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News

9 February 2007

 

Cree launches highest-power, 50A SiC Schottky rectifier

Cree Inc of Durham, NC, USA says that it is shipping production quantities of a new 50 Amp Zero Recovery silicon carbide Schottky rectifier operating at 1200 volts. The firm’s existing range of 300-1200V Zero Recovery SiC Schottky rectifiers have current ratings up to 20A.

Cree says that the CPW2-1200S050 is a power-handling devices that can significantly improve levels of efficiency in power inverters, enabling applications such as solar and wind power converters, industrial motor drives, and electric vehicles to increase their operating efficiency beyond current levels, the firm claims.

Compared with traditional silicon-based diodes, Cree says that the SiC-based Zero Recovery rectifiers can:

  • simplify power factor correction (PFC) boost design by eliminating the need for snubbers and reducing component count.
  • reduce power losses, leading to cooler operating temperatures;
  • produce significantly less electromagnetic interference (EMI);
  • better support new design objectives for efficiency set forth by the US Environmental Protection Agency, California Electric Commission, and other agencies.

“Recent advancements Cree has made in material quality allow us to expand our product offerings into much higher power levels, opening whole new applications for our SiC power device technology,” says John Palmour, executive vice president for advanced devices. “It can help designers address energy efficiency requirements driven by global energy concerns,” he adds.

Cree also claims that the CPW2-1200S050 features the industry’s largest-area SiC die (8.2mm x 4mm). It adds that fundamental to these advances in chip area and power level are very low defect density substrates, including zero micropipe SiC substrates, enabled by research performed by INTRINSIC Semiconductor (acquired by Cree in 2006) in combination with research efforts funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Army Research Laboratories.

Visit: http://www.cree.com