Category Archives: LEDs

SEMICON Singapore will focus on the advanced technology developments to enable mobility for the Internet of Things (IoT).  SEMICON Singapore 2014 (www.semiconsingapore.org) runs 23-25 April, at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center.

At SEMICON Singapore 2014, the exhibits, programs and workshops will examine how emerging technologies impact the manufacturing landscapes and how device makers will position themselves for the upward trends of mobility and IoT.  The three-day event will feature exhibitors showcasing the latest processes, materials, tools, and technologies used in the manufacture of today’s most advanced electronic products.  For the first time, the event features the enabling technologies that translate the advancements in semiconductor technology towards IoT applications. From driverless cars to smart home automation to wireless charging and touch displays, the microelectronics ecosystem is an enabler of the “magic behind the gadgets.”

SEMICON Singapore will feature programs and forums to highlight the industry’s major technology trends, and investment and expansion opportunities in manufacturing, including:

  • Market Trend Forum will feature leading executives Yole Développement, UBS, GfK Southeast Asia, Merrill Lynch, SurplusGlobal, and SEMI, who will provide their insights to the key trends driving microelectronics growth worldwide and the challenges ahead for the Southeast Asia supply chain
  • Fabless/IDM Technology Challenges Track will feature perspectives from Broadcom, Intel, Silicon Laboratories and Xilinx on the emerging industry dynamics paving way for growth in the mobility and IoT space with emphasis on Singapore’s semiconductor landscape.
  • Additional forums and programmes include:  Advanced Packaging Technology; 2.5D/3D IC; LED; MEMS; Product Test; and Emerging Growth Company Enterprise Summit.
  • The SEMI International Standards Program will also present a workshop on “Packaging & Test SEMI Standards (WLP/3D IC).”

The SEMICON Singapore agenda will also address the significant issues of workforce development and will provide programs to nurture Southeast Asia’s skilled workforce to drive the future growth of the industry.

“SEMI Southeast Asia works closely with local government agencies and the tertiary institutions to embrace the development of young talent and working professionals into future leaders of the industry,” said Kai Fai, Ng, president of SEMI Southeast Asia.  “I am particularly pleased that this year at SEMICON Singapore, we are continuing our commitment to cultivate the best talent in Southeast Asia for our member companies and industry by presenting SEMICON University and the Job Fair for the second consecutive year — plus new this year, an online job portal will help companies connect with the best talent available.”

The development of a highly skilled workforce is one of the greatest challenges to advancing growth of high-technology industries, in particular semiconductors and related microelectronics. Worldwide, these advanced products require thousands of engineers and technologists capable of designing intricate microelectronics as well as the complex manufacturing equipment, new materials, and precise processes needed to manufacture them.

Singapore’s semiconductor industry has grown remarkably over the last forty years to become one of the most advanced hubs in the region.  Today the semiconductor industry constitutes much of Singapore’s economic growth, contributing over 5 percent of the city-state’s GDP and 37 percent of all R&D spending by the manufacturing industry. The industry employs approximately 42,000 people.

Today, GaN on Sapphire is the main stream technology for LED manufacturing. GaN-on-Si technology appeared naturally as an alternative to sapphire to reduce cost. Yole Développement’s cost simulation indicates that the differential in silicon substrate cost is not enough to justify the transition to GaN-on-Si technology. The main driver is the ability to manufacture in existing, depreciated CMOS fabs in 6 inch or 8 inch.

“Despite potential cost benefits for LEDs, the mass adoption of GaN-on-Si technology for LED applications remains unclear. Opinions regarding the chance of success for LED-on-Si vary widely in the LED industry from unconditional enthusiasm to unjustified skepticism. Virtually all major LED makers are researching GaN-on-Si LED, but few have made it the core of their strategy and technology roadmap. Among the proponents, only Lattice Power, Plessey and Toshiba have moved to production and are offering commercial LED-on-Si,” explains Dr. Hong Lin, Yole Developpement analyst.

At Yole Développement, analysts believe that although significant improvements have been achieved, there are still some technology hurdles (performance, yields, CMOS compatibility). They consider that if the technology hurdles are cleared, GaN-on-Si LEDs will be adopted by some LED manufacturers, but will not become the industry standard. Yole Développement expects that Silicon will capture less than five percent of LED manufacturing by 2020.

