ipTEST wins King's Award

Wide bandgap SiC and GaN semiconductors have opened up new possibilities for power device performance. The benefits are widespread, from allowing electric vehicles to travel further on the same battery, to enabling more efficient, lower-cost electricity conversion in power-hungry data centres.

Testing power devices before they reach the customer is crucially important to ensure they perform reliably throughout their lifetime. For the most accurate results, devices should be tested as close to their operating speed as possible. However, this is a challenge for SiC and GaN which are usually switched at much higher speeds than conventional silicon. A silicon tester just cannot keep up.

To solve this problem, ipTEST developed the DS5 test generator. The whole layout of DS5 was designed from the ground up to operate at the highest speeds and perform the fastest dynamic tests. The result is that DS5 gives the clearest picture of SiC and GaN device performance at speed, allowing manufacturers to maximise the quality of their products. This is particularly important for electric vehicle applications where power devices are at the heart of the drivetrain - nobody wants their electric car to fail on the freeway.

“DS5 has been tremendously well received by our customers and I’m so proud it’s been recognised in the Innovation category of the King’s Award.” says Dr Conor McCarthy, Managing Director at ipTEST. “This has been a true team effort by everyone within our company.”

Of course, this is not the end of the story as SiC and GaN semiconductors will continue to evolve and have much more performance to offer. As Demos Malaos, Technical Director at ipTEST says, “DS5 is the first step of the journey. We’ll continue to innovate to offer the highest performance testing capabilities for power devices.”