-
Infineon Technologies AG and SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. announced the signing of a multi-year Capacity Reservation Agreement (CRA).
Extending the existing partnership, Infineon will supply SolarEdge with critical components for a variety of SolarEdge products. In addition to the CRA, the companies will collaborate on the development of future technologies and cutting-edge solar products based on wide-bandgap (WBG) materials that are key for global green energy supplies.
“We are excited to expand our strategic partnership with SolarEdge to shape innovation in green energy technologies and decarbonization”, said Andreas Urschitz, Chief Marketing Officer at Infineon. “Our long-lasting collaboration is an enormous asset for both companies that paves the way for breakthrough-innovation and accelerated growth, as we combine our expertise and resources. With the latest investments in silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) manufacturing capacity, Infineon underlines its commitment to be a leading partner in climate technologies such as solar power.”
Uri Bechor, Chief Operating Officer at SolarEdge, said: “Securing the capacity levels of critical components such as power and wide-bandgap from Infineon enhances SolarEdge’s supply chain resiliency. This Capacity Reservation Agreement with Infineon is in line with our strategy to continue leading the global industry in solar energy advancement.”
Original – Infineon Technologies
-
onsemi and Magna announced a long-term supply agreement (LTSA) for Magna to integrate onsemi’s EliteSiC intelligent power solutions into its eDrive systems.
By integrating onsemi’s industry-leading EliteSiC MOSFET technology, Magna eDrive systems can offer better cooling performance and faster acceleration and charging rates, improving efficiency and increasing the range of electric vehicles (EVs). Additionally, onsemi’s end-to-end silicon carbide (SiC) manufacturing capability, combined with its ability to ramp production quickly, improves Magna’s vertical integration and simplifies its supply chain to meet the growing demand for its SiC-based products for EVs.
“With range anxiety still a top deterrent to EV adoption, our technology enables Magna to go further, easing the transition to an electrified future,” said Asif Jakwani, senior vice president and general manager, Advanced Power Division, onsemi. “Our latest EliteSiC MOSFET technology enables increased power density and higher efficiency in traction inverters, resulting in improved gas-equivalent miles per gallon without compromising driving dynamics and safety.”
Simultaneous with the signing of the LTSA, the companies entered a separate agreement for Magna to also invest approximately $40 million for the procurement of new SiC equipment at onsemi’s New Hampshire and Czech Republic facilities to ensure access to future supply.
“We believe that a secure supply of silicon carbide chips will be critical to our ability to continue delivering innovative and efficient eDrive systems for our customers,” said Diba Ilunga, president Magna Powertrain. “Accordingly, we are both investing to grow SiC production capacity, and establishing the commercial basis for long-term supply of SiC-based chips to advance our electrification strategy and outpace the competition.”
Silicon carbide is a wide bandgap semiconductor substrate that is ideal for high-temperature, high-power applications such as electric vehicles, but it is incredibly difficult to produce. With a limited number of manufacturers and significant demand for SiC-based designs, OEMs and automotive suppliers are increasingly looking to secure long-term, reliable supply.
Original – onsemi
-
Axcelis Technologies, Inc. announced a shipment of a Purion H200™ SiC ion implant system to Wolfspeed. The evaluation system will be used to support the production of power devices for electric vehicle (EV) applications.
President and CEO Dr. Russell Low of Axcelis commented, “The power device market continues to grow rapidly and is a key driver of our growth globally. We are pleased to continue to support Wolfspeed’s fab capacity expansion and are also excited about the potential of this new opportunity focused on high current implant applications in silicon carbide power devices.”
“The popularity of electric vehicles is only steepening, and Wolfspeed is focused on scaling our capacity to meet the surge in demand for our silicon carbide devices. We partnered with Axcelis due to their expertise, highly differentiated features, and process control capabilities that are essential for power device applications,” said Missy Stigall, Wolfspeed senior vice president of global fab operations. “Together, we will work to ease supply chain constraints as more and more EVs utilizing Wolfspeed’s silicon carbide technology are introduced to the market.”
Wolfspeed is currently engaged in a $6.5 billion capacity expansion effort to dramatically increase production. This includes the John Palmour Manufacturing Center for Silicon Carbide, the world’s largest Silicon Carbide crystal growth facility currently under construction in North Carolina, and the final build-out of the company’s Mohawk Valley Fab in New York. Earlier this year the company also announced its plans to build a highly automated, cutting-edge 200mm wafer fabrication facility in Saarland, Germany.
Original – Axcelis Technologies
-
Wide Bandgap (WBG) semiconductors play a strategic role in driving innovation and creating energy efficient and high-performance electronics. Demand for these semiconductors is fueled by sustainability, industry advancements, and advanced connectivity.
However, meeting this demand requires addressing challenges like cost, technology reliability, and geo-politic chaos among others. While the global WBG semiconductor industry is poised for unprecedented growth in the next 10 years, it would be critical to prioritize the opportunities, and effectively tackle the challenges to meet the short-term and long-term demands.