GaN-on-Si technology will be widely adopted by power electronics applications

The power electronics market addresses applications such as AC to DC or DC to AC conversion, which is always associated with substantial energy losses that increase with higher power and operating frequencies. Incumbent silicon based technology is reaching its limit and it is difficult to meet higher requirements. GaN based power electronics have the potential to significantly improve efficiency at both high power and frequencies while reducing device complexity and weight. Power GaN are therefore emerging as a substitution to the silicon based technology. Today, Power GaN remains at its early stage and presents only a tiny part of power electronics market.

“We are quite optimistic about the adoption of GaN-on-Si technology for Power GaN devices. GaN-on-Si technology have brought to market the first GaN devices. Contrary to the LED industry, where GaN-on-Sapphire technology is main stream and presents a challenging target, GaN-on-Si will dominate the GaN based power electronics market because of its lower cost and CMOS compatibility,” says Dr. Eric Virey, analyst at Yole Developpement. Although GaN based devices remain more expensive than Si based devices today, the overall cost of GaN devices for some applications are expected to be lower than Si devices three years from now, according to some manufacturers.

“In our nominal case, GaN based devices could reach more than seven percent of the overall power device market by 2020,” adds Virey. GaN-on-Si wafers will capture more than one point five percent of the overall power substrate volume, representing more than 50 percent of the overall GaN-on-Si wafer volume, subjecting to the hypothesis that the 600V devices would take off in 2014-2015.

GaN-on-Si epiwafer: buy it or make it? Which business will be dominated?

GaN on Si LED

To adopt the GaN-on-Si technology, device makers have the choice between buying epiwafers or templates on the open market, or buying MOCVD reactors and making epiwafer by themselves. Today, there is a limited number of players selling either epiwafers or templates or both on the open market. These players comes from Japan, US and Europe. We have not observed an absolute dominance from one region.

As perceived by device markers, each business model has its pros & cons in terms of IP, technology dependence, R&D investments, and time. According to Yole Développement’s reports, analysts do not expect to see a significant template/epiwafer business emerge for LEDs and consider that LEDs makers would prefer making their epiwafers internally for mass production. For the power electronics industry, the opinion is divided. Yole Dévelopement considers that buying epiwafers could work as long as the price of the epiwafer on the open market keeps decreasing.

EV Group (EVG), a supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, today announced that it has opened a new, wholly owned subsidiary in Shanghai, called EV Group China Ltd., which will serve as regional headquarters for all of EVG’s operations in China.  The new subsidiary, which houses a local service center and spare parts management facility, will further strengthen EVG’s presence in the region and support the company’s ongoing efforts to improve service and response times to local customers.

As China continues to increase its technology development efforts to become a leading manufacturing region for the semiconductor, compound semiconductor, power device, advanced packaging, light emitting diode (LED) and MEMS industries, EVG has expanded its operations in order to be more effective and efficient in meeting the needs of its growing customer base in the region.  EV Group China Ltd. is an integral part of EVG’s worldwide customer support network, serving as the first point of contact for all service and customer support issues.

“The opening of our new EV Group China subsidiary affords us a great opportunity to continue to deliver on our commitment to provide on-demand, stellar service that our customers have come to expect from EVG.  The significant growth in business that we’ve seen in China, coupled with the continued huge market potential in this region, makes establishing a new subsidiary in China an effective way to continue to build upon our presence here and strengthen support for our local customers and partners,” said Hermann Waltl, executive sales and customer support director at EV Group.

EVG has had an active presence in China for more than a decade.  Success in this region has allowed order intake from Chinese customers to multiply over the past several years.  EVG has now established five wholly owned subsidiaries across the globe.

Following a successful inaugural at SEMICON West last year, the Silicon Innovation Forum (SIF) is set to return to San Francisco this July in conjunction with SEMICON West 2014 (July 8-10 at Moscone Center) and expand to SEMICON Europa 2014, to be held this October for the first time in Grenoble, France (October 7-9, at Alpexpo).

Coordinated by SEMI, the Silicon Innovation Forum is organized by leading strategic investment groups in the global semiconductor industry including: Applied Ventures, Dow Ventures, Intel Capital, Micron Ventures, TEL Venture Capital, BASF Ventures, and Samsung Ventures.

