Renesas Electronics 7th-Generation 650 V and 1250 V IGBT Series sets a new technology benchmark enabling high efficiency solutions in Industrial Applications such as Inverters for Solar Power and Industrial Motors

Renesas Electronics 7th-Generation 650 V and 1250 V IGBT Series sets a new technology benchmark enabling high efficiency solutions in Industrial Applications such as Inverters for Solar Power and Industrial Motors

7th-Generation IGBTs Offer Low Saturation Voltages of 1.6 V for the 650 V Series, and 1.8 V for the 1250 V series to minimize power losses

Renesas Electronics 7th-Generation IGBT Series

Dusseldorf, Germany, July 11, 2012 — Renesas Electronics, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced 13 new products in its 7th-generation Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) lineup with industry-leading high performance. The new IGBTs include the RJH/RJP65S series for 650 V and RJP1CS series for 1250 V. The new IGBTs are power semiconductor devices used in systems that convert DC into AC power, and are designed for applications that handle high voltages and large currents, such as power conditioners (power converters) for solar power generators and industrial motors. The 7th-generation technology, based on enhanced thin wafer process, sets a low losses trade-off between conduction, switching losses and robustness capability to withstand short circuit conditions.

Compared to the previous 6th-generation technology, products series of 600 V and 1200 V, the 7th-generation portfolio has higher voltage rating 650 V and 1250 V to address low temperature performance requirements and overvoltage blocking capability.

Renesas IGBTs are suitable in motor controls applications. In such cases the device short circuit capability is a design critical selection parameter. The 7th-generation IGBT series comes with a 10 µs rated short circuit tolerance making it suitable for motors in general.

Recently, concerns for environmental preservation and other factors have prompted the need to improve the energy efficiency of electrical equipment as well as an ongoing shift toward clean energy such as solar and wind power. Such efforts to boost energy efficiency have been vigorous in the area of equipment that handles high voltages and large currents, such as solar inverters, water-jet pumps, and large-current inverter-controlled motors. This has spurred demand for dramatically reduced loss in IGBT products used in the conversion of power from DC to AC for this type of equipment. However, there is a trade-off between saturation voltage (Note 1), which is key to reducing loss, and the high short circuit tolerance required in the equipment that handles large currents. It has been difficult to achieve low loss along with a high short circuit tolerance (Note 2) of around 10 microseconds, which is considered essential in applications such as motor drives. In response, Renesas has developed these high performance IGBTs.

Key Features of the new IGBTs:

(1) Reduced saturation voltage of 1.6 V for 650 V versions and 1.8 V for 1250 V versions for better power efficiency
The exclusive ultrathin wafer technology reduced the saturation voltage to 1.6 V (typical value) from the 1.8 V (typical value) of comparable earlier Renesas products for the 650 V versions and to 1.8 V from 2.1 V for the 1250 V versions, a drop of about 12 percent and 15 percent in each case. This reduces power loss and contributes to increased efficiency.

(2) High short circuit tolerance of 10 microseconds for a higher level of reliability
The high short circuit tolerance, essential in applications that handle large currents, has been improved from the 8 microseconds (µs) range of comparable earlier Renesas products to 10 µs or above by optimized cell structure technology. This ensures excellent reliability and robust performance in systems such as power conditioners for solar power inverters.

(3) Faster switching
The reverse transfer capacitance (Cres) (Note 3) has been lowered by approximately 10 percent compared with earlier Renesas products by optimizing the surface structure of the device. This contributes to faster