Technical Features

March 2019

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Figure 1: MOSFET channel punch-through showing outputs from previous SPICE simulators vs. QSPICE

QSPICE: A Mission to Get SPICE Right

Siddharth Mohan, design engineer, Qorvo

Qorvo’s QSPICE™ simulator for analog and mixed-signal simulation provides power designers with the tools to confidently evaluate their designs. Free to use, QSPICE improves SPICE basics, supports large amounts of digital logic without performance penalties, and delivers the speed and accuracy needed for rel

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Date:

11/29/2024

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Anup Bhalla, Ph.D., Vice President Engineering, UnitedSiC

Are you SiC of Silicon? - Part 1

By: Anup Bhalla, Vice President Engineering, UnitedSiC

SiC applications began in the 2000s with the adoption of SiC JBS diodes into PFC applications. This was followed by the use of SiC diodes and FETs in the PV industry. But the recent surge in applications relating to EV On-board chargers and DC-DC converters is driving SiC growth. The nascent adoption in the EV

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Date:

03/31/2019

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Figure 1. Welding in Automotive Assembly Line

Protect Small Sensors from the Harsh Industrial Environment

By Nazzareno (Reno) Rossetti and John Woodward, Maxim Integrated

Sensors are ubiquitous in the electrically harsh industrial environment (Figure 1). As they increase in sophistication and shrink in size, they become more complex, requiring on-board switching regulators to deliver power more efficiently for minimal heat generation. How do you safely deliver low-voltage power to

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Date:

03/30/2019

Why GaN E-HEMTs are a Power Designer's Transistor of Choice

Peter Di Maso, Jason Xu, GaN Systems Inc.

For the better part of this decade, power electronics technologists have been enabling new topologies with GaN (gallium nitride) transistors. Similarly, system innovators have been creating new levels of performance in electric and autonomous vehicles, industrial machines, televisions, laptop adapters, data ce

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Date:

03/12/2019

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Figure 1. Basic JFET operation

Normally-ON SiC JFETs – Characteristics and Applications

Anup Bhalla, UnitedSiC

Many think that Shockley invented the ‘transistor’, which he announced at a press conference on July 4th 1951. His Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) was certainly a momentous achievement, with the basic design still surviving today. Shockley, however, also had ideas about transistors using an electric fiel

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Date:

03/11/2019

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Figure 1: The GaN-on-Si wide bandgap HEMT structure

Taking the Heat Out of Wide-Bandgap Designs

Bernd Schmoelzer, Fabian Schnoy, Wei Deng, Infineon Technologies

The demand for higher power density in many applications is driving the development of wide bandgap semiconductors. Compared to standard power transistors based on silicon, devices based on wide bandgap (WBG) materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) or gallium nitride (GaN) offer significant benefits. High electron mo

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Date:

03/11/2019

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Figure 1: Block diagram of an electric vehicle controller

Hybridization: Prospects for the Near Future of Automobiles

Achim Groß, Field Application Engineer Automotive, Arrow Electronics

New vehicle models with electric motors are automobile manufacturers’ lighthouse projects, even more so against the background of current arguments about combustion engines or, more specifically, diesel engines. In close alignment with policy makers, manufacturers are offering premiums to tempt buyers. V

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Date:

03/11/2019

Image 1: Structural chemical formula and molecular structure of Dibutyl phthalate(DBP) – Source PRBX/Orange Deer studio

What Should You Know About RoHS 3?

Patrick Le Fèvre, PRBX

As specified in the European Directive 2015/863 dated 22nd of July 2019, electronic equipment manufacturers will have to comply with the third revision of the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), referenced as RoHS 3. All categories of electrical and electronic equipment are affected except medical devices and

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Date:

03/11/2019

It's Time to Rethink Power Semiconductor Packaging

Alex Lidow, CEO and Co-founder of EPC

In my 40 years’ experience in power semiconductors, I have visited thousands of customers, big and small, on every continent except Antarctica. When the issue invariably turns to the packaging of the power semiconductor – transistor, diode, or integrated circuit – the requests for improvement fall in

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Date:

03/11/2019

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Figure 1: Reliability Bathtub Curve

Myth or Reality?

Philip Zuk, Vice President of Worldwide Technical Marketing, Transphorm

2012 marked the long-awaited arrival of 600 V+ Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistors. Having already begun to make a mark in low-voltage applications, the wide-bandgap semiconductor material was expected to bring to high voltage (HV) power systems all of its inherent benefits: faster switching, higher power density, co

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Date:

03/11/2019

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Figure 1: RUIS test setup and waveforms for the current and the voltage during a UIS pulse.

Qualifying SiC Devices to Industrial and Auto Standards

Amaury Gendron-Hansen, Avinash Kashyap, & Dumitru Sdrulla, Microchip Technology’s Microsemi subsidiary

A recent trend in the semiconductor market is the widespread adoption of silicon carbide (SiC) devices, including both Schottky barrier diodes (SBD) and power MOSFETs, for industrial and automotive applications. At the same time, the long-term reliability of these devices is a hot topic that should be addressed si

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Date:

03/11/2019

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Figure 1: Core material performance curves

Reenvision Inductor Operation to Optimize New Applications

Len Crane, Technical Marketing Manger, Coilcraft

What do new applications need in order to take advantage of new devices like wide band-gap semiconductors? They need the best inductors. And what is the best inductor for your application? Answering that requires proper characterization of the inductors, which is more than can be conveniently obtained fr

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Date:

03/01/2019