Discussing the needs of and requirements for next-generation microelectronics, and gaining insight to strategies regarding technology, capital, partnership, and collaboration are critical for industry growth. The goal of the Silicon Innovation Forum (www.semiconwest.org/sif) is to connect early-stage technology companies and prospective investors from industry and the investment and venture capital community, providing a platform for companies to demonstrate their technologies and business plans, for investors to identify new business opportunities, and for both communities to explore the technology and business challenges shaping the future of microelectronics.
Companies and investors well-received the first Silicon Innovation Forum, held last year at SEMICON West 2013.

“SEMICON West and the Silicon Innovation Forum gave us entre to the key decision-makers we needed to reach,” said Bob Lloyd, CEO of Bright Spec,  “As a result of the discussions, we now have the right contacts within semiconductor makers in Asia, Europe, and the U.S.” Dadi Gudmundsson, president and CEO of Sensor Analytics, added “We were impressed with the caliber of both the companies selected and the industry/investor attendees. In addition to renewing contacts, we made contact with new investors and industry players that focus on and understand the semiconductor industry. We also successfully used the publicity from our SIF participation to secure business from companies attending SEMICON West.”

Based on the success of the SEMICON West program, SEMI will expand the Silicon Innovation Forum this year, hosting an additional event in conjunction with SEMICON Europa 2014 in Grenoble. The SIF Europe will be included as part of the new “Innovation Village” exhibition and presentation area on the SEMICON Europa show floor, showcasing start-ups and other early-stage technology companies from across Europe.

“Innovation and new ideas need investment, but traditional venture capital and private funding of advanced semiconductor technology development has significantly declined in recent years, threatening the future of microelectronics innovation and the industry as a whole,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI. “We are excited to renew and expand the Silicon Innovation Forum concept in the United States and Europe and focus on restoring investment in technology innovation and growing business through dynamic engagement with the investment community.”

For more information on the Silicon Innovation Forum held at SEMICON West, contact Ray Morgan, SEMI Americas at [email protected] or visit www.semiconwest.org/sif. For more information on the Silicon Innovation Forum Europe (www.semiconeuropa.org/Segments/InnovationVillage), contact Anne-Marie Dutron, SEMI Europe-Grenoble, at [email protected].

On May 13-15, the key industry players, science institutes and innovation business representatives will gather in Moscow at SEMICON Russia — the premier Russian semiconductor exhibition and conference. The Microelectronics Market Conference (May 13) associated with SEMICON Russia will be held at Technopolis, Moscow, while the Exhibition (May 14-15) will be held at the Moscow Expocentre. Topics include: Advanced Packaging and MEMS, as well as exhibitor presentations in the TechARENA on the show floor.

Over 2,000 attendees are expected from more than 30 countries. Semiconductor and related industries enjoy a high level of support by the government, and SEMICON Russia offers market information, technical knowledge and networking opportunities. Investment opportunities exist in Russia for semiconductor and related technologies — Russia is set to invest into R&D and industrialization of local semiconductor manufacturing.

With economic growth, expanding university/state funding programs, and foreign investments, the Russian technology industry is progressing. With the race for innovation and new programs for electronics development for 2015-2025, Russia offers new opportunities for the market players — including public-private partnership project development. In Russia, there is a sense of urgency about removing trade barriers and other bureaucracy, especially for high-tech products. Russian companies are looking for technical alliances to catch up with Western companies as quickly as possible.

The Microelectronics Market Conference on May 13 will provide a very effective platform for learning about the regional and global market, identifying promising areas for investment, establishing new contacts and developing mutually beneficial cooperation between Russian and foreign companies. The year’s edition will focus on “Shaping up the Russian Microelectronics Industry.” Launched in 2000, the Conference has established a reputation as an important event for microelectronics and related industries specialists.

Heinz Kundert, president of SEMI Europe, will open the Conference with a SEMI Market Update. The opening keynote will be provided by Alexey Kommissarov, director of the Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship, Moscow City Government. In addition, Frost & Sullivan will present new data based on their recent market research on the electronic and semiconductor segment in Russia. Other speakers featured at the Microelectronics Conference include representatives from: CNII Electronica, Concern Vega, ETU “LETI” SPb, El-Tech SPb, CrocusNano Electronics, Russian MEMS Association, and STMicroelectronics.

The TechAREA is free for all registered visitors and offer sessions on MEMS, Advanced Packaging, and Exhibitor presentations.

