The electrification of everything is driving the growth of SiC semiconductors as large market segments such as E-Mobility, sustainability and industry turn to SiC power solutions due to their fast switching capabilities, lower power loss and performance at higher temperatures.
To help power design engineers transition to SiC power solutions with ease, speed and confidence, Microchip Technology announces its MPLAB SiC Power Simulator, which quickly evaluates the company's SiC power devices and modules in multiple topologies before of compromising a hardware design.
Microchip's MPLAB SiC Power Simulator is a PLECS-based software environment designed in collaboration with Plexim to provide a free online tool that eliminates the need to purchase a simulation license.
MPLAB SiC Power Simulator accelerates the design process of various SiC-based power topologies. Customers can confidently compare and evaluate SiC solutions in the design phase.
“Customers seeking SiC technology can now use the web-based MPLAB SiC Power Simulator to evaluate and select the best Microchip SiC product for their project,” said Clayton Pillion, vice president of Microchip’s silicon carbide business unit. Microchip. “With more than two decades of investment in silicon carbide, Microchip offers our customers versatile power solutions across its SiC portfolio that can be easily engineered with other complementary Microchip devices.”
The tool can accelerate time to market by providing a comprehensive SiC assessment that not only provides valuable benchmarking data but also reduces component selection times. A power electronics designer deciding between a 25 mΩ and 40 mΩ SiC MOSFET for a three-phase active front-end converter can obtain immediate simulation results such as average power dissipation and peak junction temperatures of the devices.
The MPLAB SiC Power Simulator is a critical design tool for OEMs designing power systems for electric mobility, sustainability and industrial applications that include electric vehicles, on/off-board charging, power supplies and battery storage systems.
Microchip's SiC portfolio includes power modules with the lowest parasitic inductance (<2.9 nH) and 3.3 kV discrete MOSFETs and diodes with the highest current ratings available. The SiC portfolio also includes arrays, discrete and 700V, 1200V and 1700V modules, as well as AgileSwitch configurable digital gate drivers.
These SiC devices offer robustness and performance to provide gate oxide lifetimes that are predicted to be over 100 years and degradation-free body diodes. SiC technology provides greater system efficiency, power density, and temperature stability over silicon insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) in high-power applications.