Microsemi and Analog Devices Collaborate on Scalable SiC MOSFET Driver Solutions to Accelerate Customer Designs and Time to Market

The new reference design provides customers with a highly isolated SiC MOSFET dual-gate driver switch to provide a means for evaluating SiC MOSFETs in a number of topologies. This includes modes optimized for half-bridge switching with synchronous dead time protection and asynchronous signal transfer with no protection. It can also be configured to provide concurrent drive with the requirement to study unclamped inductive switching (UIS) or double pulse testing. The reference design was developed for Microsemi SiC MOSFET discrete devices and modules and serves as an engineering tool for the evaluation of its portfolio of SiC devices. The board supports the modification of gate resistor values to accommodate most Microsemi discretes and modules.

"The dual SiC MOSFET driver reference design not only enables Microsemi customers to accelerate their product development efforts, but also accommodates the roll-out of our next-generation SiC MOSFETs to ensure a smooth transition for the end user," said Jason Chiang, strategic marketing manager for Microsemi. "Customers taking a holistic view at power electronics design can utilize our new SiC driver solution to select the best driver and components for their designs, with the ability to scale to their specific SiC MOSFET needs."

The dual SiC MOSFET driver reference design is ideal for a wide range of end markets and applications, including aerospace (actuation, air conditioning and power distribution), automotive (hybrid/electric vehicle powertrains, electric vehicle battery chargers, DC-to-DC converters, and energy recovery), defense (power supply and high power motor drive), industrial (photovoltaic inverters, motor drives, welding,  uninterruptible power supply, switched-mode power supply, induction heating and oil drilling) and medical (MRI and X-ray power supply).

Analog Devices collaborates with Microsemi as part of the Accelerate Ecosystem, designed to reduce time to market for end customers and time to revenue for ecosystem participants. Microsemi's Accelerate Ecosystem brings together leading silicon, intellectual property (IP), systems, software and design experts to deliver validated board and system-level solutions for end customers. Learn more at http://www.microsemi.com/design-support/accelerate-ecosystem-partners.

SiC products offers a number of advantages, including improved system efficiency with 25-50 percent power output increases for the same physical dimensions, efficiency at higher switching frequencies over Insulated Gate Bipilar Transistors (IGBTs), reduced system size and weight, operating stability over temperature (+175 degrees C) and significant cooling cost savings.

According to market research firm Yole Développement, the SiC power market is forecasted to be more than $550 million in 2021, with a 2015-2021 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19 percent. The firm also describes how the benefits of SiC are influencing the development of new products and SiC technologies. Microsemi is well-positioned with these trends, with its SiC MOSFETs offering superior dynamic and thermal performance over conventional Silicon power MOSFETs, among other advantages. Incorporating Analog Device's ADuM4135 isolated SiC driver solution into Microsemi's MSCSICMDD/REF1 SiC MOSFET driver reference design further augments the company's ability to cater to customers' product development requirements.  

Analog Devices' isolated gate drivers with DESAT and a host of other protection features provide strong gate drive capability (6A) coupled with robust electrical isolation, critical for long life and safe operation in high voltage power conversion systems. The company's isolated gate driver portfolio offers designers performance and reliability advantages over designs employing optocouplers or pulse transformers.  Utilizing Analog Devices' proven iCoupler^® technology, the isolated gate driver series offers a number of key benefits in the high voltage and high switching speed applications that Wide Band Gap devices and specifically SiC MOSFETS enable. These include superior propagation delay of better than 50 ns with channel-to-channel matching of less than 5ns, Common Mode Transient Immunity (CMTI) of better than >100KV/us and capability to support lifetime working voltages of up to 1500V DC in a single package.
More information about Analog Devices' isolated gate drivers can be found at http://www.analog.com/en/products/power-management/isolated-gate-drivers.html.

Product Demonstrations at PCIM & Availability
The dual SiC driver reference design (MSCSICMDD/REF1), which includes an evaluation board, is available for purchase orders now. For more information, visit https://www.microsemi.com/product-directory/mosfet/3539-sic-mosfet#documentation or contact [email protected]. The device will be showcased at the Power Conversion and Intelligent Motion (PCIM) Europe exhibition in Nuremburg, Germany May 16-18, 2017 in Microsemi's booth, #6-318 and in Analog Devices' booth, #6-458.

About Analog Devices
Analog Devices is the leading global high-performance analog technology company dedicated to solving the toughest engineering challenges. We enable our customers to interpret the world around us by intelligently bridging the physical and digital with unmatched technologies that sense, measure, power, connect and interpret. Visit http://www.analog.com.

About Microsemi
Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC) offers a comprehensive portfolio of semiconductor and system solutions for aerospace & defense, communications, data center and industrial markets. Products include high-performance and radiation-hardened analog mixed-signal integrated circuits, FPGAs, SoCs and ASICs; power management products; timing and synchronization devices and precise time solutions, setting the world's standard for time; voice processing devices; RF solutions; discrete components; enterprise storage and communication solutions, security technologies and scalable anti-tamper products; Ethernet solutions; Power-over-Ethernet ICs and midspans; as well as custom design capabilities and services. Microsemi is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California, and has approximately 4,800 employees globally. Learn more at www.microsemi.com.

Microsemi and the Microsemi logo are registered trademarks or service marks of Microsemi Corporation and/or its affiliates. Third-party trademarks and service marks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

iCoupler is a registered trademark of Analog Devices, Inc.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Any statements set forth in this news release that are not entirely historical and factual in nature, including without limitation statements related to the company and Analog Devices, Inc., the leading global high-performance analog technology company, announcing a new scalable Silicon Carbide (SiC) driver solution based on Analog Device's driver chip to design with a range of Microsemi SiC MOSFET products, and its potential effects on future business, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, such factors as rapidly changing technology and product obsolescence, potential cost increases, variations in customer order preferences, weakness or competitive pricing environment of the marketplace, uncertain demand for and acceptance of the company's products, adverse circumstances in any of our end markets, results of in-process or planned development or marketing and promotional campaigns, difficulties foreseeing future demand, potential non-realization of expected orders or non-realization of backlog, product returns, product liability, and other potential unexpected business and economic conditions or adverse changes in current or expected industry conditions, difficulties and costs in implementing the company's acquisitions and divestitures strategy or integrating acquired companies, uncertainty as to the future profitability of acquired businesses and realization of accretion from acquisition transactions, difficulties and costs of protecting patents and other proprietary rights, inventory obsolescence and difficulties regarding customer qualification of products. In addition to these factors and any other factors mentioned elsewhere in this news release, the reader should refer as well to the factors, uncertainties or risks identified in the company's most recent Form 10-K and all subsequent Form 10-Q reports filed by Microsemi with the SEC. Additional risk factors may be identified from time to time in Microsemi's future filings. The forward-looking statements included in this release speak only as of the date hereof, and Microsemi does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

SOURCE Microsemi Corporation

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