Fuji Electric Review
Vol.64-No.4,2018
Power Semiconductors Contributing in Energy Management
Power Semiconductors Contributing in Energy Management
The use of energy-saving technologies and renewable energy has been progressing in order to prevent global warming. Many countries have already declared to completely abolish the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles over the next few decades; and they have been aggressively adopting electric vehicles (xEV) as a means of reducing CO2 among other rapidly growing initiatives to achieve decarbonization. In response to the need to improve efficiency and miniaturize power electronics devices to ensure the efficient and stable use of electrical energy, power semiconductors have been receiving much attention as the key devices capable of contributing greatly to this goal. At Fuji Electric, we have been developing and commercializing power semiconductors for a variety of different fields. In this special issue we’ll be introducing the latest Fuji Electric power semiconductor technologies and products.
FUNAKI, Tsuyoshi
FUJIHIRA, Tatsuhiko; MIYASAKA, Tadashi; IKAWA, Osamu
Energy consumption has been steadily increasing as populations and economies grow worldwide. Energy-saving technologies are being adopted, and the use of renewable energies such as solar power generation and wind power generation has been expanding in order to curb CO2 emissions and prevent global warming. Many countries have also been declaring their desire to completely abolish the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles over the next few decades, and they have been adopting electric vehicles (xEV) as a means of reducing CO2 among other rapidly growing initiatives to achieve decarbonization. Fuji Electric has been contributing to the creation of responsible and sustainable societies by developing and commercializing power semiconductors as key devices in the power electronics products used in achieving energy stability and optimization. This paper describes the current situation and outlook for power semiconductor technologies and products for which continued strong market growth is expected.
USUI, Ryosuke; KATO, Yoshiharu; TAKAHASHI, Seiichi
In recent years, there have been an increasing number of power converter applications that require power conversion in the high frequency region to achieve further compactness, weight savings and high efficiency for their power converters. Switching devices are thus greatly demanded for high speed and low loss. Fuji Electric has developed a high speed hybrid module combining IGBTs with SiC-SBDs, both of which operate with low loss and high speed in the high frequency region, significantly reducing switching loss. As a result, power dissipation during high-frequency inverter operation can be reduced by approximately 50% compared with existing products, thereby increasing expectations that it can be utilized with applications that require compactness, weight savings and high efficiency.
OKAYAMA, Kenichi; SIRAKAWA, Toru; TANAKA, Masanori
In recent years, to deal with global environmental problems, there has been increasing demand for energy conservation to cope with greenhouse gas emission regulations and size reduction to save on resources. Fuji Electric developed a line-up of 2nd-generation Small-IPM with 650 V / 50 A and 75 A that integrate the power devices and control ICs to compose inverter circuits. The products adopting “X Series” IGBT chip technology reduce their power dissipation compared to conventional products and increase the maximum operating temperature from 125 °C to 150 °C by using a high heat-resistant packaging technology. These enhancements will contribute to saving energy, downsizing of power conversion systems and increasing their output current.
NAKAYAMA, Tomoya; NAKANO, Hayato; YOSHIDA, Soichi
In recent years, the switch to electric vehicles (xEV) has been increasing, and the xEVs are equipped with inverters for driving electric motors. Therefore, there has been growing demand for inverters and their component IGBT modules for xEVs. Fuji Electric has developed an IGBT module that integrates an on-chip sensor for driving motors of xEVs. The on-chip sensor is equipped with temperature and current sensors. The temperature sensor directly monitors the temperature of the IGBT chip to improve the permissible current of the module. The low-loss current sensor monitors large current and enables protective operation when there is an overcurrent caused by short circuit or other accidents.
KANAI, Naoyuki; HOYA, Masashi; TSUJI, Takashi
Fuji Electric has participated in the project of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and is developing electric distribution equipment and control systems to stabilize the power grid when the massive introduction of distributed energy sources, such as photovoltaic power generation. In this regard, we have developed a 3.3-kV All-SiC module equipped with SiC trench-gate MOSFETs for electric distribution equipment. The module reduces inverter loss by 60% and achieves higher power density compared with modules equipped with conventional SiC planar-gate MOSFETs.
KOBAYASHI, Yusuke; OHSE, Naoyuki; KOJIMA, Takahito
Fuji Electric has developed a trench gate MOSFET that uses silicon carbide (SiC) to reduce power dissipation of power semiconductor devices. Although shortening the MOSFET channel length can further reduce power dissipation, this makes it necessary to suppress the drop in the threshold voltage and breakdown voltage due to the shortchannel effect. The simulations and prototype for a vertical trench gate SiC-MOSFET with a halo structure demonstrated the suppression of the short-channel effect. We were thereby able to reduce on-resistance while maintaining a high threshold voltage and breakdown voltage.
TAKAKU, Taku; YUKAWA, Fumio; IKENOUCHI, Shun
Fuji Electric has released its IGBT simulator free of charge on the website. It simulates the power dissipation and the junction temperature of Fuji Electric IGBT modules that are incorporated into power electronics systems, such as inverters. It supports 3-level circuits and many of the widely used pulse width modulation methods and provides the calculation of the dependence of the power loss on the junction temperature, allowing users to run more realistic simulations. Providing the power loss and the temperature rise transitions of IGBT modules helps users select modules and estimate their lifetime at the initial stages of design.
