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Axcelis Technologies, Inc. has received the Texas Instruments 2023 Supplier Excellence Award. The annual award honors companies whose dedication and commitment in supplying products and services meet TI’s high standards for excellence. Recipients are an elite group of suppliers chosen for their exemplary performance in the areas of Cost, Environmental & Social Responsibility, Technology, Responsiveness, Assurance of Supply, and Quality.
“It is a tremendous honor for Axcelis to once again receive the Supplier Excellence Award from Texas Instruments,” said Russell Low, Axcelis’ President and Chief Executive Officer. “This is the fifth time Axcelis has received this prestigious award over the last 11 years and is a testament to our dedication to customer collaboration and success, and our commitment to a strong partnership with Texas Instruments. We look forward to continuing to serve the installed base with value added upgrades and services and participating in Texas Instruments’ expansion plans in the near future.”
Rob Simpson, Vice President of Worldwide Procurement and Logistics at Texas Instruments, commented, “Axcelis’ exceptional commitment to innovation and collaboration has set them apart and helped us achieve our priorities to serve our customers.”
Original – Axcelis Technologies
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ROHM and STMicroelectronics announced the expansion of the existing multi-year, long-term 150mm silicon carbide (SiC) substrate wafers supply agreement with SiCrystal, a ROHM group company. The new multi-year agreement governs the supply of larger volumes of SiC substrate wafers manufactured in Nuremberg, Germany, for a minimum expected value of $230 million.
Geoff West, EVP and Chief Procurement Officer, STMicroelectronics, commented “This expanded agreement with SiCrystal will bring additional volumes of 150mm SiC substrate wafers to support our devices manufacturing capacity ramp-up for automotive and industrial customers worldwide. It helps strengthen our supply chain resilience for future growth, with a balanced mix of in-house and commercial supply across regions”.
“SiCrystal is a group company of ROHM, a leading company of SiC, and has been manufacturing SiC substrate wafers for many years. We are very pleased to extend this supply agreement with our longstanding customer ST. We will continue to support our partner to expand SiC business by ramping up 150mm SiC substrate wafer quantities continuously and by always providing reliable quality”.said Dr. Robert Eckstein, President and CEO of SiCrystal, a ROHM group company.
Energy-efficient SiC power semiconductors enable electrification in the automotive and industrial sectors in a more sustainable way. By facilitating more efficient energy generation, distribution and storage, SiC supports the transition to cleaner mobility solutions, lower emissions industrial processes and a greener energy future, as well as more reliable power supplies for resource-intensive infrastructure like data centers dedicated to AI applications.
Original – STMicroelectronics
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STMicroelectronics unveiled L99H92 automotive gate driver which provides an SPI port for programming and diagnostics, a charge pump, protective features, and two additional current-sense amplifiers for system monitoring.
Containing two high-side and two low-side drivers, the L99H92 can control a single H-bridge powering one bidirectional DC motor or two half bridges for two unidirectional motors. Typical applications for the highly integrated and easily configurable driver include electric sunroof, window lift, powered trunk, sliding doors, and seat-belt pre-tensioners.
The charge pump powers the high-side drivers to maintain correct operation as the vehicle battery voltage fluctuates, enabling the outputs to function with a supply as low as 5.41V. The charge-pump output is also available at an external pin to control a MOSFET for reverse-battery protection.
The gate-driving current is programmed through the SPI port, allowing slew-rate control to minimize electromagnetic emissions and thermal dissipation. Programming the current saves up to four external discrete components per MOSFET, typically needed for slew-rate setting with conventional drivers. The maximum drive current of 170mA gives designers flexibility to use the driver with a wide variety of external MOSFETs, including high-power devices with large gate capacitance.
With many features for system protection and diagnostics, the L99H92 is built for reliability and safety. There is overcurrent protection with a programmable threshold, detected by monitoring the MOSFET drain current. Also, cross-conduction protection with programmable dead time ensures safety and efficiency. Additional protection includes overtemperature early warning and shutdown, overvoltage and undervoltage protection on analog and digital power supply inputs, and open-load and output short-circuit detection in off-state diagnostic mode.
A fail-safe input can turn off all MOSFETs instantaneously and a dedicated diagnostic pin provides immediate fault warning without waiting for periodic SPI transfers.
Additionally, two current-sense amplifiers are integrated for system-status monitoring, helping minimize the bill of materials. Suitable for high-side, low-side, and inline sensing, the amplifiers have independently programmable gain, low offset, and low thermal drift. They can be independently disabled to reduce current consumption when unused.
Original – STMicroelectronics
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Wolfspeed, Inc. issued the following statement in response to the letter from JANA Partners (“JANA”) to Wolfspeed’s Board of Directors:
Wolfspeed’s Board of Directors and management team maintain an open dialogue with, and value constructive input from, our shareholders. The company continually evaluates options to enhance long-term value and is committed to acting in the best interests of all our shareholders. The Wolfspeed Board will carefully review JANA’s letter, and we look forward to engaging with them in the near future.
