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Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed a fully indigenous gallium nitride (GaN) power switch that can have potential applications in systems like power converters for electric vehicles and laptops, as well as in wireless communications. The entire process of building the switch – from material growth to device fabrication to packaging – was developed in-house at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), IISc.
Due to their high performance and efficiency, GaN transistors are poised to replace traditional silicon-based transistors as the building blocks in many electronic devices, such as ultrafast chargers for electric vehicles, phones and laptops, as well as space and military applications such as radar.
“It is a very promising and disruptive technology,” says Digbijoy Nath, Associate Professor at CeNSE and corresponding author of the study published in Microelectronic Engineering. “But the material and devices are heavily import-restricted … We don’t have gallium nitride wafer production capability at commercial scale in India yet.” The know-how of manufacturing these devices is also a heavily-guarded secret with few studies published on the details of the processes involved, he adds.
Power switches are used to control the flow of power to – essentially turn on or off – electronic devices. To design the GaN power switch, the IISc team used a metal organic chemical vapour deposition technique developed and optimised over a decade by researchers in the lab of Srinivasan Raghavan, Professor and Chair, CeNSE. It involves growing GaN alloy crystals layer by layer on a two-inch silicon wafer to fabricate a multi-layered transistor.
The entire process needs to be carried out carefully in a clean room to ensure that no defects arise due to environmental conditions like humidity or temperature, which can affect device performance. The team also took the help of Kaushik Basu, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering (EE), and his lab, to build an electrical circuit using these transistors and test their switching performance.
GaN transistors typically operate in what is called a “depletion mode” – they are on all the time unless a negative voltage is applied to turn them off. But power switches used in chargers and adapters need to work the other way around – they normally need to be off and not carrying current, and should only turn on when a positive voltage is applied (“enhancement mode”). To achieve this operation, the team combined the GaN transistor with a commercially available silicon transistor to keep the device normally off.
“The packaging of the device was also indigenously developed,” explains Rijo Baby, PhD student at CeNSE and first author of the study. After packaging and testing, the team found the device performance to be comparable to state-of-the-art switches available commercially, with a switching time of about 50 nanoseconds between on and off operations.
Going forward, the researchers plan on scaling up the device dimensions so that it can operate at high currents. They also plan to design a power converter that can step up or step down voltages.
“If you look at strategic organisations in India, they have a hard time procuring GaN transistors … It is impossible to import them beyond a certain quantity or power/frequency rating,” says Nath. “This is essentially a demonstration of indigenous GaN technology development.”
Original – Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
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Bourns, Inc. has expanded its 650 and 1200 V Silicon Carbide (SiC) Schottky Barrier Diode (SBD) product family with 10 new models. The 10 new models added to the Bourns® SiC SBD line are designed to address the increasing power density requirements in the latest transportation, renewable energy and industrial systems.
Bourns’ expanded wide band gap diode line delivers the peak forward surge, low forward drop, reduced thermal resistance and low power loss capabilities demanded by today’s high frequency and high current applications. These capabilities also help designers develop smaller, cost-efficient and state-of-the-art power electronics.
As optimal power conversion solutions for DC-DC and AC-DC converters, Switched-Mode Power Supplies (SMPS), photovoltaic inverters, motor drives and other rectification applications, the 10 new models feature currents in the 5-10 A range, with no reverse recovery current to reduce EMI.
This enables them to significantly lower energy losses and further increase efficiency, switching performance and reliability. In addition to providing excellent thermal performance, Bourns’ new SiC SBD models are available in multiple forward voltage, current and package options that include TO220-2, TO247-3, TO252, TO263 and TO247-2.
The 10 new Bourns® BSD SiC SBD models are available now. These models are RoHS compliant, halogen free, Pb free and their epoxy potting compound is flame retardant to the UL 94V-0 standard. For more detailed product information, please see: www.bourns.com/products/diodes/silicon-carbide-sic-schottky-barrier-diodes.