ENDO, Yuta; YAGUCHI, Yukihiro; HIASA, Nobuyuki
Fuji Electric has developed the “FA1B00 Series” 4th-generation critical conduction mode, power factor correction control ICs to meet the market demand for power supplies with low power consumption and low cost. We have newly developed an input current trapezoidal wave control method to suppress output voltage ripple while reducing power source harmonic current. This method facilitates the miniaturization of the output capacitor of a PFC circuit. Furthermore, by inheriting the light-load bottom-skip function and standby mode burst function from the previous model, the “FA1B00 Series” helps reduce the power consumption and cost of power supplies.
HARA, Yukihito; KATO, Yoshiharu; TAMURA, Takahiro
Fuji Electric has developed and launched the “XS Series” 650-V discrete IGBTs as a product line-up for UPSs and photovoltaic power generation PCSs that operate at a switching frequency of approximately 20 kHz. These devices are improved in a trade-off between conduction loss and switching loss. The series has a rating of 650 V/30 to 75 A, and its conduction loss and switching loss are lower than previous products by 20% or more. When Incorporated in a UPS, the device showed higher effi ciency than previous products for all load ranges, increasing by up to 0.12 points. It also showed that the rise in device case temperature becomes smaller.
SATO, Eisuke; UENO, Fumiya; UZAWA, Ryohei
To respond to environmental regulations and fuel consumption improvement in recent years, high-precision control technology is being applied to internal combustion engines, namely gasoline and diesel engines, and high-density mounting is being adopted to achieve downsizing. As a result, automotive high-pressure sensors are required to achieve high precision and a high guaranteed operating temperature. To meet these needs, Fuji Electric has developed a 6.5th-generation high-pressure sensor for automotive applications. The product is characterized by its integration of a metal based package that ensures a high breakdown voltage with the sensor chip that guarantees operation and precision even under high temperature and pressure. The sensor has achieves miniaturization and guarantees operation at 150 °C using miniaturization technology and revised circuit layout.
Regular Paper
YASUMOTO, Koji; KITANO, Akihiro; GOTO, Mizuho
There has been increasing demand for large-capacity uninterruptible power systems (UPSs) for data centers and other facilities that require a stable supply of power. Fuji Electric has developed a large-capacity UPS system that uses lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The system employs highly reliable LIBs manufacturing by Samsung SDI and comes equipped with a battery management system that ensures the safe operation. The LIBs, having a life expectancy of 15 years, will be used without replacement during the entire life of the UPS main body. The installation space of the LIB is only 53% that of a lead-acid battery, achieving space saving.
New Products
HARA, Yukihito
Global energy demand is increasing steadily and further energy conservation is called for.
In this situation, there is a strong demand for switching devices with a lower loss in order to improve the efficiency of uninterruptible power systems (UPSs) for equipment requiring high-quality power and power conditioning systems (PCSs) that convert direct current power generated by photovoltaic systems into alternating-current power.
Fuji Electric has developed and launched the “XS Series” 650-V discrete IGBTs as a product line that improves the on-state voltage and switching loss trade-off characteristic to improve the efficiency of UPSs and PCSs.
TAKASAKI, Aiko; YAMANO, Akio; ICHIKAWA, Hiroaki
Recently, as a solution to the energy resource depletion and global warming issues, expectations are rising for power electronics technology that contributes to the efficient use of energy. Above all, demand is increasing for insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules, which are major components of power conversion equipment used in a wide range of fields including the industrial, consumer, automobile and renewable energy ones. A lowered power dissipation and improved reliability are strongly required of these IGBT modules. To make equipment smaller, there is also high demand for increasing the output current while maintaining the same package size as conventional products. However, increasing the output current of an IGBT module causes the operation temperature of IGBT and free wheeling diode (FWD) to rise, possibly leading to lower reliability. Accordingly, it is essential to have technological innovation for achieving both high output and high reliability.
Fuji Electric has developed the 7th-generation “X Series” semiconductor chips and packages to commercialize high-reliability IGBT modules. For this series, Fuji Electric has newly developed a reverse-conducting IGBT (RC-IGBT).
USUI, Ryosuke; KATO, Yoshiharu
In recent years, there has been greater demand to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 as a measure to suppress global warming. In order to achieve this, it has become necessary to promote a higher degree of energy savings in a variety of fields. Innovation of components such as power devices, circuits, and control mechanisms is required to advance energy savings in power conversion equipment typified by inverters, and it has become an important goal to achieve even less power dissipation in power devices. Moreover, in order to realize further miniaturization and better efficiency in power conversion equipment, an increasing number of applications are performing power conversion at high frequencies, and there is greater demand for high-speed low-loss switching. It is against this background that Fuji Electric has devel-oped and commercialized high-speed hybrid modules that incorporate a high-speed insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT) that can operate at a switching speed of 20 kHz or higher and Schottky barrier diodes (SiC-SBD) into a conventional package.