New Industry Products

Next-Gen AEC-Q101 SiC 1200V MOSFETs and 700V Schottky Barrier Diodes

May 24, 2018 by Paul Shepard

Microsemi Corporation announced it will be expanding its Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFET and SiC diode product portfolios early next quarter, including samples of its next-generation 1200V, 25mOhm and 80mOhm SiC MOSFET devices; next-generation 700V, 50A Schottky barrier diode (SBD) and corresponding die.

These SiC solutions, along with other recently announced devices in the SiC SBD/MOSFET product families, will be demonstrated June 5-7 in hall 6, booth 318 at PCIM Europe 2018, held at the Exhibition Centre in Nuremberg, Germany

These next-generation SiC MOSFETs are suited for a number of applications within the industrial and automotive markets, including hybrid electric vehicle (HEV)/EV charging, conductive/inductive onboard chargers (OBCs), dc-dc converters and EV powertrain/traction control.

They can also be used for switch mode power supplies, photovoltaic (PV) inverters and motor control in medical, aerospace, defense and data center applications.

"Fast adoption of SiC solutions for applications such as EV charging, dc-dc converters, powertrain, medical and industrial equipment, and aviation actuation demand a high degree of efficiency, safety and reliability on components used in such systems," said Leon Gross, vice president and business unit manager for Microsemi's Power Discretes and Modules business unit.

"Microsemi's next-generation SiC MOSFET and SiC diode families will include AEC-Q101 qualifications, which will insure high reliability while ruggedness is demonstrated by high repetitive unclamped inductive switching (UIS) capability at rated current without degradation or failures," Gross added.

Microsemi's next-generation 1200V, 25/40/80 mOhm SiC MOSFET devices and die as well as its next-generation 1200V and 700V SiC SBD devices offer customers attractive benefits in comparison to competing Si/SiC diode/MOSFET and IGBT solutions, including more efficient switching at higher switching frequencies as well as higher avalanche/UIS rating and higher short-circuit withstand rating for rugged and reliable operation.

For example, SiC MOSFETs are developed with an ideal balance of specific on-resistance, low gate and thermal resistances, and low gate threshold voltage and capacitance for reliable operation.

Designed for high yield processes and low parameter variation across temperature, they operate at higher efficiency (in comparison to Si and IGBT solutions) across high junction temperature (175 degrees Celsius) to extend battery systems like those in HEV/EV applications.

The newly sampling devices also offer excellent gate integrity and high gate yield as verified through high temperature reverse bias (HTRB) and time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TBBD) tests, which are part of its AEC-Q101 qualification in progress.

Other key features include:

  • High UIS capability, offering 1.5x to 2x higher than competitive SiC MOSFETs and GaN devices for avalanche ruggedness;
  • High short-circuit rating ranging from 1.5x to 5x higher than competitor SiC MOSFET devices for more rugged operation;
  • Up to 10x lower failure-in-time (FIT) rate than comparable Si IGBTs at rated voltage for neutron susceptibility and with comparable performance against SiC competition pertaining to neutron irradiation; and
  • Higher SiC power density versus Si, enabling smaller magnetics/transformers/DC bus capacitors and less cooling elements for more compact form factor to lower overall system costs.

Demonstrations at PCIM June 5-7 in Hall 6, Booth 318

Microsemi's product experts will be at the company's booth at PCIM during show hours to demonstrate its next-generation SiC solutions, and in particular the company's recently announced next-generation 1200V, 40 mOhm SiC MOSFET device and 1200V, 10/30/50A SiC diode products.

Product Availability

Microsemi's next-generation 1200V SiC MOSFET devices and die as well as its next-generation 1200V and 700V SiC SBDs are sampling now.

SiC MOSFET Driver Reference Design

Microsemi also offers the MSCSICMDD/REF1, a dual silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET driver reference design is an open source solution that provides user-friendly design guides enabling faster time to market for customers using Microsemi SiC MOSFETs, while supporting the transition to Microsemi's next-generation SiC MOSFETs.

(click on image to enlarge)

The reference design provides customers with a highly isolated SiC MOSFET dual-gate driver switch to provide a means for evaluating SiC MOSFETs in a number of topologies. This includes modes optimized for half-bridge switching with synchronous dead time protection and asynchronous signal transfer with no protection.

It can also be configured to provide concurrent drive to study unclamped inductive switching (UIS) or double pulse testing. The board supports the modification of gate resistor values to accommodate most Microsemi discretes and modules.