Hitachi Energy Ltd

Hitachi Energy’s power semiconductors provide unsurpassed reliability and outstanding quality. Failure is not an option when driving electrical motors, ensuring smooth acceleration of trains, or transmitting gigawatt power over long distances and underwater. RoadPak is the first module for e-mobility applications in our proven portfolio of power semiconductors that takes advantage of silicon carbide (SiC) technology. The key benefit is the high-current rating in a small package that is enabled by the use of SiC, combined with very small stray inductance and high reliability.

Features SiC MOSFET transistors:

• - Compact design
• - Half bridge configuration with two MOSFET switches
• - Pin-Fin structure for lowest thermal resistance
• - Lowest loss enabled by SiC chipset
• - Lowest stray inductance
• - Voltage ratings: 750 V, 1200 V
• - Current up to 980 A

Typical applications:

• - Electric cars: Scalable current and power ratings in the RoadPak support inverter platforms of various e-cars
• - Trucks: High power in a small package allows efficient inverter design
• - Public transport: High reliability for the typical stop-and-go operation of e-buses and trams
• - Aviation: Performance and reliability to meet the demands of a wide range of aviation applications
• - Charging: Delivers performance to enable fast charging of trucks and buses

The well-established LinPak family was extended with devices based on silicon carbide (SiC) technology to deliver the highest current rating. SiC devices deliver several benefits, including a massive reduction of switching losses, an increase in current density and higher maximum junction temperature. These enhancements mean power conversion system efficiency is improved, a smaller footprint is achieved, and cooling requirements are much lower. The new SiC LinPaks enable increased switching frequency, significantly reducing filtering requirements. This makes the output wave curve much smoother, protecting the motor turned by the drive.

Features SiC LinPak

• - Lowest internal stray inductance for a power module in this class
• - One module for different voltage ratings, easy paralleling with one driver and excellent current sharing
• - Unmatched power cycling capability
• - Open standard – compatible with other manufacturers
• - Voltage range 1200V .. 6500 V in LV/HV packages
• - Operation up to 175°C

Typical applications

Typical applications for SiC LinPaks include DC-DC converters, propulsion traction converters, turbine starters in aviation, central inverters in photovoltaic applications, battery charging systems, auxiliary traction converters, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, Solid State Transformers (SST).

The new Gen 3 IGCT product platform consists of an Asymmetric (AS) and a Reverse Conducting (RC) device. The AS device enables converters of the highest power ratings, e.g. in offshore wind turbines that supplying green power of up to 20 MW per turbine.

The RC device, used for instance example in for traction network suppliesy, has been optimized in respect tofor efficiency. Losses reduction of 40% on at the device level and some approximately 10% on at the converter level was possibleachieved, what which is a great significant improvement on an already losses- optimized minimized device of the previous device generation. Following technologytechnological advances, to enabling enable the highest performance, best reliability and lowest fewest losses, have been implemented to in the IGCT Ggen 3 platform.

New features and benefits include:

• - An increased chip diameter without the need to changing change the footprint through more efficient use of raw silicon wafers.
• - Minimal gate-circuit impedance, achieved by using a gate contact infrastructure at the device’s periphery, and by optimized optimizing the routing of the gate contact through the housing.
• - Improved thermal performance by using monolithic Molybdenum disk and plus asymmetric anode and cathode side pole piece thickness.
• - The turn-off current is increased by adjusting the doping profile.
• - A segmented diode profile enabling enables significant losses reduction when compared to conventional design (RC device).

StakPak is a family of high power insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) press-packs and diodes in an advanced modular housing that guarantees uniform chip pressure in multiple-device stacks.

Although the most common package for IGBTs is the isolated module, for applications requiring series connection, press-packs are preferred because of the ease with which they can be connected electrically and mechanically in series and because of their inherent ability to conduct in the shorted state – an essential feature where redundancy is required. Since IGBTs feature multiple parallel chips, there is a challenge - with conventional press-packs - in assuring uniform pressure on all chips. This problem was solved with a new patented spring technology.

The StakPak, optimized for series connection, features a modular concept based on submodules fitted in a fiberglass reinforced frame, which allows a flexible realisation of a range of products for different current ratings and IGBT/diode ratios.