Original – Bourns
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Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation has started mass production of three 40 V N-channel MOSFETs using SOP Advance(WF) package for automotive and has expanded its lineup. The three models are “XPHR9904PS, XPH2R404PS and XPH3R304PS.”
The new products reduce drain-source On-resistance with the U-MOSIX process as with Toshiba’s precedence release products XPHR7904PS and XPH1R104PS. The drain-source On-resistance of XPH2R404PS is 2.4 mΩ (max), which is approximately 27 % lower than that of Toshiba’s existing product TPCA8083, and XPH3R304PS is 3.3 mΩ (max), which is approximately 42 % lower than that of Toshiba’s existing product TPCA8085.
The drain-source On-resistance of XPHR9904PS is 0.99 mΩ (max). Reducing drain-source On-resistance of these products contributes to low power consumption of automotive equipment. In addition, they are qualified with the automotive reliability standard AEC-Q101. The PPAP of IATF16949 is also available.
The package is a surface mount type SOP Advance(WF) that uses a wettable flank terminal structure, which facilitates automated visual inspection of the board mounting state.
Toshiba’s automotive MOSFETs support a variety of automotive applications and meet a wide range of customer needs.
Applications
- Automotive equipment: motor drives, switching power supplies, load switches, etc.
Features
- Low On-resistance
XPHR9904PS: RDS(ON)=0.99 mΩ (max) (VGS=10 V)
XPH2R404PS: RDS(ON)=2.4 mΩ (max) (VGS=10 V)
XPH3R304PS: RDS(ON)=3.3 mΩ (max) (VGS=10 V) - AEC-Q101 qualified
- PPAP of IATF16949 available
Original – Toshiba
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Vitesco Technologies is developing a power module which will be manufactured using transfer molding process. During this process the power electronics are sealed under a dielectric material that protects the components extremely well. The result is a very robust, cost effective and reliable electronic. The power module consists of three overmolded half-bridges and forms the core of an inverter system, which controls both the drive energy and the energy recovery (recuperation) in high-voltage electric vehicles.
Manufactured at the Nuremberg electronics plant, the power modules will be delivered to a large global car maker from mid-2025 onwards.
Vitesco Technologies has been adapting and utilizing transfer molding technology since 2020, first applying it to compact Transmission Control Units designed for full integration inside a gear box.
The overmold power modules now combine highly efficient state-of-the art silicon carbide (SiC) chip technology with overmolding to facilitate a particularly robust product with increased power density, lower cost and reduced weight.
These power modules are a good example of strategic approach of using the scalability and modularity of our power electronics to develop and manufacture submodules in addition to the complete electronics. Combined with extensive overmolding expertise, Vitesco can deliver an extremely robust product to our customers. This is yet another example of how the company successfully transfers proven technology to an electrification product.
- Thomas Stierle, member of the board and head of Vitesco Technologies’ Electrification Solutions division
Vitesco Technologies has extensive expertise in power electronics and is already on the market with its fourth generation. The newly developed overmold power module expands the company’s strategic portfolio.
A very deep system competence is necessary to ensure that a sub-module of this kind, which forms the core of the inverter, can be successfully integrated into the full system. Our degree of electronics modularity and scalability enables us to offer more flexibility in terms of customer-specific interfaces.
- Michael Horbel, head of product and platform management high voltage inverter at Vitesco Technologies
Vitesco Technologies will continue to use this strength to bring further electronic sub-modules to the market.
The lead plant for these modules is Vitesco Technologies’ Nuremberg site. With its existing competencies and experience, the plant offers a high degree of automation as well as the focus on electronics and e-mobility required for the power modules. This is a further step forward into the “Plant of the Future” concept, defined for the Nuremberg plant to maintain its international competitiveness.
Original – Vitesco Technologies
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Magnachip Semiconductor Corporation announced the launch of its 1200V and 650V Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs), designed for the positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heaters of electric vehicles (EVs).
