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Infineon Technologies AG announced its commitment to set a science-based target. By that Infineon expands its climate strategy even further. The company is very well on track towards CO2-neutrality by 2030, relating to its direct and indirect energy related emissions (Scope 1 and 2).
After having already reduced these emissions by 56.8 percent to date versus the base year of 2019, Infineon now sets itself even more ambitious targets by involving the supply chain (Scope 3) in the company’s climate protection efforts.
“Decarbonization is a guiding principle for Infineon. We have made great progress. With our commitment to set a science-based target, we are taking the next important step, adhering to the widely respected global standard for tackling climate change”, said Elke Reichart, Chief Digital Transformation Officer and responsible for Sustainability at Infineon. “We are actively inviting our suppliers to join us on our journey by setting their own carbon reduction targets. To truly address climate change, collaboration across the entire value chain, transparent and comprehensive data as well as global standards are foundational.”
Infineon has doubled its revenue since 2019 and halved its CO2 emissions (Scope 1 and 2) at the same time. The main drivers for lowering emissions are energy efficiency measures, comprehensive PFC abatement measures and switching its operations to renewable energy, which makes proportionally the largest contribution.
In 2023, Infineon reaches another key milestone in this respect. The two largest manufacturing sites in Asia – Kulim and Melaka in Malaysia – have now transitioned to green electricity, following the switch to renewables at its European and North American sites in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) serves as a benchmark for ambitious climate action in the private sector. The initiative provides a clearly defined pathway for companies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Targets are considered ‘science-based’ if they are in line with the latest climate science in order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement – limiting global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. SBTi is a partnership between the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
In 2020, Infineon had set its carbon neutrality target 2030 (Scope 1 and 2 emissions) already in line with science-based target requirements. With the expansion of its climate strategy to include Scope 3, Infineon is working closely together with supply chain partners and is putting special emphasis on further improvements in data availability and accuracy.
Original – Infineon Technologies
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Dr. Christian Kranert, Group Manager Equipment and Defect Simulation of the Materials Department at Fraunhofer IISB, developed a new software for the fast, full-wafer and automated detection and classification of crystal defects in silicon carbide (SiC) substrates. He also pushed the licensing of his new, so-called x-ray ropography (XRT) toolbox to the users of the x-ray topography measuring device XRTmicron from Rigaku. Another highlight is the establishment of two new SEMI International Standards for 4H-SiC defect quantification using XRT test methods.
These outstanding results confirm the success of the Joint Labs model at Fraunhofer IISB. Joint Labs are an exclusive opportunity to collaborate with Fraunhofer IISB in an industry-compatible laboratory environment.
Rigaku Europe SE and Fraunhofer IISB are operating the Center of Expertise for X-ray Topography, a joint lab that is located at the IISB’s headquarters in Erlangen, Germany. This fruitful collaboration is vividly illustrated by the new business in the field of SiC wafer mapping, which Rigaku has built up around its XRTmicron product line in less than two years.
The new LZE Prize honors Fraunhofer IISB employees for exceptional achievements. The LZE Prize is awarded for outstanding acquisitions or particularly successful collaborations, new networks with domestic and foreign partners or above-average achievements in the transfer of know-how from research to industry. The Leistungszentrum Elektroniksysteme (LZE) is a joint initiative of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Fraunhofer IIS, Fraunhofer IISB, and FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), together with industry partners and further research institutes.
Original – Fraunhofer IISB
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The paradigm shift towards offloading complexity to suppliers and adopting smaller IGBT modules is evident in various applications. In response to the global push for downsizing and integration, Infineon Technologies AG introduced the 4.5 kV XHP™ 3 IGBT modules that will fundamentally change the landscape for medium voltage drives (MVD) and transportation applications operating at 2000 to 3300 V AC in 2- and 3-level topologies.
Applications benefiting from the new devices include large conveyor belts, pumps, high-speed trains, locomotives, as well as commercial, construction and agricultural vehicles (CAV).
The XHP family comprises a 450 A dual IGBT module with TRENCHSTOP™ IGBT4 and an emitter-controlled diode, and a 450 A double diode module with emitter-controlled E4 Diode. Both modules feature improved isolation of 10.4 kV. Together, they help to simplify paralleling and downsizing without sacrificing efficiency.
Previously, complex busbars were required to parallelize switching modules, resulting in complicated design efforts and leakage inductance. The innovative design of the XHP family simplifies paralleling by conveniently placing the connections side by side. As a result, only a single straight busbar is required for paralleling.
The 4.5 kV XHP family also allows developers to reduce the number of units. Conventional IGBT solutions use multiple single switches and a double diode. With the new devices, however, designs can be reduced to two dual switches and a smaller double diode – a significant step forward in integrated drives.