Join Frost & Sullivan for an engaging and thought-provoking Think Tank on “WBG Semiconductors: Overcoming Challenges, Unlocking Potential” on July 28, at 10:00 AM, EDT. The distinguished panel of semiconductor professionals will share their expertise and experiences and will address pressing questions like:
- How can WBG semiconductors play a central role in driving sustainability goals?
- How can WBG semiconductors contribute to improving efficiency in renewable energy systems and energy infrastructure?
- What role would regulations and standards play in driving the adoption of WBG semiconductors?
- Electric vehicles (EVs) have long been strong advocates for WBG semiconductors – What are the current opportunities beyond EV that demand immediate action?
Mark your calendars to engage in discussion with:
- Prabhu Karunakaran, Industry Principal at Frost & Sullivan
- Jonathan Robinson, VP Research, Power and Energy at Frost & Sullivan
- Stephen Oliver, Marketing & Investor Relations at Navitas Semiconductor
- Alexey Cherkasov, Marketing & Sales Director at Leapers Semiconductor
Original – Frost & Sullivan
-
Talk to the experts during Bodo Arlt’s virtual roundtable, focused on wide bandgap technology. Its goal is to keep the dialog going on, independent of any events that are hosted on fixed dates. These expert talks will build on the articles published in Bodo’s Power Systems magazine, giving you the chance to ask questions to the experts out of the industry.
If you are interested in participating as an expert, please plan your article for the magazine. Bodo’s team will then invite you to one of the upcoming rounds. The aim is to give as many companies as possible this opportunity, since a wide variety of contributions is of value to everyone. Different speakers will bring new perspectives and approaches.
Bodo’s next session will take place on July 26th.
SiC discussion is planned from 3:00 to 4:00 pm and GaN from 4:30 to 5:30 pm CESTOriginal – Bodo’s Power Systems
-
Silicon Carbide allows for more efficient, smaller, and more capable power conversion systems but getting the most out of these wide-bandgap devices requires intentional selection of everything around the switch. One of the most important parts of the system is the gate driver. The gate drive solution directly impacts the switching efficiency of the SiC MOSFET as well as can have features to make systems more reliable like Miller Clamp and Short Circuit Protection.
From the protection features available on the market today, to the robustness of isolated gate driver solutions, this training will teach about the intricacies of Silicon Carbide needs in gate drivers, the variety of gate drivers available, and the benefits of the various features that gate drivers can provide to the system designer.
During this webinar you will learn:
- Benefits of Silicon Carbide devices in power systems
- Why we need gate drivers for power MOSFETs
- Particulars of driving SiC MOSFETs
- Common Mode Transient Immunity
- Sizing the gate driver power supply and how to implement it
- Why certain gate drive voltages are recommended and application considerations
- Benefits of additional gate driver features for system design
- Miller Clamping
- Short Circuit Protection
- Fault Reporting
- Which gate drivers should be considered depending on the application, including the offering from Analog Devices
- Resources available to design in Silicon Carbide and SiC Gate Drivers
- Date: Wednesday, July 26, 2023
- Time: 9:00 am EDT | 15:00 CET
- Duration: 1 hour
Original – Arrow
-
PowerAmerica invites you to our annual Summer Workshop, August 8-10, 2023, on NC State’s Centennial Campus in Raleigh, NC. Expect great networking and presentations on the latest in the business and technology of silicon carbide and gallium nitride power semiconductors and applications.
The workshop includes:
- Keynote remarks by industry leaders
- WBG Tutorials by leading practitioners
- Reports on 10 SiC and GaN PowerAmerica member-funded projects
- Update on SiC and GaN market trends
- Roadmapping future PowerAmerica initiatives
- Commercialization Success Stories
- Ample networking opportunities
Find the agenda and register for the event at PowerAmerica website.
Original – PowerAmerica
-
Power semiconductors companies continue to invest heavily in new factories, production capacity expansions, and R&D centers. Thus, recently the total value of the active investment projects launched since 2021 has surpassed 70 billion USD.
Driven by the pandemic and geopolitics, major power semiconductors companies started to invest more in new factories and joint ventures to have more confidence in their own supply chain in the future.
As of today, it is obvious to see the major split of power semiconductors into three geographical regions – the USA, Europe, and Asia. Asia may as well be divided into several regions with China being the leading investor of all.
Despite the ongoing tensions and export restrictions between the US, Europe, and China related to advanced semiconductors, when it comes to power semiconductors European companies continue to invest in the Chinese market expanding their product capacity or establishing new joint ventures like STMicroelectronics and Sanan Optoelectronics did recently.
Even with some delay, Japanese companies like ROHM, Mitsubishi Electric, Fuji Electric, Renesas Electronics, Toshiba, and others, pushed by their US and European competitors, announced their own projects aimed to secure the capacity on the wafer and device level to correspond to the growing demand for Si and SiC based power semiconductors coming from the electric vehicle and charging, photovoltaics, battery energy storage systems, and the other emerging applications.
