SiC Schottky diodes are industry’s most powerful, claim Cree

6th March 2014

Cree

Nat Bowers

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Believed to be the industry’s first commercially available family of 50A SiC rectifiers, Cree has announced the CPW5 Z-Rec high-power SiC Schottky diodes. The diodes are suitable for use in high power systems from 50kW to over 1MW, addressing applications such as solar / PV inverters, industrial power supplies, induction heating, battery charging stations, wind turbine converters and traction inverters.

Developed to facilitate the direct matching of 50A diodes to 50A MOSFETs or IGBTs, Cree CPW5 Schottky diodes reduce system complexity and cost by enabling the replacement of multiple low-voltage, low-current SiC Schottky diodes, or silicon PiN diodes, with a single CPW5 rectifier. Additional cost savings can be achieved through reduced maximum voltage ratings and the elimination of snubber circuitry due to the diminished voltage overshoot during switching in silicon carbide.

Cree CPW5 diodes enable a new generation of high-current Si/SiC IGBT modules. Hybrid Si/SiC IGBT modules can deliver up to a 43% reduction in switching losses over conventional modules, while also reducing voltage- and current-overshoot, switching dead time and cooling requirements. As an added benefit, design engineers can use the same gate driver design and circuits used with conventional modules, allowing easy and immediate implementation. Cree CPW5 diodes also provide a peak forward surge resistance greater than 500A repetitive and 2000A non-repetitive, delivering increased reliability under the harshest electrical conditions.

Designed to deliver the cost reduction, high efficiency, system simplicity and improved reliability of SiC technology, the CPW5 family of Z-Rec Schottky diodes includes 1700V/50A, 1200V/50A, 650V/50A and 650V/30A combinations. They are available immediately in bare die form from SemiDice.

Dan Cormack, CEO, SemiDice, comments: “As the sole distributor of Cree SiC-based power products in wafer and die form, SemiDice is excited to offer the CPW5 family of Z-Rec Schottky diodes. We are seeing increased customer demand for 50A Schottky diodes and we know that as a global leader in the manufacture of advanced SiC diodes, Cree will deliver the quality and performance that our customers expect to help them minimise system cost and size.”