Against the backdrop of the intensifying climate crisis and rising global energy demand, governments and industries are committed to reducing environmental pollution in order to achieve sustainable development goals. At the heart of reducing environmental pollution in industrial manufacturing are the transition to electrification, reducing carbon emissions, and using renewable energy. To accelerate this shift, onsemi, a United States-based smart power and sensing technology company, has launched its latest silicon carbide technology solution: EliteSiC M3e MOSFETs. Samples of the latest EliteSiC M3e MOSFETs are already available in the industry-standard TO-247-4L package. In addition, onsemi also revealed that the product plans to launch multiple generations by 2030.
At the launch event, the president of Onsemi Solutions Group said, "The future of electrification depends on advanced power semiconductors. Without significant innovation in power, today's infrastructure will not be able to meet the world's demand for smarter and electrified mobility, which is critical to achieving global electrification and climate change mitigation. He also said that onsemi is leading the pace of innovation, with plans to significantly increase the power density in the silicon carbide technology roadmap by 2030 to meet growing energy demand and enable the global transition to electrification. "
Figure: Onsemi unveils EliteSiC M3e MOSFET (source:Onsemi)
Onsemi says its EliteSiC M3e MOSFETs will play an important role in enabling the performance and reliability of next-generation electrical systems at a lower cost per kilowatt, impacting the adoption and effectiveness of electrification initiatives. The platform is capable of operating at higher switching frequencies and voltages while minimizing power conversion losses, making it suitable for a wide range of automotive and industrial applications such as EV powertrains, DC fast chargers, solar inverters, and energy storage solutions. In addition, the head of onsemi added that the EliteSiC M3e MOSFETs can enable the transition to more efficient, higher-power data centers to meet the exponentially increasing energy needs that power sustainable AI engines.
Compared to previous generations, the EliteSiC M3e MOSFET is reported to reduce conduction losses by 30% and turn-off losses by 50%. By extending the lifetime of SiC planar MOSFETs and achieving industry-leading performance with EliteSiC M3e technology. In addition, Onsemi offers a broader portfolio of smart power technologies, including gate drivers, DC-DC converters, and eFuses for use with the EliteSiC M3e platform. Onsemi's end-to-end optimized, co-engineered portfolio of power switches, drivers, and controllers is claimed to enable advanced functionality through integration, reducing overall system cost.
Global energy demand is expected to soar over the next decade, critical to increasing the demand for semiconductor power density. Onsemi said innovations in its silicon carbide roadmap – from chip architectures to novel packaging technologies – will continue to meet the industry-wide demand for increased power density.
With each generation of silicon carbide, the cell structure will be optimized to efficiently move more current through a smaller area, resulting in higher power density. Onsemi says that combined with the company's packaging technology, it will be able to maximize performance and reduce package size. Onsemi says that by applying the concept of Moore's Law to the development of silicon carbide, it can develop multiple generations simultaneously and accelerate its roadmap to bring several new EliteSiC products to market by 2030 at a faster pace.