Built upon Magnachip’s cutting-edge Field Stop Trench technology, the newly introduced AMBQ40T120RFRTH (1200V) and AMBQ40T65PHRTH (650V) offer a minimum short-circuit withstand time of 10µs. This remarkable level of ruggedness enables PTC heaters to be protected from a permanent failure in the event of overcurrent conditions.
Furthermore, the thick and large heat sink of the TO-247 package allows these new IGBTs to excel in heat dissipation. Therefore, these IGBTs are well-suited for applications requiring high power and efficiency, such as both the upper and lower sides of power management integrated circuits of PTC heaters.
“Since early last year, Magnachip has released high-performance automotive power solutions that adhere to the stringent AEC-Q101 standards,” said YJ Kim, CEO of Magnachip. “Now that we have successfully released our first IGBT products for EVs, we will continue to expand our product lineup to meet the diverse needs of the EV market and cater to the demands of our valued customers.”
Original – Magnachip Semiconductor
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Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH launched two products for brushless DC (BLDC) motor drive applications including fan motors, ventilation fan, air conditioners, air cleaners, and pumps.
Each of the intelligent power devices (IPD) incorporate 600V-rated IGBTs and a matched gate driver as a one-chip solution in a single compact package. The output DC current (IOUT) rating of the TPD4163F is 1A while the TPD4164F is rated at 2A.
The two devices (TPD4163F and TPD4164F) have an IGBT saturation voltage (VCEsat) of 2.6V and 3.0V respectively, while the Diode forward voltage (VF) is 2.0V and 2.5V.
Both devices are housed in a miniature surface mount HSSOP31 package. With dimensions of just 17.5mm x 11.93mm x 2.2mm, the PCB footprint is reduced by around 63% when compared with Toshiba’s existing DIP26 package products. This makes a significant contribution to reducing the space required for motor drive circuit boards.
In addition, in geographic regions where the power supply is unstable, the supply voltage may fluctuate significantly. Therefore, to improve reliability, the supply voltage rating (VBB)has been increased from 500V to 600V to introduce more design margin.
To support the new devices, Toshiba has developed a reference design for BLDC sensorless brushless DC motor drive utilizing the new TPD4164F and a microcontroller TMPM374FWUG.
Toshiba will continue to expand their product lineup with various packages and improved characteristics, contributing to customers’ design flexibility and carbon neutrality through energy-saving motor control.
Volume production shipments of both new devices (and the reference design board) start today.
Original – Toshiba
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Navitas Semiconductor announced the world-wide launch of GaNSafe™, a new, high-performance wide bandgap power platform at a special customer, partner and press event in Taiwan. Navitas has optimized its 4th-generation gallium nitride technology for demanding, high-power applications in data centers, solar / energy storage and EV markets, where efficiency, power density and robust & reliable operation are critical.
At the worldwide launch event at the Marriot Taipei, Navitas’ David Carroll, Sr. VP Worldwide Sales, and Charles Bailley, Sr. Director Business Development will introduce Navitas and the new GaNSafe platform to an invited VIP audience of over 50 high-ranking customer attendees, plus industry partners and international media.
The new 4th-generation GaN power ICs are manufactured in Hsinchu, by long-term Navitas partner TSMC. Navitas is grateful to Dr. RY Su, Manager of GaN Power Technology at TSMC, who will make a special presentation on the future of GaN at the GaNSafe launch.
Navitas’ GaNFast™ power ICs integrate gallium nitride (GaN) power and drive, with control, sensing, and protection to enable faster charging, higher power density, and greater energy savings, with over 100,000,000 units shipped, and an industry-first 20-year warranty. Now, the new GaNSafe platformhas been engineered with additional, application-specific protection features, functions and new, high-power packaging to deliver enabling performance under grueling high-temperature, long-duration conditions.