Original – Wolfspeed
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Semilab Zrt. and Fraunhofer IISB announced the official kick-off of their strategic partnership.
Within their new joint lab, located at the IISB in Erlangen, the partners develop state-of-the-art metrology and inspection solutions for (ultra-) wide-bandgap semiconductor materials.
The goal is to take semiconductor metrology to a next level along the value chain, from base material to die. By bringing new features and tools from lab to market, new standards for SiC, GaN and other (U)WBG semiconductors will be set.Original – Fraunhofer IISB
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Navitas Semiconductor announced that Virtual Forest, one of India’s leading electronics design companies specializing in motor control and human interface technologies for consumer appliances, fluid movement and mobility, has adopted its GaNFast™ power integrated circuits (IC) technology for a zero-emission, powerful 3 hp (2,250W) solar-powered irrigation pump.
For many farmers worldwide, irrigating remote crops requires powerful pumps to lift water from rivers and streams up to field-level, with the majority powered by polluting and noisy diesel generators or expensive, lossy long-distance electrical cables. The Virtual Forest solar pump with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) operates in conjunction with solar panel and energy storage to provide robust, energy-independent and pollution-free performance at the point of use.
The 3 hp (2,250W) pump is remotely accessed via quad-band IoT with low power consumption. It can raise over 50 gallons-per-minute of water to a height of over 90 feet, enough to water 3 acres of farmland, and help to produce 10 tonnes of wheat. Further, the IoT enabled solar pump ensures optimal water usage through intelligent analytics, therefore minimizing ground water utilization.
Navitas GaNSense™ half-bridge power ICs monolithically by integrating two GaN power FETs with GaN drivers, level-shifters, protection features and high-efficiency loss-less current sensing. High-efficiency NV6269 half-bridge ICs, in easy-to-use 8×10 mm QFN packages are used in a 3-phase motor inverter, with 3x-5x energy savings vs legacy silicon IGBTs.
“The $450 million solar-pump market in India is expected to reach $1.5 Bn by 2026, calling for a solar revolution on Indian fields,” said Virtual Forest’s CEO, Omer Basith, adding “Reliable, off-grid systems are critical to overcome food insecurity and achieve energy efficiency. Leveraging Navitas’ high-power, efficient GaNSense™ half-bridge, we seek to deliver a robust solution to the market. We are nurturing our dream to drive gigatons of reduction in carbon emissions, thereby making the world a greener place to live in. Hence, our name — Virtual Forest.”
“The design team at Virtual Forest adopted the GaNSense half-bridges very quickly, for a fast time-to-market,” said Alessandro Squeri, Navitas’ Senior Sales Director. “With GaNSense, ‘easy-to-use feature, Virtual Forest comes into the partnership with high efficiency, low component count and a robust design for tough environments.”
Original – Navitas Semiconductor
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Infineon Technologies AG supplies its power semiconductor devices to FOXESS, a fast-growing leader in the green energy industry and a manufacturer of inverters and energy storage systems. The two sides aim at promoting the development of green energy.
Infineon will provide FOXESS with its CoolSiC™ MOSFETs 1200 V, which will be used with EiceDRIVER™ gate drivers for industrial energy storage applications. At the same time, FOXESS’ string PV inverters will use Infineon’s IGBT7 H7 1200 V power semiconductor devices.
The global market for photovoltaic energy storage systems (PV-ES) has grown at a high speed in the last years. As competition in the PV-ES market accelerates, improving power density has become key to success, and how to improve efficiency and power density for energy storage applications has attracted much attention. Infineon’s CoolSiC MOSFET 1200 V and IGBT7 H7 1200 V series power semiconductor devices adopt the latest semiconductor technologies and design concepts that are tailored to industrial applications.
Mr. Yu Daihui, Senior Vice President and Head of Industrial & Infrastructure of Infineon Technologies Greater China said, “As an industry leader in power semiconductors, we are proud to work closely with FOXESS. We will continue to drive decarbonization by enabling higher power density and more reliable systems for PV-ES applications.”
Mr. Zhu Jingcheng, Chairman of FOXESS, said, “Thanks to the support of Infineon’s advanced components, FOXESS’ products have been significantly improved in terms of reliability and efficiency. This has been an important driving force for FOXESS’ growth. Infineon’s technical support and product quality have not only strengthened our competitiveness, but also expanded our presence in the market. We are confident about the future and look forward to further cooperation with Infineon to jointly promote the development of the industry and create greater value for our customers.”
With a high power density, Infineon’s CoolSiC MOSFETs 1200 V can reduce losses by 50 percent and provide ~2 percent additional energy without increasing the battery size, which is especially beneficial for high-performance, lightweight, and compact energy storage solutions. FOXESS’ H3PRO 15 kW-30 kW energy storage series uses Infineon’s CoolSiC MOSFETs 1200 V for all models. Thanks to Infineon’s excellent performance, the H3PRO series has achieved an efficiency of up to 98.1 percent and excellent EMC performance; with superior performance and reliability, the H3PRO series has seen rapid sales growth in the global market.
