SiC MOSFETs targeted at industrial and automotive markets

The new SiC MOSFET product family is highly avalanche-rated, demonstrating the devices' ruggedness for industrial, automotive and commercial aviation power applications, and offers a high short circuit withstand rating for robust operation. Additional members of the product family will be released in the coming months, including commercially and AEC-Q101 qualified 700V and 1200V SiC MOSFET solutions to address a wide range of power applications which can leverage Microsemi's newly released SiC SBDs.

"Our new SiC MOSFET product family provides customers with the benefits of more efficient switching and high reliability, particularly in comparison to Silicon diodes, Silicon MOSFETs and Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) solutions," said Leon Gross, vice president and business unit manager for Microsemi's Power Discretes and Modules business unit. "Customers focused on developing cost-effective power electronics solutions for rugged environments can select their ideal solutions from these next-generation offerings, with the ability to scale to their specific SiC MOSFET needs."

Microsemi's next-generation SiC MOSFETs and new SiC SBDs are designed with high repetitive unclamped inductive switching (UIS) capability at rated current, with no degradation or failures. The new SiC MOSFETs maintain high UIS capability at approximately 10-15 Joule per square centimetre (J/cm2) and robust short circuit protection at 3-5 microseconds. The company's SiC SBDs are designed with balanced surge current, forward voltage, thermal resistance and thermal capacitance ratings at low reverse current for lower switching loss. In addition, its SiC MOSFET and SiC SBD die can be paired together for use in modules.

Microsemi's new SiC MOSFETs and SBDs are suitable for a wide range of applications within the industrial and automotive markets, and its SiC MOSFETs can also be used in switch mode power supply and motor control applications within the medical, aerospace, defence and data centre markets. Examples include hybrid electric vehicle (HEV)/EV charging, conductive/inductive onboard charging (OBC), DC-DC converters, EV powertrain/tractional control, switch mode power supply, photovoltaic (PV) inverters, motor control and actuation for aviation.

According to research and consulting firm, IndustryARC, wide bandgap semiconductor technologies, namely SiC-based devices, are likely to shift from development to commercial phase due to growth driven in power electronics applications to enhance power conversion efficiency and minimise power losses. The advancement in power conversion paves the way of SiC-based devices in EV charging, which helps lessen battery charging cycles as well reduce the high cost of battery packs. Integration of SiC devices in on-board charging and DC-to-DC power conversion systems enable higher switching frequency and lower losses. IndustryARC expects the SiC market in EV charging to witness a growth rate of approximately 33% until 2024.

Microsemi is well-positioned with these trends, with its SiC MOSFETs offering ten times lower failure-in-time (FIT) rate than comparable Si IGBTs at rated voltages with regard to neutron susceptibility. Its SiC SBDs complement its SiC MOSFET robustness with UIS ratings 20% higher than competitor parts tested. The company's SiC products offer a number of other advantages, including improved system efficiency with 25-50% power output increases for the same physical dimensions, efficiency at higher switching frequencies over IGBTs, reduced system size and weight, operating stability over temperature (175°C) and significant cooling cost savings.