If we take a closer look at all projects announced, SiC is the leading technology with over 60% of total investment. Over 25 market leaders announced their plans to invest in silicon carbide.
Thus, ROHM is investing in new production to multiply its SiC capacity in the coming years. Mitsubishi Electric teams up with Coherent to scale manufacturing of SiC power devices on a 200 mm SiC technology platform as one of the steps of their 260 billion yen investment project planned till March 2026.
Infineon Technologies continues to bet on both local European and Asian markets investing in their new fab in Dresden and expanding backend operations in Indonesia. STMicroelectronics continues to invest in WBG semiconductors with the ongoing construction of a new wafer fab in Sicily announced in 2022.
With a global total number of new investment projects of over 80, the US companies Wolfspeed, onsemi, and Microchip Technology, similar to their European counterparts, invest locally, in Europe and Asian markets. Totally the US semiconductor companies announced new projects valued at almost 9 billion USD.
With the US and EU Chips Acts, and similar initiatives in China, Japan, South Korea, and some other countries, it is clear that the investment into power semiconductors industry will continue to reach 100 billion USD soon.
-
As digitalization, urbanization, and the rise of electro-mobility continue to shape the rapidly evolving world, the demand for power consumption is reaching unprecedented levels. Acknowledging energy efficiency as an important concern, Infineon Technologies AG addresses these megatrends with its silicon carbide (SiC) CoolSiC™ MOSFET 650 V in TO leadless (TOLL) packaging. The new SiC MOSFETs are enhancing Infineon’s comprehensive CoolSiC portfolio and are optimized for the lowest losses, the highest reliability, and ease-of-use in applications such as SMPS for servers, telecom infrastructure as well as energy storage systems and battery formation solutions.
The CoolSiC 650 V high-performance trench-based power SiC MOSFETs are offered in a very granular portfolio to best suit different target applications. The new family comes in a JEDEC-qualified TOLL package featuring a low parasitic inductance, allowing for higher switching frequency, reduced switching losses, good thermal management, and automated assembly. The compact form factor enables efficient and effective usage of the board space, empowering system designers to achieve exceptional power density.
The CoolSiC MOSFETs 650 V showcase remarkable reliability even in harsh environments, making them an ideal choice for topologies with repetitive hard commutation. The inclusion of the innovative .XT interconnect technology further enhances the devices’ thermal performance by reducing the thermal resistance (R th) and thermal impedance (Z th). In addition, the new devices feature a gate threshold voltage (V GS(th)) greater than 4 V for robustness against parasitic turn-on, a robust body diode, and the strongest gate oxide (GOX) in the market resulting in extremely low FIT (failures in time) rates.
While a cut-off voltage (V GS(off)) of 0 V is generally recommended to simplify the driving circuit (unipolar driving), the new portfolio supports a wide driving interval of V GS voltage within the range of -5 V (turn-off) to 23 V (turn-on). This ensures ease-of-use and compatibility with other SiC MOSFETs and standard MOSFET gate-driver ICs. This is paired with higher reliability, reduced system complexity, and the enablement of automated assembly, reducing system and production costs and accelerating time-to-market.
Original – Infineon Technologies
-
NoMIS Power has achieved its latest major milestone with an award from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop rugged Silicon Carbide (SiC) power devices to support the electrical power systems of aircraft.
NoMIS Power will develop 1200 V SiC power semiconductor devices (PSDs) through the award. The focus will be on metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) with enhanced operational lifetime as well as improved on-state and off-state efficiency at operating temperatures, resulting in lower losses for power electronics engineers to manage.
Solid-state power controllers within aircraft electrical power distribution systems require low on-state losses to enable passive cooling, as well as surge current and voltage overshoot protection during system start-up and fault interrupt. The proposed 1200 V SiC MOSFETs from NoMIS Power will provide airframers and system builders/integrators with the necessary PSD chips capable of high efficiency, long short-circuit withstand time (SCWT), and operational ruggedness for nominal and transient conditions. Moreover, the 1200 V rating will not only support current-generation aircraft utilizing 270 VDC architecture, but also aircraft operating with a +/- 270 VDC (i.e. 540 VDC rail-to-rail) architecture, as well.
NoMIS Power overcomes the limitations of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Si and SiC-based PSDs via a novel SiC device design that is achievable using disruptive manufacturing techniques. As a result, NoMIS SiC devices can withstand higher voltage spikes and current surges during harsh operating conditions, enabling longer power management product lifetime through superior reliability and ruggedness.
Announcing the new award, NoMIS Power CEO Dr. Adam Morgan said, “Our team is very excited to get the opportunity to support strategic groups working to improve the capabilities of our armed forces. We are confident this novel SiC device technology will also have a significant impact on other critical technology markets, such as electric vehicles and grid infrastructure. These efforts will directly support our company’s near-term product launch of next-generation SiC devices.”
Original – NoMIS Power
