October / November 2021

CONTENTS www.power-mag.com Issue 4 2021 Power Electronics Europe 3 Editor Achim Scharf Tel: +49 (0)892865 9794 Fax: +49 (0)892800 132 Email: PowerElectronicsEurope@t-online.de Production Editor Chris Davis Tel: +44 (0)1732 370340 Financial Manager Caren Brown Tel: +44 (0)1732 370340 Fax: +44 (0)1732 360034 Email: caren.brown@dfamedia.co.uk Reader/Circulation Enquiries Perception Tel: +44 (0) 1825 701520 Email: dfamedia@dmags.co.uk INTERNATIONAL SALES OFFICES Mainland Europe: Victoria Hufmann Norbert Hufmann Tel: +49 911 9397 643 Fax: +49 911 9397 6459 Email: pee@hufmann.info Eastern US Ian Atkinson Tel: +44 (0)1732 370340 Fax: +44 (0)1732 360034 Email: ian@dfamedia.co.uk Western US and Canada Ian Atkinson Tel: +44 (0)1732 370340 Fax: +44 (0)1732 360034 Email: ian@dfamedia.co.uk Japan: Yoshinori Ikeda, Pacific Business Inc Tel: 81-(0)3-3661-6138 Fax: 81-(0)3-3661-6139 Email: pbi2010@gol.com Taiwan Prisco Ind. Service Corp. Tel: 886 2 2322 5266 Fax: 886 2 2322 2205 Publisher & UK Sales Ian Atkinson Tel: +44 (0)1732 370340 Fax: +44 (0)1732 360034 Email: ian@dfamedia.co.uk www.power-mag.com Circulation and subscription: Power Electronics Europe is available for the following subscription charges. Power Electronics Europe : annual charge UK/NI £95, overseas $160, EUR 150. Contact: DFA Media, 192 The High Street, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1BE Great Britain. Tel: +44 (0)1732 370340 . Fax: +44 (0)1732 360034 . Refunds on cancelled subscriptions will only be provided at the Publisher’s discretion, unless specifically guaranteed within the terms of subscription offer. Editorial information should be sent to The Editor, Power Electronics Europe , PO Box 340131, 80098 Munich, Germany. The contents of Power Electronics Europe are subject to reproduction in information storage and retrieval systems. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the publisher. Printed by: Warners. ISSN 1748-3530 PAGE 6 Market News PEE looks at the latest Market News and company developments PAGE 13 Obtaining Highest Efficiency in DC/DC Converter Applications While improvements in Silicon power devices have been incremental, the introduction of wide-bandgap devices, such as Silicon Carbide (SiC), allow a jump in performance to be attained. Thanks to reference designs, such as Toshiba’s bidirectional DC/DC power supply, design engineers can significantly speed-up evaluation of suitable design approaches and topologies and get up to speed on the intricacies of using SiC MOSFETs. Dr. Matthias Ortmann, Chief Engineer, Application Support,Toshiba Electronics Europe PAGE 15 EPC Review PAGE 22 Industry News PAGE 26 Designing Transformer Coupled Gate Drive Circuits and Gate Drive Transformers Metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) and Insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) are amongst the most popular, efficient semiconductor devices for switching power supplies. For medium to high power switching applications, dedicated gate drivers are essential, because it would take too long to charge the gate capacitance for the gate of a power switch to be driven by the output of a logic IC. So, what are the circumstances under which gate drivers offer the best solution – and how can their design be optimised? Bhuvana Madhaiyan & Sampath Palaniyappan, Design and Development Engineers, Talema Group, Ireland PAGE 31 Is the 12V Lead-Acid Battery Dead? Yes, the 12 V lead-acid car battery is dead. Europe has decreed that no new cars will have lead-acid batteries after 2030, creating a considerable challenge for OEMs to find alternative solutions. While this may seem like a daunting task, it also presents a tremendous opportunity to eliminate the environmentally toxic battery while also reducing weight in a vehicle and improving overall efficiency. Nicolas Richard, Director Automotive Business Development, Vicor Europe PAGE 34 Web Locator A New Approach to Circuit Breaker Design Using Silicon Carbide Switches Mechanical circuit breakers have been around for a long time and do the basic job very well – they are low loss when on and provide excellent isolation when off. They do have their downsides though, with slow make/break times and arcing across the contacts, degrading their operating lifetime, particularly with DC power lines. Complex arrangements have been devised to disconnect quickly but it might still take around 10 milliseconds, allowing significant and possibly damaging energy to pass after a short circuit is detected, for example. Similarly, DC arcs can be suppressed to an extent with labyrinth clearances, a magnetic bias field or even blasts of compressed air. However, there are new applications for high current DC circuit breakers where this complexity cannot be afforded such as in EVs, where cost, size and weight are major issues. Solid-state circuit breakers (SSCBs), typically using IGBTs, can break power lines perhaps a thousand times faster than mechanical types with no arcing or aging problems, but they are imperfect switches. Wide band-gap semiconductors such as Silicon Carbide types (SiC) usually hit the headlines for their fast switching speed, but they also have inherently around 10x better on-resistance for a given die area and voltage rating than Silicon. This makes them potential candidates for small, efficient SSCB switches, and the high material operating temperature and better thermal conductivity are additional benefits for peak power dissipation considerations. This article discusses the issues and introduces a new Silicon Carbide semiconductor, the DG-FET as an enabler for better performance. More details on page 23. Cover image supplied by United SiC, USA FEATURE STORY To receive your own copy of Power Electronics Europe subscribe today at: www.power-mag.com