POWEREFFICIENCY
T
ransistors built from SiC are set to play a key role in improving the efficiency, while cutting size and weight, of various electrical products serving a diverse range of applications. These wide bandgap semiconductor devices will probably first make an impact in the renewable energy sector, increasing the efficiency of solar inverters and slashing their bill of materials, thanks to a reduction in heat sink requirements and size of the filter inductances.
SiC transistors also promise to improve the driving range of hybrid electric vehicles, by cutting the size and weight of the hybrid inverter systems. And these robust transistors are also attracting the attention of engineers in the geothermal, oil and gas industries, who are searching for devices that can operate at really high temperatures. SiC transistors will also enable down-hole tools to operate at even further depths, allowing for a greater and more widespread use of geothermal energy.
At TranSiC, now part of Fairchild Semiconductor, we are pioneering the development of bipolar SiC technology that can serve this broad range of applications. Our efforts account for the differing
Figure 1: I-V-forward characteristics of the SiC BJT compared to the silicon IGBT. The BJT’s collector current, IC, is plotted as a function of the collector-emitter voltage at a range of base currents, IB, ranging from 250 mA to 1 A. The dotted red line represents the same parameters for the IGBT
requirements of all these applications that look to exploit different properties of SiC. Industrial applications, such as PV inverters, can mainly benefit from the high efficiency of SiC transistors, and their ability to operate at very high switching frequencies. In comparison, for down-hole
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www.solar-pv-management.com Issue VII 2011
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