Infineon’s TRENCHSTOP IGBT7 H7 650 V / 1200 V series has lower losses and helps improve the overall efficiency and power density of inverters. In high-power inverter projects, high-current mold packaged discrete devices with current handling capability above 100 A can reduce the number of IGBTs in parallel and replace the IGBT module solution, further improving system reliability and reducing costs; in addition, the H7 series has become an industry benchmark for its high-quality performance and greater resistance to humidity.
At present, FOXESS’ main industrial and commercial model, the R Series 75-110 kW, redefines the overall design of the 100 kW model by using IGBT7 H7 series discretes, and the efficiency of the whole machine can reach up to 98.6 percent. Thanks to the low power loss and high power density of the IGBT7 H7 series in discrete packages, technical problems such as current sharing in the paralleling process can be simplified and optimized.
Every power device needs a driver, and the right driver can make the design a lot easier. Infineon offers more than 500 EiceDRIVER gate drivers with typical output currents of 0.1 A~18 A and comprehensive protection functions including fast short-circuit protection (DESAT), active Miller clamp, shoot-through protection, fault reporting, shutdown, and overcurrent protection, suitable for all power devices including CoolSiC and IGBTs.
Original – Infineon Technologies
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SemiQ announced a partnership with ClearComm Technical Sales, a specialist manufacturer’s representative serving the computing, communication, industrial, and consumer sectors across the Southeastern United States.
The strategic alliance will enhance SemiQ’s presence and support in North America, particularly in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Headquartered in Huntsville, AL, ClearComm will serve as SemiQ’s representative, providing expert technical sales support to customers seeking innovative semiconductor solutions. With an extensive network and a proven track record in the industry, ClearComm is well-positioned to effectively promote SemiQ’s portfolio of standard and custom SiC power semiconductors, including MOSFETs and diodes, in discrete, module, and known good die formats.
SemiQ is renowned for its commitment to delivering high-performance and reliable SiC solutions tailored to meet the diverse needs of demanding applications including solar energy, electric vehicle (EV) charging, automotive, medical, and energy storage. By partnering with ClearComm, SemiQ aims to accelerate customer engagement in the southeastern U.S., and ensure seamless access to its cutting-edge products and engineering support.
“We are thrilled to join forces with ClearComm Technical Sales to expand our reach and better serve customers in North America,” said Dr. Timothy Han, President at SemiQ. “ClearComm’s extensive experience and technical expertise align perfectly with our commitment to delivering superior SiC solutions for ultra-efficient, high-performance, and high-voltage applications. Together, we look forward to driving innovation and empowering customers with advanced SiC power semiconductor technologies.”
“ClearComm Technical Sales is excited to partner with SemiQ in the Southeastern U.S. to drive sales of the company’s SiC diodes, MOSFETS, and power modules,” said Ken Erickson, Principal at ClearComm. “The SiC market is fast-growing in high-efficiency, power applications and together ClearComm and SemiQ will provide customers with best-in-class SiC solutions and support.”
Original – SemiQ
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MCC Semi introduced new high-performance 40V N-channel MOSFETs. These components leverage split-gate trench (SGT) technology and full AEC-Q101 qualification in compact packages.
Both MCU2D8N04YHQ and MCB2D8N04YHQ also boast low on-resistance of only 2.8mΩ, ensuring efficient power management in a diverse range of automotive systems.
These versatile MOSFETs in high-demand DPAK and D2PAK packages ensure a seamless upgrade path with minimal changes for integration within existing designs. Adding to their unquestionable performance in harsh conditions, these components have a high operating junction temperature of up to 175°C.
Whether it’s a battery management system or electric water pump, these new MOSFETs are up for delivering the ultimate in reliability for challenging automotive applications.
Features & Benefits:
- Fully AEC-Q101 qualified
- Split-gate trench (SGT) technology
- Low RDS(on)
- High power density package
- High junction temperature up to 175℃
- Available in compact DPAK and D2PAK packages
Original – Micro Commercial Components
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Axcelis Technologies, Inc. arranged multiple shipments of the Purion Power Series™ ion implanter systems to leading silicon carbide (SiC) power device chipmakers worldwide. The shipments, all shipped in the first quarter, included the Purion H200™ SiC high current, the Purion XE™ SiC high energy and the Purion M™ SiC medium current implanters.
The 150mm and 200mm systems will be used in high volume production of power devices supporting automotive, industrial, energy, and other power intensive applications.
President and CEO Russell Low commented, “We continue to win new customers and expand our footprint at existing customers globally. The Purion Power Series is the market leader due to its highly differentiated features and process control capabilities that are enabling for power device applications. Axcelis is the only ion implant company that can deliver complete recipe coverage for all power device applications.”
Original – Axcelis Technologies
