News

CISSOID and HUST cooperate on SiC-based Motor Drives

CISSOID and School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST) partner on SiC-based Motor Drives for Electrical Vehicles.

Implementing the comprehensive optimization and matching between SiC devices and high-speed motors with electrical control systems to pursue the best efficiency, power density and reliability for the higher demands of industrial and new energy vehicle applications

CISSOID and the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of HUST reached an in-depth strategic partnership agreement to jointly research and develop relevant leading-edge technology

Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium and Wuhan, China – March 30, 2020 - CISSOID, the leader in high temperature semiconductors for the most demanding markets, announced that it has reached an in-depth strategic partnership agreement with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (SEEE) of Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST). The two parties will jointly research and develop fully optimized and matched motors and electrical control systems for silicon carbide (SiC) power electronics applications, giving full play to the performance advantages of SiC devices such as high frequency, high voltage, high temperature, high efficiency and high power density, to better meet the extensive demands of industrial and new energy vehicle applications.

In order to remove these constraints and enable SiC power devices to give full play to its excellent performance advantages, such as high frequency, high voltage, high temperature, high efficiency and high power density, it is necessary to comprehensively match SiC power modules with motors and electrical control systems to optimize the entire power drive systems. This powerful alliance between CISSOID and SEEE of HUST will give play to the advantages and capabilities of two parties to research and develop leading-edge technology. The key points of this cooperation include:

• Research and develop small high-speed motors suitable for high switching frequency of SiC devices and the corresponding gearboxes;
• Research and develop small and high-temperature resistant package of power modules, which matches with the features of SiC devices, and strive to reduce the parasitic inductance of the module itself in the design of chip layout inside the module;
• Use CISSOID's high temperature resistant gate driver IC to design the SiC power drive solution, as well as make the layout reasonable and reduce the installation distance between SiC driver and power module being as short as possible to minimize the parasitic inductance of drive circuit;
• Start from the planning of whole system, and use smaller bus capacitor and cooling system to achieve the high integration of intelligent power module, controller, bus capacitor and cooling system and to realize the miniaturization of system, as well as significantly improving the conversion efficiency and energy density of power assembly.

"No matter in the research or in practical industry applications, one has being pursuing the perfect integration of motors and electrical. Today, industrial and new energy vehicle technologies are developing rapidly, and the large-scale motor and electrical applications will lead and drive this pursuit to the extreme." Said Wubin Kong, Associate Professor at SEEE of HUST. "At present, the applications based on high reliable SiC devices have a great improvement in the electrical design of matching motors; however, the industry’s original and silicon device based gate drivers have a relatively weak reliability, which has become a bottleneck to achieve the high-level applications. CISSOID's high-temperature semiconductor chip and packaging technology, as well as its experience of high reliable system design accumulated in high-end application fields like petroleum, aviation and aerospace, will greatly help us to achieve perfect integration design of motor and electrical,  meeting the higher demands of industrial and new energy vehicle fields in the future."

"We are very pleased to cooperate with SEEE of HUST; the school is a first-class research institute in China, and it has a complete platform for scientific research and innovation, undertakes a number of important national research projects, and continues to drive the development of motors and electrical technology, and the extensive applications of them in the fields of industry, automotive, aviation and aerospace. This research and development collaboration between the two parties will develop the fully matched and optimized motors and electrical control systems for SiC power electronics applications, aiming to provide more outstanding products for industrial applications, especially the applications of new energy vehicles," said Mr. Dave Hutton, CEO of CISSOID. "CISSOID is always highly focused on the integration with China's semiconductor industry. We have already absorbed investment from China, and have started extensive cooperation with Chinese companies in the areas of chip fabrication, packaging and testing. This cooperation with first-class research institute in China further confirms CISSOID's strategy of broad integration into China's semiconductor industry ecosystem."

According to the data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufactures, after the success in 2018, the production and sales volumes of new energy vehicles in China both exceeded 1.2 million units again in 2019, which respectively reached 1.242 million units and 1.206 million units. The development of new energy vehicles continuously stays at a high level, making SiC power devices get more and more attention and use. However, as the average Tj (junction temperature) of power semiconductor has always been rising, the good cooperation from high temperature resistance drivers becomes extremely important when SiC power devices are being used a lot. This cooperation between CISSOID and SEEE of HUST aims to use industry-leading high temperature resistance drivers, to provide support for SiC power components and to achieve the perfect matching and comprehensive optimization of motors and electrical control systems, and then obtaining the best efficiency and power density. In the future, the two partners will jointly launch high reliable solutions, including high-quality and optimized SiC intelligent power modules (IPM) and the reference designs of motors and electrical control systems with best matching performance, to help accelerate the development of industrial and new energy vehicle fields in China.

About The School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (SEEE) of HUST

The School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of HUST was formerly known as the Department of Electric Power of Huazhong Institute of Technology, which was founded in 1952. It was renamed as the Department of Electric Power Engineering of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 1988, and was renamed again as SEEE of HUST in 2001. In all previous first-level discipline evaluation by the Ministry of Education, the rank of electrical engineering discipline of this school is always among the top three in China. In 2017, this discipline was selected as one of the first batch of “double first-class” constructed disciplines by the country.

The school has a complete range of disciplines. The electrical engineering discipline of this school is one of the first batch of national first-level key disciplines. It has all five discipline directions defined by the Ministry of Education, among which motors and electrical appliances, power system and its automation, electrotechnics theory and new technology are national second-level key disciplines; Power electronics and power drives and electromagnetic theory and new technology (including high voltage and insulation) are characteristic disciplines for national defense. The main research directions of the school cover the entire process of production, transmission, application, transformation, detection, control, dispatching and management of electric energy. At the same time, with the reference of the international first-class electrical discipline direction, the school has developed numbers of new frontier disciplines through interdisciplinary integration, such as electric energy storage, pulse power, pulse high magnetic field, magnetic confinement fusion, plasma medicine, accelerators and applications, advanced electric materials and devices, forming a electrical engineering discipline with a wide range of research fields in China.

For more information, visit http://ceee.hust.edu.cn

About Cissoid - www.cissoid.com

CISSOID is the leader in high temperature semiconductors for the most demanding markets.

With a focus on the Automotive Market we deliver solutions for efficient power conversion and compact motor drives: high voltage gate drivers for SiC & GaN transistors, Power Modules featuring low inductances and enhanced thermal performance, and automotive grade components rated at 175°C in excess of the AEC-Q100 Grade 0 qualification standard.

For the Aviation, Industrial & Oil & Gas Markets we provide solutions for harsh environment signal conditioning, motor control, timing and power supplies that provide reliable operation from -55°C to +225°C.