SEMIKRON and drivetek form joint venture

28th February 2011

Semikron Ltd

ES Admin

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Semikron further strengthens its presence in and dedication to the electric and hybrid vehicle market by forming a 50/50 joint venture with drivetek, a development specialist for innovative electrical drives and control technology.

The joint venture, SKAItek GmbH, will provide innovative motor control software optimized for the newest generation of SKAI 2 IGBT and MOSFET inverter systems for vehicle applications, which were launched by Semikron in May 2010. SKAI 2 with the optimized software presents the optimal drive train solution for vehicle inverter applications in the power range of 10 to 250 kVA and battery voltages from 24V to 900V. The vehicle market benefits from this joint venture with short setup time and reduced development risks.

“The QUASAR software is based on a modern, field-oriented closed-loop control system”, explains Peter Baumann, general manager of SKAItek and managing director at drivetek. It guarantees steady control of the electrical machine up to the strong field weakening range for realisation of efficient and dynamic traction drives and generator solutions. QUASAR receives input from a central controller via CAN bus and converts this precisely into a speed or torque.

The software is tailored to the control of brushless DC, interior and surface mounted permanent magnet synchronous and AC induction machines. As a standard the motor control software also offers a powerful set of additional control functions, e.g. battery deep discharge protection, overvoltage protection for DC energy recovery etc. Customer machine parameterisation and setup is easily done with the additional Q-Control software package. This PC based Windows application allows visualisation and setup of the customer system via CAN interface.

“The SKAI2 product platform is predestined for use in automotive applications owing to the use of pressure contact technology”, states Roland Mühlemann, general manager of SKAItek and business development manager at Semikron. The experience that Semikron has gained in the area of battery powered vehicles over two decades has been integrated in the SKAI product family. User benefit from this long-time experience is the availability of the SKAI platform as a standard solution.