Infineon provides FOXESS with SiC power semiconductors to boost efficiency and power density of energy storage applications

Infineon Technologies provides its power semiconductor devices to FOXESS, a rapidly expanding frontrunner in the renewable energy sector and a producer of inverters and energy storage systems. Both parties are committed to advancing the growth of renewable energy. Infineon will supply FOXESS with its CoolSiC™ MOSFETs 1200 V, which will be utilized alongside EiceDRIVER™ gate drivers for industrial energy storage applications. Simultaneously, FOXESS will utilize Infineon’s IGBT7 H7 1200 V power semiconductor devices in its string PV inverters.

In recent years, the global market for photovoltaic energy storage systems (PV-ES) has experienced rapid growth. With the increasing competitiveness in the PV-ES industry, enhancing power density has emerged as a crucial factor for achieving success. Consequently, there is significant interest in exploring methods to enhance efficiency and power density for energy storage applications. Infineon’s CoolSiC MOSFET 1200 V and IGBT7 H7 1200 V series power semiconductor devices utilize advanced semiconductor technologies and design principles specifically developed for industrial applications.

Infineon’s CoolSiC MOSFETs 1200 V have a high power density, allowing them to decrease losses by 50 percent and give approximately 2 percent more energy without requiring a larger battery. This is particularly advantageous for energy storage systems that prioritize high performance, lightweight, and compactness. The FOXESS H3PRO energy storage line, ranging from 15 kW to 30 kW, incorporates Infineon’s CoolSiC MOSFETs with a voltage rating of 1200 V across all models. Infineon’s exceptional performance has enabled the H3PRO series to reach an efficiency of up to 98.1 percent and outstanding electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) performance. Due to its superior performance and dependability, the H3PRO series has experienced significant sales growth in the global market.

Currently, FOXESS’ primary industrial and commercial model, the R Series 75-110 kW, enhances the overall design of the 100 kW model by including IGBT7 H7 series discretes, resulting in a machine efficiency of up to 98.6 percent. The IGBT7 H7 series in discrete packages offers low power loss and high power density, which simplifies and optimizes technical issues like current sharing during the paralleling process. Each power device needs a driver, and selecting the appropriate driver can significantly simplify the design process. Infineon provides a wide range of EiceDRIVER gate drivers, totaling over 500 models. These gate drivers have output currents ranging from 0.1 A to 18 A and come with various protection functions such as fast short-circuit protection (DESAT), active Miller clamp, shoot-through protection, fault reporting, shutdown, and overcurrent protection. They are compatible with all power devices, including CoolSiC and IGBTs.

04.18.2024

04.18.2024

04.18.2024

Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio holds a Ph. D. in Physics and is a Telecommunications Engineer. He has worked on various international projects in the field of gravitational waves research, designing a thermal compensation system (TCS) and data acquisition and control systems, and on others about x-ray microbeams in collaboration with Columbia University, high voltage systems and space technologies for communications and motor control with ESA/INFN. TCS has been applied to the Virgo and LIGO experiments, which detected gravitational waves for the first time and earned the Nobel Prize in 2017. Since 2007, he has been a reviewer for scientific publications for academics such as Microelectronics Journal and IEEE journals. Moreover, he has collaborated with different electronic industry companies and several Italian and English blogs and magazines, such as Electronics World, Elektor, Mouser, Automazione Industriale, Electronic Design, All About Circuits, Fare Elettronica, Elettronica Oggi, and PCB Magazine, as a technical writer/editor, specializing in several topics of electronics and technology. From 2015 to 2018, he was the editor-in-chief of Firmware and Elettronica Open Source, which are technical blogs and magazines for the electronics industry. He participated in many conferences as a speaker of keynotes for different topics such as x-ray, space technologies, and power supplies. Maurizio enjoys writing and telling stories about Power Electronics, Wide Bandgap Semiconductors, Automotive, IoT, Embedded, Energy, and Quantum Computing. Maurizio has been an AspenCore content editor since 2019. He is currently editor-in-chief of Power Electronics News and EEWeb and a correspondent for EE Times. He is the host of PowerUP, a podcast about power electronics, and the promoter and organizer of the PowerUP Virtual Conference, a summit where each year great speakers talk about the power electronics design trends. Moreover, he has contributed to a number of technical and scientific articles as well as a couple of Springer books on energy harvesting and data acquisition and control systems.