Optimize and match SiC devices with advanced motors and electronic control systems, making inverters more "intelligent" and "dumb"

Achieve all-round optimization and matching of SiC devices with advanced motors and electronic control systems, and make inverters more "intelligent" and "idiot-proof"

CISSOID has reached a deep strategic cooperation agreement with the Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Automation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Establish a joint electric drive laboratory to jointly carry out research and development of related cutting-edge technologies

Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium and Nanjing, China – September 23, 2024 – CISSOID, a leader in providing high-temperature semiconductor solutions for various industries, recently announced that the company has reached a deep strategic cooperation agreement with the Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Automation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The two parties will work together to establish a joint electric drive laboratory to jointly develop all-round optimization of silicon carbide (SiC) power electronics applications and electronic control systems that match advanced motors, so as to give full play to the performance advantages of SiC devices such as high frequency, high voltage, high temperature, high efficiency, and high power density, and better meet the wide range of industrial, aviation and new energy vehicle applications.

Advanced motor applications (such as high speed, high frequency, high power density, high temperature, etc.) require matching inverter support, but the industry has been troubled by the difficulty of its development. The joint electric drive laboratory established by CISSOID and the Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Automation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics will soon launch a complete inverter reference design based on silicon carbide (SiC) power devices, which will solve this problem well. The planned reference design will integrate CISSOID's SiC high-voltage power module and matching integrated gate driver, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics' control board and software, ultra-low parasitic inductance DC bus capacitors and EMI filters, DC and phase current sensors and other accessories. This can provide a fully integrated and complete "fool-proof" inverter development platform for advanced motor applications.

In this way, for advanced target motor applications, users can easily set parameters to adapt to them, and only need a short time to complete calibration, so that the target motor can operate normally, and thus carry out various tests and experiments to provide a basis for the final product finalization of the motor application. Its simplicity will greatly save R&D time and engineering human resources, and provide strong support for users to quickly realize the productization of advanced motor applications. With the increasing maturity and popularity of SiC power devices, it will greatly promote the application of advanced motors, and at the same time make inverters more "intelligent" and "foolproof".

The superior performance of SiC power devices, such as high voltage, high frequency, high power density and high temperature, lays the foundation for advanced motor applications. However, users usually need to develop all the hardware themselves and then integrate third-party control software into their design environment. This traditional approach is very time-consuming and engineering human resources, and requires a deep understanding of SiC-based power system design and motor control system design. In this way, the upcoming complete inverter reference design will complete these time-consuming and labor-intensive basic engineering work for users, allowing users to directly use this reference design platform for testing, thereby quickly realizing the productization of advanced motor applications.

After the testing and product design based on this "foolproof" platform is completed, users can choose to purchase all the materials of the entire inverter solution according to the bill of materials, or just purchase core hardware and software components such as the silicon carbide intelligent power module (IPM) and control board with integrated gate drive, while other components and inverter housings can be purchased from their preferred suppliers. In this way, users can quickly integrate the inverter into the target motor drive system and quickly invest in the production of advanced motor powertrain systems.

In summary, the performance of silicon carbide power devices in terms of on-resistance, blocking voltage and junction capacitance is significantly better than that of traditional silicon-based power devices, and can support advanced motor applications to achieve higher power volume density, higher power mass density, higher switching frequency, higher efficiency, and even higher operating temperature and reduce the complexity of the cooling system. However, achieving these higher performances places higher demands on the design of motor drives and control systems. This complete "foolproof" inverter reference design jointly developed by CISSOID and the Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Automation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics is designed to reduce the design difficulty for users of advanced motor applications, save development time and human resources, and quickly realize productization.

"Whether in research or in actual industrial applications, the industry has always been pursuing the perfect integration of motors and electrical. Today, industrial, aviation and new energy vehicle technologies are developing rapidly, and large-scale advanced motor and electrical applications will drive and promote this pursuit to the extreme." Professor Hao Zhenyang of the Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Automation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics said. "At present, applications based on high-reliability SiC devices have made great improvements in matching the electrical design of motors; but the industry's original gate-level drivers based on silicon devices are still relatively weak in reliability and other aspects, which has become a bottleneck for achieving high-level applications. CISDOID's high-temperature semiconductor chips and packaging technology, as well as its high-reliability system design experience accumulated in high-end application fields such as petroleum and aerospace, will greatly help us achieve a perfect motor and electrical integration design to meet the higher demands of the future industrial, aviation and new energy vehicle fields."

"We are very pleased to cooperate with the Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Automation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics; the school is a first-class scientific research institution in China, with a complete scientific research and innovation platform, and has undertaken a number of important national research projects, and continues to promote the development of motor and electrical technology, as well as its wide application in the fields of industry, aerospace and new energy vehicles. The R&D cooperation between the two parties will focus on SiC power electronic applications, aiming to develop fully matched and fully optimized motors and electronic control systems, thereby providing better products for industrial, aviation and new energy vehicle applications." said Mr. Dave Hutton, CEO of CISSOID. "CISSOID has always attached great importance to the integration and development of China's semiconductor industry. Since we raised investment from China, we have been cooperating extensively with Chinese companies in chip manufacturing, packaging and testing. This cooperation with China's first-class scientific research institutions further highlights CISSOID's strategy of striving to be widely integrated into the Chinese semiconductor industry ecosystem."