Automotive & Transportation
December 2021
Navitas Semiconductor announced that its GaNFast power ICs with GaNSense technology have been upgraded to increase efficiency, power density, and access additional fast-charger markets.
GaN is a next-generation semiconductor technology that runs up to 20x faster than legacy silicon and enables up to 3x
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Date:
12/23/2021
Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) introduced a highly efficient multi-phasesynchronous boost controller that regulates high-power Class-D amplifiers in automotive infotainment systems. The MAX25203 features both programmable gate drive voltage and current limit blanking time, as well as accurate current balancing, an
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Date:
12/21/2021
Jay Cameron, who leads the power business over at Wolfspeed
Wolfspeed just signed a momentous agreement with General Motors to leverage SiC for GM’s electric vehicle programs. And given the gravity of the news, we’d like to delve a little deeper, talk about what it means for the industry and the general state of silicon carbide in electric vehicles.
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Date:
12/17/2021
Bourns, Inc., released its automotive grade Model SM453229A-381N7Y 10/100/1000 Base-T Chip LAN Transformer. Designed for maximum PCB layout flexibility, Bourns' latest Chip LAN Transformer model is a low-profile discrete solution. It is also AEC-Q200 compliant featuring an expanded temperature range of 40 to +105 °C, is capable o
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Date:
12/16/2021
Taiwan Semiconductor announces the extension of its recently launched line of fast recovery epitaxial diodes. The new PUUPxxH family extends the benefits of FRED technology to applications requiring up to 6A of operating current. These high-reliability (AEC-Q101 qualified) devices deliver optimized sw
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Date:
12/16/2021
Navitas Semiconductor announced that high-power GaN power IC samples are now available for the first time to data center, solar and electric vehicle (EV) customers worldwide.
Navitas GaNFast ICs were first introduced to mobile customers three years ago and have become a mainstream, disruptive force in
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Date:
12/16/2021
Balázs Kulcsár, Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology
One of the main stumbling blocks to electric vehicle adoption is range anxiety. Until now most of the focus on extending range was on the vehicle itself and the battery that holds the electric charge. There is no doubt that making the vehicle lighter, the electric drivetrain more efficient and the battery hold m
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Date:
12/14/2021
Infineon Technologies AG has developed a security solution for automotive wireless charging: OPTIGA Trust Charge automotive complies with version 1.3 of the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) Qi standard, which requires strong cryptographic authentication for wireless charging up to 15 W. For this, the po
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Date:
12/13/2021
STMicroelectronics is introducing its third generation of STPOWER silicon-carbide (SiC) MOSFETs, advancing the state-of-the-art in power devices for electric-vehicle (EV) powertrains and other applications where power density, energy efficiency, and reliability are important target criteria.
ST has incorpora
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Date:
12/09/2021
Infineon’s Dr. Gerald Deboy
We’ve covered EVs on this show a fair bit lately and that’s not exactly a coincidence, and today, we’re discussing the benefits of silicon carbide in EV on-board charging.
Date:
12/08/2021
ROHM Semiconductor announced the recent addition of a new thermal analysis function to the ROHM Solution Simulator. This new feature allows circuit and system designers in the automotive and industrial markets to collectively verify power devices and driver IC thermal issues on
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Date:
12/07/2021
The large EV market has given component manufacturers a huge commercial target to aim at, while the availability of advanced components has increased the performance of EVs to an extent that they are now desirable to a much wider base of customers. According to Dr. Gerald Deboy, Distinguished Engineer Power Semic
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Date:
12/02/2021
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Figure 1: EV charging systems are migrating rapidly in the direction of DC-based 50kW to 350kW power solutions
Now that the latest Electric Vehicles (EVs) are exhibiting operational ranges satisfactory to the general public, the attention has shifted to battery charging times. These EVs are using the latest in wide-bandgap semiconductor solutions and power topologies, with system voltages often well over several hundred vo
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Date:
12/01/2021
A company called DiviGas just received $3.6 million in a seed round, with promises to “clean up the hydrogen production industry.” So is hydrogen ready for its (mainstream) debut at Carnegie Hall? Not quite.
The hydrogen fuel cell isn’t exactly breaking news – a primitive version was touted by Englan
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Date:
12/01/2021
As I write this, we are locked in the “bust” part of the boom-bust hysteretic cycle that plagues the electronics component industry. Since I began working in the semiconductor industry in the mid-1980s, I’ve seen these swings occur randomly from rail to rail. The causes stem from industry attitudes toward pr
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Date:
12/01/2021
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Figure 1. Traditional in-car cabling for audio systems
The number of electronic systems in cars has increased in recent years, reaching higher levels of complexity with the adoption of new technologies for infotainment and advanced driver-assistance systems (cameras, radar, lidar, etc.), along with multiple sensors for many different purposes (stability, speed, ac
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Date:
12/01/2021
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Figure 1. Modern bus depot with charging infrastructure
With the electrification of heavy-duty or commercial vehicles, charging larger batteries than the ones in electric passenger cars becomes necessary. As time is money especially in logistics, either assigning idle times for charging or increasing charging power are preferred options. This leads to three different ch
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Date:
12/01/2021
With Strategy Analytics estimating 36 million EVs on the road by 2026, wireless BMS offer promising ways to make vehicles more efficient and reliable – features that appeal to both original equipment manufacturers and consumers. For consumers, wireless BMS could potentially mean lower EV costs, along with be
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Date:
12/01/2021
It has been a challenging and often frustrating year for us all and hopefully next year will give us a fresh start, or at least put us on the path to one. The chip shortage has persisted longer than most analysts thought and it may now be the middle of next year before the fabs have caught up with demand. The sh
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Date:
12/01/2021
We stand on the precipice of one of the greatest gauntlets all year (and into the next) with two intertwined topics for December and January – “Transportation” and “EV + Charging Infrastructure + Hybrid Vehicles,” respectively. But before we dive into this month’s focus, I wanted to personally thank ou
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Date:
12/01/2021
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Figure 1: The system block diagram (left) showing three main components: the two converter modules, each with a gate driver, and the controller. The power modules mounted on the cold plate (A), and then in the power core with gate drivers (B), are also shown outside the dual inverter enclosure (C). Handles and feet are provided for portability, (D) shows the 204 mm x 267.5 mm cross section
The traction drive is where nearly all of an electric vehicle’s (EV’s) energy is put to use. The drive system must, therefore, perform with the highest possible efficiency while occupying the smallest possible space with the lowest weight — all to maximize the EV range. With the use of dual drives to enhance tr
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Date:
12/01/2021
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