New Industry Products

Powerex Intros F-SeriesTrench Gate IGBT Modules

August 15, 1999 by Jeff Shepard

Powerex (Youngwood, PA) introduced a new family of Trench Gate IGBT Modules developed by Powerex's strategic partner Mitsubishi Electric. According to Powerex, the new F-Series modules are designed to address energy efficiency and reduction of radiated noise (EMI). The combination of the Trench Gate process used for the IGBT, and a new free wheel diode with improved soft recovery characteristics, is claimed to allow the achievement of a full 30 percent reduction of both power loss and noise generation when compared to the Powerex third generation H-Series IGBT products. Main applications for the new F-Series modules are industrial equipment, such as general purpose inverters and uninterruptible power supplies. The product range includes 50-600A capability at 1200V and 75-600A at 600V. Saturation voltage is reduced to 1.6V for the 600V devices and 1.9V for the 1200V units. An internal RTC circuit reduces the gate voltage in the event of a short circuit. All of the F-Series modules are available in the low-inductance U-Series package. Powerex currently has 23 types available for sampling, with the entire family scheduled for mass production prior to year-end 1999. Typical prices range from $33 to $200 in small quantities.