This year the event is sponsored by SVCS. Supporters include: Moscow City Government, Department of RadioElectronics of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Special Economic Zone Zelenograd and the Cluster of Zelenograd.

Opportunities to exhibit are still available at SEMICON Russia. For more information on exhibiting or attending SEMICON Russia 2014, visit: www.semiconrussia.org.

Most modern electronics, from flat-screen TVs and smartphones to wearable technologies and computer monitors, use tiny light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. These LEDs are based off of semiconductors that emit light with the movement of electrons. As devices get smaller and faster, there is more demand for such semiconductors that are tinier, stronger and more energy efficient.

This graphical representation shows the layers of the 2-D LED and how it emits light.

U of Washington

This graphical representation shows the layers of the 2-D LED and how it emits light.

University of Washington scientists have built the thinnest-known LED that can be used as a source of light energy in electronics. The LED is based off of two-dimensional, flexible semiconductors, making it possible to stack or use in much smaller and more diverse applications than current technology allows.

“We are able to make the thinnest-possible LEDs, only three atoms thick yet mechanically strong. Such thin and foldable LEDs are critical for future portable and integrated electronic devices,” said Xiaodong Xu, a UW assistant professor in materials science and engineering and in physics.

Xu along with Jason Ross, a UW materials science and engineering graduate student, co-authored a paper about this technology that appeared online March 9 in Nature Nanotechnology.

Most consumer electronics use three-dimensional LEDs, but these are 10 to 20 times thicker than the LEDs being developed by the UW.

“These are 10,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair, yet the light they emit can be seen by standard measurement equipment,” Ross said. “This is a huge leap of miniaturization of technology, and because it’s a semiconductor, you can do almost everything with it that is possible with existing, three-dimensional silicon technologies,” Ross said.

The UW’s LED is made from flat sheets of the molecular semiconductor known as tungsten diselenide, a member of a group of two-dimensional materials that have been recently identified as the thinnest-known semiconductors. Researchers use regular adhesive tape to extract a single sheet of this material from thick, layered pieces in a method inspired by the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to the University of Manchester for isolating one-atom-thick flakes of carbon, called graphene, from a piece of graphite.

In addition to light-emitting applications, this technology could open doors for using light as interconnects to run nano-scale computer chips instead of standard devices that operate off the movement of electrons, or electricity. The latter process creates a lot of heat and wastes power, whereas sending light through a chip to achieve the same purpose would be highly efficient.

“A promising solution is to replace the electrical interconnect with optical ones, which will maintain the high bandwidth but consume less energy,” Xu said. “Our work makes it possible to make highly integrated and energy-efficient devices in areas such as lighting, optical communication and nano lasers.”

The research team is working on more efficient ways to create these thin LEDs and looking at what happens when two-dimensional materials are stacked in different ways. Additionally, these materials have been shown to react with polarized light in new ways that no other materials can, and researchers also will continue to pursue those applications.

A close-up view of a single layer of atoms of the semiconductor material

U of Washington

A close-up view of a single layer of atoms of the semiconductor material, tungsten diselenide, on silicon oxide. The ability to see the contrast of the single layer of atoms against the background shows how strongly these materials interact with light.

Co-authors are Aaron Jones and David Cobden of  the UW; Philip Klement of Justus Liebig University in Germany; Nirmal Ghimire, Jiaqiang Yan and D.G. Mandrus of the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe and Kenji Kitamura of the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan; and Wang Yao of the University of Hong Kong.

The research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong, the University Grant Council of Hong Kong and the Croucher Foundation. Ross is supported by a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship.

Following the boom in expansion of the Chinese LED market in 2011, many industry insiders and analysts speculated on whether the Chinese would be able to sustain the growth, or if many companies simply ordered an excessive amount of MOCVD reactors just to benefit from government subsidies. The failure of many of the companies was widely predicted. So, what’s happening in the China LED industry after three years?

According to a new IHS report on the Chinese LED market, China’s LED die production revenues will grow 36.6% to reach $1,475 million and packaged LEDs will grow 14.8 percent to reach $4,812 million in 2014. Sanan, the largest Chinese LED company with a more than 30 percent share of die production in China, is actually expanding capacity. Its second phase project in Wuhu is still going ahead this year, leading to the addition of new tools. Epistar, its largest rival will be directly competing this year to see who will be the world leader for total wafer capacity. MLS was estimated to be the largest Chinese packaged LED company in 2013 with slightly more than nine percent market share among thousands of other Chinese competitors.

