New Industry Products

Infineon Technologies Announces the thinQ! Family of Schottky Diodes Based on Silicon Carbide Technology

February 08, 2001 by Jeff Shepard

Infineon Technologies (Munich, Germany) has begun producing its thinQ! family of Schottky diodes based on silicon carbide (SiC) technology. The company claims that, compared with conventional power diodes in silicon or gallium arsenide technology, SiC Schottky diodes allow significantly lower switching losses and higher switching frequencies, while offering much higher operating voltage ranges.

The company believes that, with the new SiC Schottky diodes, it is possible to implement switched-mode power supplies (SMPS) with high-switching frequencies in systems like PCs, servers and mobile phone base stations. As a result of the low switching losses, these diodes can operate at high-switching frequencies without complex resonant switching circuits or snubbers. Furthermore, the low switching losses allow SMPS to be designed with neither heatsinks nor fans.

“Infineon's extensive experience in the field of power semiconductors and its state-of-the-art process technology formed the basis for the development of these new diodes that offer an ideal and space-saving solution for high-performance SMPS," explains Dr. Reinhard Ploss, a senior vice president and general manager at Infineon Technologies. “An essential advantage of Infineon's SiC technology is that it makes possible almost loss-free and very fast switching diodes. This not only reduces overall losses but also improves reliability and lowers system costs "

Infineon's SiC Schottky diodes are currently available in 600V (4A and 6A) and 300V (10A and 2 x 10A) in a compact TO-220 package and in a TO-263 package for surface-mount technology. Sampling started in January 2001, with series production planned for April 2001. In quantities of 10,000 pieces, SiC Schottky diodes with a blocking voltage of 600V (4A) are priced at $3.27 per unit. SiC Schottky diodes with a blocking voltage of 300V (10A) are priced at $7.20 per unit in the same quantities.