The combination of the XHP 3 FF450R45T3E4_B5 dual switch and the DD450S45T3E4_B5 double diode enables significant cost savings and a smaller footprint. For example, Infineon’s previous IGBT solutions required four 140 x 190 mm² or 140 x 130 mm² switches and one 140 x 130 mm² double diode. With the new XHP family, the components can be reduced to two 140 x 100 mm² dual switches and a smaller 140 x 100 mm² double diode.
The IGBT modules FF450R45T3E4_B5 and DD450S45T3E4_B5 are available now. More information is available at www.infineon.com/XHP.
Original – Infineon Technologies
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Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation announced new board of directors, with an effective date of December 22, 2023.
The composition of the Board of Directors and the company’s Auditors, as of December 22, 2023, will be as follows:
Directors and Officers of the Company
Director, President & CEO Taro Shimada (Toshiba Corporation)
Director, Vice President Noriyasu Kurihara
Director Seiichi Mori
Director Norifumi Inukubo (Toshiba Corporation)
Director Hiroshi Kuriki (Toshiba Corporation)
Director Shin Kurosawa
Director Hiroyuki Shinki (Toshiba Corporation)
Director Yutaka Sata (Toshiba Corporation)
Auditor Hiroki Okada
Auditor Masami Takaoka
Auditor Akira Nakanishi (Toshiba Corporation)Retiring Director as of December 22, 2023
Hiroyuki SatoOriginal – Toshiba
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Qorvo® announced that its QSPICE™ circuit simulation software was honored as the Design Tool and Development Software Product of the Year at the 2023 Elektra Awards. This year’s Elektra Award winners were named at a ceremony in London on November 29, 2023, to recognize outstanding achievements by the most innovative and talented individuals and companies in the electronics industry.
Jeff Strang, general manager for Qorvo’s Power Management business, said, “We are extremely gratified to be recognized at this year’s Elektra Awards. Qorvo’s QSPICE represents a breakthrough in power and analog circuit design and development by improving simulation speed, functionality and reliability. We believe this prestigious industry award will encourage designers everywhere to leverage this powerful tool for their most complex projects.”
Qorvo’s winning product, QSPICE, is a new generation of circuit simulation software that offers significantly better SPICE basics, supports vast amounts of digital logic without performance penalties and provides the speed and accuracy required for reliable power electronics simulation. Since its introduction in July 2023, QSPICE has been downloaded by more than 15,000 users. QSPICE is available free of charge and actively supported by Qorvo as well as a robust user community through Qorvo’s QSPICE forum at http://forum.qorvo.com/.
The Elektra Awards are decided by an independent panel of senior representatives from end-user organizations, consultants and key industry players selected by the editors of Electronics Weekly. Every judge signs a non-disclosure agreement and must declare any association or involvement with any of the entries. Their meetings are held in private, confidential environments and all scores are collated, verified and averaged to determine the winners.
Original – Qorvo
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Power Integrations announced that it has been Certified™ by Great Place To Work® for a second consecutive year. In a recent anonymous survey, 85 percent of employees said that Power Integrations is a great place to work—28 points higher than the average U.S. company. Additionally, 91 percent reported feeling that they make a difference at the company, while 86 percent said they would strongly endorse the company to friends and family as a great place to work.
Stated Balu Balakrishnan, chairman and CEO of Power Integrations: “We are proud to be recognized once again with Great Place To Work Certification. As an innovation-driven company, our success depends on developing a talented, stable workforce and a culture that promotes creativity and risk-taking. While we will always strive to improve, it is gratifying to learn that so many of our employees are happy and proud to be part of Power Integrations.”
“Great Place To Work Certification is a highly coveted achievement that requires consistent and intentional dedication to the overall employee experience,” says Sarah Lewis-Kulin, vice president of global recognition at Great Place To Work.
She emphasizes that Certification is the sole official recognition earned by the real-time feedback of employees regarding their company culture. “By successfully earning this recognition, it is evident that Power Integrations stands out as one of the top companies to work for, providing a great workplace environment for its employees.”
Power Integrations currently has numerous job openings across North America, Europe and Asia. To learn more, interested job seekers can visit the “Careers” page of the Power Integrations website.
Original – Power Integrations
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Aehr Test Systems announced it has received an initial customer order for a FOX-NP™ wafer level test and burn-in system and a FOX WaferPak™ Aligner to be used for gallium nitride (GaN) power devices. The customer is a leading global supplier of semiconductor devices used in electric vehicles and power infrastructure and adds another major customer to the list of companies using Aehr’s FOX products for wafer level test and burn-in of wide bandgap compound semiconductors. The FOX-NP system, including the FOX WaferPak Aligner, is scheduled to ship and be installed in the current fiscal quarter.