Lighting is the major driving force for the China LED market growth from 2013 to 2014 and is forecast to exceed 50 percent share of all applications in 2014. The acceptance of LED replacement T-lamps, the falling cost of LED lamps generally, the continued economic growth, and the phasing out of incandescent A-lamps are all factors that are increasing the penetration rate of LED lamps in China.

Related news: Demand for key raw materials set to double as LED market booms

The backlight market also grew significantly from 2012 to 2013 – by 74 percent in LED die. High growth is expected to continue in 2014 due to Chinese companies’ technology improvements to replace imported products from Taiwan and Korea.

LEDs 2014

Although the Chinese domestic market is huge, international sales of most Chinese LED companies remain fairly low. However, they are catching up quickly. Larger companies are developing their own brands and IHS expects these suppliers to increase their presence in international markets in the near future.

By Dan Tracy, Industry Research and Statistics, SEMI

Semiconductor industry revenues reported by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) reached a record high in 2013 with global revenues totaling over $305 million. In addition, the WSTS report showed that total unit shipments for integrated circuit devices (ICs) increased by over 9 percent last year; thus, 2013 proved to be a strong year for unit shipments. The IC shipment growth ties to the continuing strong consumer demand for mobile electronics. ICs consumed in mobile products are fabricated using device technologies based on 32nm, 28nm, and below technologies, that require leading-edge materials, such as 300mm wafers and advanced photoresists, to fabricate.

Given the strong unit trends, some year-end materials data collected by SEMI registered growth rates significantly lower than the 9 percent observed in unit shipments. As commented on in last month’s article on reclaim wafers, wafer shipments for prime electronic grade (excluding reclaim) grew just 0.4 percent for the year. The article explained factors around this low area shipment growth.  In addition to shipments, silicon wafer revenues declined by almost -13 percent in 2013, marking the second consecutive year of double-digit revenue declines in the silicon wafer market (semiconductor applications only). Aggregate average selling prices are declined for silicon and a significant factor contributing to the decline in 2013 was the weakened yen.

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he average yen-to-US dollar exchange rate was 80¥/US$ in 2012. In 2013, it weakened to 98¥/US$. Given the strong market position Japanese material suppliers have in the industry, including silicon wafers, this trend dampened the revenues reported in U.S. dollars.  Another material segment where the exchange conversion impacted the revenues was the photoresist market. Again, a number of Japanese companies are key industry suppliers in this segment, and photoresist revenues declined in 2013 — even for the advanced resist materials and despite the strong IC unit growth.

image002

Finally, the impact of the weaker yen played out in the SEAJ book-to-bill equipment trends as well (SEAJ: Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan).  Total billings for fab, test, assembly & packaging, and other semiconductor equipment reported by the SEAJ declined by almost -30 percent when reported in U.S. dollars.  That same data set when reported in Yen, posts a year-over-year decline of -14 percent.

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Source: SEAJ, March 2014

2013 was a strong year for IC unit shipment growth. Downward price pressures and a weakened Yen, however, contributed to a challenging year for semiconductor materials and equipment suppliers alike as far as revenue growth. These factors are important in comparing year-over-year trends.

SEAJ-BB

For more information on SEMI Market Research, visit www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo. For information on SEMI, visit: www.semi.org

The release today of the SEMI World Fab Forecast update reveals a 20 to 30 percent projected increase in semiconductor fab equipment spending in 2014. The uptick to 30 percent depends on specific fab projects in the Europe/Mideast and Asia regions, as detailed in the report. Figure 1 shows Total Fab Equipment Spending versus Installed Capacity without Discretes. For 2014, the report identified over 190 fab projects in 2014 spending on construction and/or equipment and over such 250 projects in 2015 (including Discretes, LED, Analog and Logic fabs).

fab graph

According to the SEMI data, double-digit fab equipment spending growth will occur in almost all industry segments.  The segment showing the largest increase is expected to be MPU, followed by Memory.  Analog, Logic and MEMS will share third place with about 30 percent growth each — off of a small spending base in 2013.  The Foundry segment spending is expected to grow by 15 percent.

The SEMI World Fab Forecast report shows an increase in DRAM related projects equipping, thus an increase in DRAM related equipment spending from about 7 percent growth in 2013 to 30 percent in 2014. Overall DRAM installed capacity is expected to remain flat (0 percent) in 2014, following a contraction in 2013.

