Highly-Integrated 225 Degrees C Isolated Gate Driver for SiC Power Switches

CISSOID unveiled its 2nd generation of HADES®, the high-reliability, high-voltage isolated gate-driver chipset. HADES drives both high efficiency Silicon Carbide (SiC) and traditional silicon power switches. HADES Gen2 integrated circuits will remain backward compatible with the former generation of HADES (CISSOID's current reference design based on their THEMIS, ATLAS and RHEA chips). This second generation will provide a more integrated solution, resulting in a dramatic improvement of compactness. Special attention has been brought to support of a wide range of SiC power switches currently available, including MOSFETs, JFETs and BJTs.

HADES Gen2 is aiming at four key objectives: Maximizing the benefits of the newest SiC power switches: Increased switching frequencies translate into dramatic reduction of the size and weight of the passive and magnetic components; while faster switching times lead to increased energy efficiency of the converters or motor drivers; High temperature capability of HADES allows to locate the driver next to the power switches, hence minimizing parasitic inductances and their negative impact on efficiency; Addressing the distinct needs of very high-temperature applications (e.g. 225 degrees C normal operation), as well as of lower temperatures (100 to 175 degrees C) together with unrivalled silicon lifetime (different temperature flavors will be available to address distinct needs); and Bringing the highest integration level for miniaturization of the gate driver function, enabling turnkey gate driver modules and Intelligent Power Modules.

HADES is poised to outperform any gate driver solution on the market for all these merit factors. It has been optimized to meet the requirements of large-volume, cost sensitive applications, including industrial and automotive, for any system running above 100 degrees C. CISSOID will use the HADES V2 chipset to offer a turnkey module version of its gate driver in a reliable hermetic module that will greatly facilitate implementations of power converters with 225 degrees C rating.

Tony Denayer, CEO at CISSOID explained: “In 2011, we were first on the market with HADES, the first isolated gate driver solution dedicated to Silicon carbide fast-switching power devices. Market acceptance has been tremendous and a number of customers addressing a large span of applications did validate their design at technology level with our chipset. For their large-scale deployments, they are now expecting us to come up with a more integrated version for use into hybrid modules or traditional PCB final designs. HADES V2 will be introduced by mid-2014: It will dramatically reduce the number of chips in a full 1200V half bridge topology, while bringing ultimate reliability”. Mr Denayer added “For example a motor drive inverter with a mission profile up to 125° degrees C will reach an expected lifetime of 30 years and more – figures that cannot be achieved with traditional solutions today.”