PCIM 2012 Nuremberg, Germany: CISSOID has developed a new version of HADES, its turnkey isolated gate-driver reference design. It’s tailored to support SemiSouth silicon-carbide (SiC), normally off power JFETs (SJEP120R100).
The HADES reference design, based on the company’s THEMIS, ATLAS, and RHEA chipsets, sustains junction temperatures from -55°C up to +225°C in metal and ceramic packages. In the coming months, CISSOID also will introduce a lower temperature version limited to 125°C, with an expected operational lifetime of at least 20 years.
Driving SemiSouth’s SJEP120R100 SiC JFET, the test board hard-switched 600V and 10A with turn-off and turn-on times of only 14ns and 24ns, respectively. The test board also demonstrated very low switching losses (less than 124μJ) that were a factor of 10 to 20 lower than standard silicon IGBTs, and lower than a number of other SiC power switches.
The HADES half-bridge isolated gate-driver board, P/N EVK-TIT0636B, is available now for electrical evaluation with the high-temperature version of the chipset.