The initial, high-power 650/800 V GaNSafe portfolio covers a range of RDS(ON) from 35 to 98 mΩ in a novel, robust, and cool-running surface-mount TOLL package, to address applications from 1,000 to 22,000 W. GaNSafe integrated features and functions include:
- Protected, regulated, integrated gate-drive control, with zero gate-source loop inductance for reliable high-speed 2 MHz switching capability to maximize application power density.
- High-speed short-circuit protection, with autonomous ‘detect and protect’ within 50 ns – 4x faster than competing discrete solutions.
- Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection of 2 kV, compared to zero for discrete GaN transistors.
- 650 V continuous, and 800 V transient voltage capability to aid survival during extraordinary application conditions.
- Easy-to-use, complete, high-power, high-reliability, high-performance power IC with only 4 pins, to accelerate customer designs.
- Programmable turn-on and turn-off speeds (dV/dt) to simplify EMI regulatory requirements.
Unlike discrete GaN transistor designs, with voltage spikes, undershoot and specification breaches, GaNSafe delivers an efficient, predictable, reliable system. GaNSafe’s robust 4-pin TOLL package has achieved the tough IPC-9701 mechanical reliability standard, and delivers simple, strong, dependable performance as compared to multi-chip modules which require 3x as many connections, and have poor cooling capability.
Navitas’ market-specific system design centers offer complete platform designs with benchmark efficiency, density and system cost using GaNSafe products to accelerate customer time-to-revenue and maximize chance of first-time-right designs. These system platforms include complete design collateral with fully-tested hardware, embedded software, schematics, bill-of-materials, layout, simulation and hardware test results. Examples of system platforms enabled by GaNSafe technology include:
- Navitas’ CRPS185 data center power platform, that delivers a full 3,200 W of power in only 1U (40 mm) x 73.5mm x 185 mm (544 cc), achieving 5.9 W/cc, or almost 100 W/in3 power density. This is a 40% size reduction vs, the equivalent legacy silicon approach and reaches over 96.5% efficiency at 30% load, and over 96% stretching from 20% to 60% load, creating a ‘Titanium Plus’ benchmark.
- Navitas’ 6.6 kW 3-in-1 bi-directional EV on-board charger (OBC) with 3 kW DC-DC. This 96%+ efficient unit has over 50% higher power density, and with efficiency over 95%, delivers up to 16% energy savings as compared to competing solutions.
“Our original GaNFast and GaNSense technologies have set the industry standard for mobile charging, establishing the first market with high-volume, mainstream GaN adoption to displace silicon,” said Gene Sheridan, CEO and co-founder. “GaNSafe takes our technology to the next level, as the most protected, reliable and safe GaN devices in the industry, and now also targeting 1-22 kW power systems in AI-based data centers, EV, solar and energy storage systems. Customers can now achieve the full potential of GaN in these multi-billion dollar markets demanding the highest efficiency, density and reliability.”
The GaNSafe portfolio is available immediately to qualified customers with mass production expected to begin in Q4 2023. 40 customer projects are already in progress with GaNSafe in data center, solar, energy storage and EV applications, contributing to Navitas’ $1 billion customer pipeline.
Original – Navitas Semiconductor
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Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. has determined that QST® (Qromis Substrate Technology) substrate is an essential material for the social implementation of high-performance, energy-efficient GaN (gallium nitride) power devices, and the company will promote the development and launching on the market of these products.
Since QST® substrate is designed to have the same coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) as GaN, it enables suppression of warpage and cracking of the GaN epitaxial layer and resultant large-diameter, high-quality thick GaN epitaxial growth. Taking advantage of these characteristics, it is expected to be applied to power devices and RF devices (5G and beyond 5G), which have been rapidly growing in recent years, as well as in such areas as MicroLED growth for MicroLED displays.
