Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp has expanded its family of 650V silicon carbide (SiC) Schottky barrier diodes (SBD) with the addition of a 10A product to its existing line-up of 6A, 8A and 12A products (which operate with a forward voltage of 1.7V maximum, and are supplied in two-pin TO-220 packages). Mass production shipments have begun.
Applications of Schottky barrier diodes include power factor correction (PFC) circuits, photovoltaic inverters and power conditioners for photovoltaic power generation systems, and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).
As they are fabricated from wide-bandgap semiconducator material, SiC Schottky barrier diodes provide higher breakdown voltage than has been possible before for silicon SBDs. Also, as unipolar devices, SiC SBDs have very short reverse recovery time and temperature-independent switching behavior, making them suitable as replacements for silicon fast-recovery diodes (FRDs) in order to improve power supply efficiency (by as much as 50%, reckons Toshiba).
In general, SiC power devices offer more stable operation than existing silicon devices – even at high voltages and currents – as they significantly reduce heat dissipation during operation, says Toshiba. They can also meet diverse industry needs for smaller, more effective communications devices, says Toshiba, and their industrial applications range from servers to inverters.
