Silicon-carbide MOSFETs: ST collaborates with Airbus for future electric aircrafts

ST Microelectronics is collaborating with Airbus to explore the benefits of advanced Silicon Carbide (SiC) power MOSFETs as key enablers of vehicle electrification. Future electric aircrafts will require megawatts of power to operate. This implies huge improvements in power electronics in terms of integration, performance, efficiency, and component size and weight. ST’s highly efficient SiC products are part of the answer to this challenge.

ST has extended its offering of SiC MOSFETs with the introduction of a 650 V, 90 A power MOSFET in high-performance H2PAK SMD and HiP247 packages offering a very high operating junction temperature capability (TJ = 175 °C).

The SCTH90N65G2V-7 and SCTW90N65G2V can manage high breakdown voltages with extremely low gate charge and input capacitances with remarkably low on-resistance per unit area and very good switching performance.

Based on the advanced and innovative properties of wide bandgap materials, ST’s 650 to 1700 V silicon-carbide (SiC) MOSFETs feature very low on-state resistance (RDS(on)) per area combined with excellent switching performance, translating into more efficient and compact systems. SiC MOSFETs are belonging to the STPOWER family.

Compared with silicon MOSFETs, STPOWER SiC MOSFETs exhibit low on-state resistance per area even at high temperatures as well as excellent switching performance versus the best-in-class IGBTs in all temperature ranges, simplifying the thermal design of power electronic systems.

The main features and benefits of STPOWER SiC MOSFETs include:

  • Very high temperature handling capability (max. TJ = 200 °C) leading to reduced PCB form factors (simplified thermal management) as well as improved system reliability
  • Significantly reduced switching losses (minimal variation versus temperature) resulting in more compact designs (with smaller passive components)
  • Low on-state resistance (20 mΩ typ. @ 25 °C for 650 V devices and 80 mΩ typ. @ 25 °C for 1200 V devices) resulting in higher system efficiency thanks to reduced cooling requirements
  • Simple to drive (cost-effective network driving)
  • Very fast and robust intrinsic body diode (no need for external freewheeling diode, thus more compact systems)

ST portfolio includes a wide range of operating voltages for Industrial and Automotive applications such as traction inverters, on board chargers & fast chargers, DC-DC converters, SMPS/high-end PFCs, auxiliary power supplies, and UPS/Solar/Welding.

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