In addition to sales of QST® substrates, Shin-Etsu Chemical will also sell GaN grown QST® substrates upon customer request. We currently have a line-up of 6″ and 8″ diameter substrates, and we are working on 12″ diameter substrates. Since 2021, for each respective application for power devices, RF devices and LEDs, sample evaluation and device development are continuing with numerous customers in Japan and globally. Especially for power devices, continuous evaluation is underway for devices in the wide range of 650V to 1800V.
So far, Shin-Etsu Chemical has repeatedly made many improvements with regard to its QST® substrates. One example is the significant improvement in lowering defects originating from the bonding process, which has enabled the supply of high-quality QST® substrates. In addition, for the thicker GaN films that many of our customers have requested, we have promoted the provision of template substrates with optimized buffer layers, which enables our customers to realize stable epitaxial growth of more than 10 μm thickness. Furthermore, various successful results have been produced and reported on, including the achievement of thick-film GaN growth exceeding 20 μm using QST® substrates and the achievement of 1800V breakdown voltage in power devices.
Moreover, Shin-Etsu Chemical and Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. have jointly succeeded in developing a technology to exfoliate GaN from QST® substrates and bond it to substrates made of different materials using Crystal Film Bonding (CFB) technology. Until now, most GaN power devices have been lateral devices, but CFB technology takes advantage of the characteristics of QST® substrates to realize vertical power devices that can control large currents by exfoliating a thick layer of high-quality GaN from an insulating QST® substrate (see figure below).
To customers who manufacture GaN devices, Shin-Etsu Chemical will provide QST® substrates or GaN grown QST® substrates and Oki Electric Industry will provide its CFB technology through partnering or licensing. In this way, the two companies hope to contribute to the advancement of vertical power devices.
Based on these development results and also based on business situation inquiries from customers, Shin-Etsu Chemical will continue to increase production to meet customer demand.
Shin-Etsu Chemical will contribute to the realization of a sustainable society that can use energy efficiently by further promoting the social implementation of GaN devices that have characteristics that are absolutely essential for the future society.
Original – Shin-Etsu Chemical
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STMicroelectronics has released a new class of IGBTs with an increased breakdown-voltage capability of 1350V and maximum operating temperature of 175°C. The higher ratings ensure greater design margin, robust performance, and extended reliability under all operating conditions.
The new STPOWER IH2 series IGBTs also permit increased power-conversion efficiency. Favorable parameters include low saturation voltage, Vce(sat), which ensures low dissipation when the device is turned on. The freewheeling diode has low voltage drop and optimized turn-off energy that increases the efficiency of single-switch quasi-resonant converters operating at frequencies from 16kHz to 60kHz.
With their ruggedness and high efficiency, these IGBTs are ideal for induction-heating applications including domestic appliances such as kitchen hobs, inverter microwave ovens, and rice cookers. In a 2kW application, ST’s new IGBT devices can reduce power dissipation by up to 11%.
In addition, the Vce(sat) has a positive temperature coefficient and tight parameter distribution between devices helps simplify design and ease connecting multiple IGBTs in parallel to address high-power applications.
The first two devices in the series, the 25A STGWA25IH135DF2 and 35A STGWA35IH135DF2, are in production now and available in a standard TO-247 long-lead power package.
Original – STMicroelectronics
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The new Vincotech 1200 V flowCSPFC S3 SiC module featuring current-synthesizing PFC (CS-PFC) topology based on the constant power control, strikes the best balance between performance and system cost to benefit your business.
The first module of this new product family is well suited for a DC fast charger PFC converter stage up to 35kW power, a “sweet spot” for building scalable DC charger units on a modular approach.
Main benefits
- Current-synthesizing PFC slashes module costs by > 25% with conversion efficiencyranging as high as >99%
- System costs come down with fewer and smaller inductors on the PCB
- No large electrolytic DC-link capacitors for even more system-level savings
- Pinout is ready for bidirectional applications and optimized for easy PCB routing
- High power density for compact designs and fast charging
Applications
- EV fast charger
- UPS
- ESS
Original – Vincotech