As Aehr’s first gallium nitride customer to order a system, this company selected Aehr due in part to its unique ability to offer a total solution that allows customers to apply thermal and electrical stress conditions to thousands of devices while still in wafer form. Aehr’s cutting-edge technology provides critical geolocation information across the wafer while inducing the extrinsic (early life) failures that would otherwise fail in the field without reducing the long-term reliability or life of the good devices.
Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented, “After seeing the positive results from their long and extensive evaluation of our FOX wafer level test systems for their silicon carbide devices, this customer decided to first move forward with our FOX-NP system to test their gallium nitride devices’ long-term reliability failure rates, as well as qualify the production extrinsic failure screening process for their devices in applications where safety, reliability, and/or security are critical.
A key consideration behind their decision is that the FOX-NP system is 100% compatible with the Aehr FOX-XP system that is targeted for high volume production and can support all the test modes needed for both gallium nitride and silicon carbide device testing and burn-in, including high-voltage testing of up to 2,000 volts with full wafer test without electrical arcing that can damage the wafer, which is a distinct advantage of our unique patented technology.
“Similar to silicon carbide, gallium nitride semiconductor MOSFETs are considered wide bandgap devices with much higher efficiencies in terms of power conversion than silicon, with gallium nitride being particularly good for lower power devices such as under 1000 watt power converters used in consumer devices such as cell phones, tablets, and laptop computers, as well as being targeted for automotive power converters for all the electrical systems in automobiles, whether electric vehicles or traditional gasoline automobiles. Gallium nitride MOSFETs are also believed by many industry analysts and technical communities to likely take over silicon as the power converter of choice for photovoltaic (solar panel) applications.
“Gallium nitride and silicon carbide devices both have excellent long-term intrinsic reliability, making them very good for automotive and industrial applications. But both also experience higher than acceptable early life or extrinsic failures related to the material and processing steps. Gallium nitride and silicon carbide semiconductor suppliers can add a special stress or screening test known as burn-in on 100% of the devices to identify and remove these early life failures so that they can meet the end customers’ target reliability needs. This 100% burn-in requirement is not unique to these devices, as it is also the case with microprocessors and microcontrollers, dynamic random-access memories (DRAM), flash non-volatile memories, as well as many sensors used in automotive and other industrial applications.”
Aehr enables its customers to cost-effectively implement the needed testing and qualification process for semiconductor devices that experience early life failures by not only applying the electrical stress condition to every device on the wafer but by also testing up to 18 wafers at a time using the FOX-XP production test and burn in system. These electrical tests are done with up to thousands of precise calibrated electrical source and measurement instruments per wafer. These tests are done while maintaining the temperature at an accurately programmed thermal temperature across each of the wafers using a direct conduction thermal transfer via a proprietary patented precision thermal chuck per wafer.
The FOX-NP compliments Aehr’s production FOX-XP system by using the exact same test ‘Blades’ that are in the FOX-XP to allow 100% correlation between the results on the FOX-NP to the FOX-XP.
The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems, available with multiple WaferPak Contactors (full wafer test) or multiple DiePakTM Carriers (singulated die/module test) configurations, are capable of functional test and burn-in/cycling of devices such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride power semiconductors, silicon photonics as well as other optical devices, 2D and 3D sensors, flash memories, magnetic sensors, microcontrollers, and other leading-edge ICs in either wafer form factor, before they are assembled into single or multi-die stacked packages, or in singulated die or module form factor.
Original – Aehr Test Systems
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SemiQ Inc has expanded its QSiC™ power modules portfolio with the introduction of a new series of 1200V silicon-carbide (SiC) power MOSFETs in half-bridge packages.
Engineered and tested to operate reliably in demanding environments, these new compact, high-performance modules enable high-power-density implementations while minimizing dynamic and static losses.
Featuring high breakdown voltage (>1400V), the new QSiC™ modules support high-temperature operation (Tj = 175°C) with low Rds(On) shift over the full temperature range. In addition, the modules exhibit industry-leading gate oxide stability and long gate oxide lifetime, avalanche unclamped inductive switching (UIS) ruggedness and long short-circuit withstand time.
With a solid foundation of high-performance ceramics, the new SiC modules are suitable for EV charging, on-board chargers (OBCs), DC-DC converters, E-compressors, fuel cell converters, medical power supplies, photovoltaic inverters, energy storage systems, solar and wind energy systems, data center power supplies, UPS/PFC circuits, Vienna rectifiers, and other automotive and industrial applications.
To ensure that each module has a stable gate threshold voltage and high-quality gate oxide, SemiQ’s modules undergo gate burn-in testing at the wafer level. Besides the burn-in test, which helps to stabilize the extrinsic failure rate, stress tests such as gate stress, high-temperature reverse bias (HTRB) drain stress, and high humidity, high voltage, high temperature (H3TRB) allow achieving the required automotive and industrial grade quality levels. The devices also have extended short-circuit ratings. All modules have undergone testing exceeding 1350V.
