When designing car chargers and traction inverters
SiC FETs are suitable for power switching applications.
Synergy with Wolfspeed C3M SiC FET product family


Silicon Labs announced on the 18th that it is adding and supplying version 2 products to its 'Si828x' family of isolated gate drivers for the inverter and power supply unit (PSU) markets.

The 4A peak gate drive current of the Si828x Version 2 efficiently switches SiC FETs and IGBTs, reducing operating costs for electric vehicles and industrial applications. With enhanced common mode transient immunity (CMTI), switching transition times are shorter and switching frequencies are higher compared to Version 1, further reducing system power loss.

Additional UVLO (undervoltage-lockout) settings enhance SiC FET flexibility and protect against miscontrolled PSUs. An integrated DC-DC converter simplifies the design and reduces system costs. It includes a FET desaturation protection function for detecting and mitigating fault conditions, and a Miller clamp to eliminate parasitic shoot-through conditions.

Brian Mirkin, Vice President and General Manager of Power Products at Silicon Labs, stated, “Customers using SiC FETs for power switching in the design of automotive chargers and traction inverters can gain significant benefits from the combination of the Si828x’s unique robust gate drive, strong unsaturated error response, and efficiency-enhancing Miller clamp.”

The Si828x family improves power and conversion efficiency when used with Wolfspeed's 'C3M' SiC FET family. Engineers can refer to test reports on the combined use of the Si828x and C3M families, as well as the half-bridge reference design used in the tests.