Fairchild helps Growatt lead the industry in photovoltaic inverters

San Jose, California, USA, January 7, 2016, Fairchild, a leading global supplier of high-performance power semiconductor solutions, announced that its 650V trench field-stop IGBTs are used in the latest generation of photovoltaic inverters from Growatt New Energy, a top manufacturer of residential and commercial inverters. By using Fairchild's IGBTs, Growatt has increased the power density of its new 5K-HF inverter by 20% compared to previous models.

“Our new generation solar inverters are the first in the industry to use Fairchild’s TO2474L packaged IGBTs,” said Liangcai Wu, Vice President and Director of R&D at Growatt. “By using IGBT wafers and new 4L packaging process technology, we are able to fully utilize the characteristics of the IGBT by significantly increasing the switching frequency of the drive signal, thereby achieving an excellent safe operating area without significantly increasing semiconductor losses. In addition, we can use smaller magnetic components, which significantly reduces system size and enhances cost-performance.”

“Having industry leaders like Growatt use our 650V Field Stop Trench IGBTs in their ultra-high efficiency next generation PV inverters sets a good example for the features and capabilities of our IGBTs,” said Jin Zhao, Vice President of Fairchild’s High Power Industrial Business Unit. “These IGBTs use Fairchild’s innovative field stop technology to deliver optimal performance for PV inverters, UPS, welders, communications, ESS and PFC applications that require lower conduction and switching losses.”

"Improving inverter efficiency and power density has long been a goal of Growatt's R&D staff," said Yongqiang Ding, President of Growatt. "Advances in semiconductor technology have significantly reduced the proportion of metal parts required for our inverters, which leads to multiple benefits, including smaller product size, lighter weight, lower cost, and easier transportation and storage. We will build on this success and continue to adopt advanced technologies in our PV inverter development to provide customers with more value and better efficiency and power density. We developed the new 5K-HF inverter with a higher switching frequency, a more optimized layout, and new magnetic materials to provide industry-leading efficiency with more than 20% higher power density. Fairchild's 650V Trench Field Stop IGBTs use new IGBT technology and innovative packaging to help us achieve this."