CIE Components in Electronics
The HADES Reference Design is based on the CISSOID chipset THEMIS, ATLAS and RHEA, and is capable of sustaining junction temperatures from -55 °C up to +225 °C in metal and ceramic packages. CISSOID will be also introducing over the coming months a lower temperature version limited to 125°C, with an expected operational lifetime of at least 20 years.
With a strong focus on transportation and renewable energy applications, this gate driver solution provides optimised switching of SemiSouth’s SiC JFET technology; reliable operation for more than 20 years expected at 125°C; and low cost in mass production.
“CISSOID has already demonstrated its gate drive technology as the most reliable in harsh environment applications” said Jean-Christophe Doucet, VP Marketing at CISSOID. “What we are demonstrating with SemiSouth is a derivative solution tailored to meet the requirements of the solar and transportation markets, meeting their low-cost target, while enabling efficiency gains and the longest lifetime that beats traditional semiconductors by more than a decade.”
Driving SemiSouth’s SJEP120R100 SiC JFET, the test board was able to hard-switch 600 V and 10 A with turn-off and turn-on times of only 14 ns and 24 ns, respectively. The test board also demonstrated very low switching losses (Etotal less than 124 μJ) that were a factor of 10 to 20 lower than standard silicon IGBTs, but also lower than a number of other SiC power switches. Overall, the system demonstrated superior power efficiency, taking full advantage of the SemiSouth devices.
HADES half-bridge isolated gate driver board, P/N EVK-TIT0636B, is available from CISSOID for electrical evaluation with the high-temperature version of the chipset; a single channel, low cost version of the isolated gate drive chipset will be introduced in the coming months.