Equipment spending is also expected to stabilize for both the Opto and the LED fab segments, from -16 percent spending declines in 2013 to -1 percent in 2014.  Equipment spending in the LED segment will decline -9 percent in 2014 following the -21 percent decline in 2013.  Construction spending for all Opto/LED facilities will increase by over 60 percent in 2014.  These investments will increase installed capacity for LED by 12 percent in 2014 and about 14 percent in 2015.

Using a bottom up approach, SEMI closely monitors the installed capacity of more 1,100 facilities.  Across the entire industry, installed capacity (without Discretes) grew by only 2 percent in 2013; this is expected to creep up to 3 percent growth in 2014 and in the 3-5 percent range in 2015.

The SEMI World Fab Forecast tracks over 190 fab projects in 2014 that are spending for construction projects and equipping facilities and over 250 such projects in 2015, including Discretes, LED, Analog and Logic fabs.  The report details that in 2013 seven new fabs and four R&D/Pilots facilities began construction. In 2014, six new fabs and one R&D fab are forecasted (with various probabilities) to begin construction.  Robust growth presents itself differently across segments of the industry; learn more about SEMI fab databases at: www.semi.org/MarketInfo/FabDatabase

The SEMI World Fab Forecast lists over 1,160 facilities.  There are 56 future facilities with various probabilities which have started or will start volume production in 2014 or later.  The report lists major investments (construction projects and equipping) in 196 facilities and lines in 2014, and a large number in 2015. Since the last fab database publication at the end November 2013, the SEMI has made 282 updates to 253 facilities (including over 250 Opto/LED fabs) in the database. There were 17 facilities added and 10 facilities closed.

The SEMI World Fab Forecast uses a bottom-up approach methodology, providing high-level summaries and graphs, and in-depth analyses of capital expenditures, capacities, technology and products by fab. Additionally, the database provides forecasts for the next 18 months by quarter. These tools are invaluable for understanding how the semiconductor manufacturing will look in 2013 and 2014, and learning more about capex for construction projects, fab equipping, technology levels, and products.

Cree today introduced the new CPW5 Z-Rec high-power silicon-carbide (SiC) Schottky diodes, the industry’s first commercially available family of 50 Amp SiC rectifiers. Designed to deliver the cost reduction, high efficiency, system simplicity and improved reliability of SiC technology to high power systems from 50kW to over 1MW, these new diodes can address demanding applications that include solar / PV inverters, industrial power supplies, induction heating, battery charging stations, wind turbine converters and traction inverters.

Developed to facilitate the direct matching of 50 Amp diodes to 50 Amp MOSFETs or IGBTs, Cree CPW5 Schottky diodes reduce system complexity and cost by enabling the replacement of multiple low-voltage, low-current SiC Schottky diodes, or silicon PiN diodes, with a single CPW5 rectifier. Additional cost savings can be achieved through reduced maximum voltage ratings and the elimination of snubber circuitry due to the diminished voltage overshoot during switching in silicon carbide.

“Cree’s CPW5 family of SiC Schottky diodes are a critical component in our high performance power modules and power electronic systems,” said Ty McNutt, director of business development, APEI, Inc. “The low forward voltage drop, fast switching speed and extended temperature capability allow us to push power density and efficiency across many applications, such as high power motor drives and solar inverters.”

Cree CPW5 diodes enable a new generation of high-current Si/SiC IGBT modules. Hybrid Si/SiC IGBT modules can deliver up to a 43 percent reduction in switching losses over conventional modules, while also reducing voltage- and current-overshoot, switching dead time and cooling requirements. As an added benefit, design engineers can use the same gate driver design and circuits used with conventional modules, allowing easy and immediate implementation. Cree CPW5 diodes also provide a peak forward surge resistance greater than 500 Amps repetitive and 2000 Amps non-repetitive, delivering increased reliability under the harshest electrical conditions.

“As the sole distributor of Cree SiC-based power products in wafer and die form, SemiDice is excited to offer the CPW5 family of Z-Rec Schottky diodes,” said Dan Cormack, CEO of SemiDice, Inc. “We are seeing increased customer demand for 50 Amp Schottky diodes and we know that as a global leader in the manufacture of advanced SiC diodes, Cree will deliver the quality and performance that our customers expect to help them minimize system cost and size.”