Dr. Timothy Han, President at SemiQ, said, “SemiQ’s commitment to reliability and testing sets us apart in the semiconductor industry. Our high-performance QSiC™ 1200V MOSFET modules are proven to withstand challenging conditions, enabling engineers to develop reliable systems for the renewable, automotive, medical, and industrial sectors.”
SemiQ’s new 1200V 5mΩ, 10mΩ, and 20mΩ SiC MOSFET are available in industry standard half-bridge packages.
Part Number Circuit Configuration Ratings Typ. RdsOn [mΩ] GCMX010A120B2B1P Half-bridge 1200V/214A, B2 9 GCMX020A120B2B1P Half-bridge 1200V/102A, B2 19 GCMX005A120B3B1P Half-bridge 1200V/383A, B3 4.4 GCMX010A120B3B1P Half-bridge 1200V/173A, B3 9 Original – SemiQ
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Power Integrations announced a new family of plug-and-play gate drivers for 62 mm silicon-carbide (SiC) MOSFET and silicon IGBT modules rated up to 1700 V, with enhanced protection features to ensure safe, reliable operation.
SCALE™-2 2SP0230T2x0 dual-channel gate drivers deploy short-circuit protection in less than two microseconds, protecting the compact SiC MOSFETs against damaging over-currents. The new drivers also include advanced active clamping (AAC) to protect the switches against over-voltage during turn-off, enabling higher DC link operating voltages.
Thorsten Schmidt, product marketing manager at Power Integrations, commented: “The 2SP0230T2x0 gate drivers are flexible; the same hardware can be used to drive either SiC MOSFET or IGBT modules. This reduces both system design and sourcing challenges, and the plug-and-play approach speeds development.”
Ideal for applications such as railway auxiliary converters, offboard EV chargers and STATic synchronous COMpensator (STATCOM) voltage regulators for the power grid, 2SP0230T2x0 gate drivers are based on Power Integrations’ proven SCALE-2 technology, resulting in higher levels of integration, smaller size, more functionality and enhanced system reliability.
Power Integrations’ compact 134 x 62 mm 2SP0230T2x0 provides reinforced isolation at 1700 V, enabling use for up to 1700 V operation; this is 500 V higher than conventional drivers, which are typically limited to 1200 V.
Original – Power Integrations
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Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited (AOS) announced the release of its state-of-the-art automotive TO-Leadless (TOLL) package for the company’s automotive grade 80V and 100V MOSFETs. AOS’s TOLL package is developed to optimize the company’s power semiconductors as essential components in the evolution of e-mobility such as 2- and 3-wheel and other light vehicles. This new package helps designers meet the ongoing trend to electrify vehicles with the latest battery technology to meet clean energy zero-emission goals.
These capabilities make AOS 80V and 100V MOSFETs ideally suited for automotive BLDC motor and battery management applications for e-mobility. The AOS automotive TOLL package is designed to achieve the highest current capability using AOS’s innovative approach which utilizes advanced clip technology to achieve a high in-rush current rating.
In addition, AOS TOLL packaging with clip technology offers a very low package resistance and inductance, enabling improved EMI performance compared to other TOLL packages utilizing standard wire-bonding technology. With the combination of low ohmic and high current capability, utilizing AOS TOLL packaging also allows designers to reduce the number of parallel MOSFETs in high current applications. This, in turn, helps to enable higher power density requirements without compromising reliability in applications where robustness and reliability are key design objectives.
Providing a more compact solution for space-constrained designs, the AOTL66810Q (80V) and AOTL66912Q (100V) have a 30 percent smaller footprint compared to a TO-263 (D2PAK) package. These new devices in TOLL packaging are qualified to AEC-Q101, PPAP capable, and are manufactured in IATF 16949 certified facilities making them ideally suited for demanding application requirements in e-mobility. AOS TOLL devices are also compatible with automated optical inspection (AOI) manufacturing requirements.
“Using the AOS Automotive TOLL package with clip technology offers significant performance improvements in a robust package. The advanced technologies in our AOTL66810Q and AOTL66912Q MOSFETs will help simplify new designs allowing them to reduce the number of devices in parallel while providing the necessary higher current capability to enable overall system cost savings,” said Peter H. Wilson, Marketing Sr. Director of MOSFET product line at AOS.
Part Number VDS (V) VGS (±V) Continuous Drain Current (A) Pulsed Drain Current (A) RDS(ON) Max (mOhms) @10V @25°C @100°C @25°C AOTL66810Q 80 20 445 247 1780 1.25 AOTL66912Q 100 20 370 269 1480 1.7 Original – Alpha and Omega Semiconductor
