Wolfspeed to present latest SiC MOSFET tech at APEC 2017

Exhibiting at Booth #1110, Wolfspeed will demonstrate the newly designed low-inductance packaging for its SiC MOSFET family, as well as the new 900V 10mOhm MOSFET in its high-performance three-phase power evaluation unit, and the hardware for a 20kW two-level full-bridge LLC resonant converter using 1000V SiC MOSFETs in a new TO-247-4L package.

“We’re excited to showcase our recent expansions to the Wolfspeed Gen3 SiC MOSFET family, especially the innovative, low-inductance packaging that delivers the industry’s lowest figure of merit – essentially the best ratio of reverse-recovery losses to on-state resistance,” said Guy Moxey, Wolfspeed’s senior director of power products.

“Wolfspeed continues to improve and expand upon SiC’s unbeatable performance, reliability, switching speed, and improved thermal management to out-perform Si technology with the most efficient SiC MOSFETs in the market, most recently applied to superior SiC performance in EV applications.”

Booth Demonstrations

Wolfspeed will showcase its family of Gen3 SiC MOSFETs – commercially released at 900V, 1000V, and 1200V – in newly designed, low-inductance packaging that delivers the industry’s lowest figure of merit.

Examples of practical implementation of these new SiC power MOSFETs in high-performance and reliable power designs will be displayed, including a 20kW LLC converter for battery charger applications, and the new 900V 10mOhm MOSFET for EV drive train applications.

Wolfspeed will also demonstrate an evaluation unit that provides a modular, configurable circuit design and uses standard components to enable design engineers to rapidly optimize three-phase SiC power module designs for improved performance, efficiency, thermal management, and circuit protection.

Simplifying and streamlining the design process of incorporating Wolfspeed SiC modules into power systems, the evaluation kit demo shows how the new 900V, 10mOhm MOSFET in the three-phase power evaluation unit enables designers to easily use SiC power modules from 900–1700V and up to 200kW.

The evaluation kit utilizes Wolfspeed’s HT-3291-R-VB SiC power module containing four new 900V 10mOhm MOSFETs per switch position enclosed in a redesigned package with >3kV isolation voltage and ITGD2-3011 gate drivers.

Finally, Wolfspeed will provide a complete hardware (CRD-20DD09P-2) demonstration that showcases the decreased complexity as well as the increased efficiency and switching speeds possible with our new MOSFETs. This 20kW 2-level full-bridge LLC resonant converter uses 1000V SiC MOSFETs in a new TO-247-4L package (C3M065100K).

In the demo, two parallel devices are connected at each switch position to deliver 20kW of continuous output power with a wide output voltage range of 300–570VDC at peak efficiency of >98%.

The high switching speed of SiC MOSFETs results in extremely short dead times, which in turn enables the design of compact resonant tank circuit components with resonant frequencies of 110–350kHz. Additionally, the 1kV rating of the SiC MOSFETs allows for a simple 2-level topology, despite the wide input voltage range of 650–750VDC.

This design is ideal for DC fast charger applications for EVs, as well as other applications that require an isolated DC/DC converter. The hardware features integrated, isolated forced-air cooling, and delivers 33% more power with 20% fewer components in a smaller footprint than conventional Si-based multilevel designs.

Conference Sessions

Professional Education Sessions: On Sunday, March 26, at 2:30pm (Room 15/16), Wolfspeed’s Adam Barkley, Edgar Ayerbe, and Kraig Olejniczak will give a seminar titled “Practical Implementation of SiC Power Devices on Using Best Practices with a Focus on Electrification of Motor Vehicles.”

Technical Sessions: On Wednesday, March 29, at 8:30am (Room 21), Wolfspeed’s Jeff Casady, Brett Hull, Jon Zhang, Jim Richmond, and Gangyao Wang will give a lecture titled “First Automotive Reliability Assessment and Drive-Train Performance of Large-Area 900V, 10mOhm SiC MOSFETs.” Sharing this time slot in Room 1/2, Wolfspeed’s Adam Barkley, Binod Agrawal, and Scott Allen will present their paper titled “New 1000V SiC MOSFETs Enable Improved Efficiency, Density, and Cost Tradeoff Space for PFCs.”

Industry Sessions: On Wednesday, March 29, at 2:00pm (Room 15/16), Wolfspeed’s Guy Moxey will present a paper by John Mookken titled “Fast Charging EV with the Latest 1kV 3rd Generation SiC MOSFET.” On Thursday, March 30, at 8:30am (Room 13), Mrinal Das will present a paper he co-authored with Adam Barkley titled “Life Testing of Wolfspeed Industry Standard All-SiC Power Modules.”

Industry Panel: On Thursday, March 30 at 10:30am (Room 13), Wolfspeed’s CTO John Palmour will appear on a panel titled, “Progress in Industrial Power Electronics Applications of Silicon Carbide Semiconductors.”