friendly interactive datasheets, which now incorporate a new “graph-to-csv” feature that allows engineers to download, analyze and interpret the data behind each device’s key characteristics. This not only streamlines the design process but enhances confidence in design choices.
Nexperia plans to extend CCPAK1212 packaging to power MOSFETs across all voltage ranges and also to its automotive qualified AEC-Q101 portfolios, addressing the evolving demands of next-generation systems with the highest current and thermal performance requirements.
Original – Nexperia