The following article was originally published in eeNews Automotive. It is reprinted here with permission.
Belgian company Cissoid has launched a three-phase silicon-carbide (SiC) intelligent power module (IPM) for e-mobility applications. The 1200-V/450-A IPM includes a three-phase water-cooled SiC MOSFET module with built-in gate drivers. It features a 3.25-mΩ RDS(on) with 8.3-3mJ turn-on and 11.2-mJ turn-off at 600 V/300 A. This reduces losses by at least a factor of three compared to the latest silicon IGBT modules, according to the company.
The IPM is water-cooled through a lightweight aluminum SiC (AlSiC) pin-fin baseplate for a junction-to-fluid thermal resistance of 0.15°C/W. The power module is rated for junction temperature up to 175°C. It also withstands isolation voltages up to 3600 V (50 Hz, 1 min.).
The built-in gate driver includes three on-board isolated power supplies (one per phase), each delivering up to 5 W to drive the power module up to 25 kHz and at ambient temperatures up to 125°C. Peak gate current up to 10A and immunity to high dV/dt (>50 kV/µs) enable fast switching of the power module and low switching losses. Protection functions such as undervoltage lockout (UVLO), active Miller clamping (AMC), desaturation detection, and soft shutdown (SSD) ensure the safe drive and reliable operation of the power module in case of fault events.
"Developing and optimizing fast-switching SiC power modules and driving them reliably remains a challenge," said Dave Hutton, CEO of Cissoid. "With this new SiC intelligent power module, which is the outcome of years of experience in the development of power modules and gate drivers for extreme temperature and voltage environments, we are happy to deliver our first IPM samples to early SiC adopters and to support the automotive industry in its transition towards highly efficient E-mobility solutions."