March 21, 2013, Seoul – Infineon Technologies (Korea Representative Director Seung-soo Lee) has launched the high-efficiency fast-recovery 650V Rapid 1 and Rapid 2 silicon diode families. The Rapid diodes deliver exceptional performance by integrating Infineon's expertise in ultra-thin wafer production with a unique cell design featuring a low-loss vertical structure.

The new Rapid diode family fills the gap between SiC (silicon carbide) diodes and emitter-controlled diodes, complementing Infineon's existing high-power 600V and 650V diode portfolio and is suitable for the ultra-fast and hyper-fast power silicon diode market. The new device, which offers the best efficiency, low electromagnetic interference (EMI) characteristics, ultra-fast reverse recovery time, and improved system reliability with a very attractive price-performance ratio, targets high-efficiency applications using switching frequencies between 18 kHz and 100 kHz.

Roland Stele, Marketing Director for IGBT Power Discrete at Infineon Technologies, said, “The new Rapid UltraFast and HyperFast diodes offer exceptional efficiency, reliability based on Infineon’s proven quality, and an ideal cost-performance ratio. Because the Rapid diodes are optimized to work with Infineon’s CoolMOS™ MOSFETs and TRENCHSTOP™ 5 IGBT devices, we are able to provide customers with complete system solutions.”

Rapid 1 providing optimized VF
Infineon’s Rapid 1 diode family offers a forward voltage (VF) of 1.35V, ensuring stable voltage fluctuations with temperature changes and guaranteeing the lowest current loss characteristics while providing a soft recovery function to keep EMI emissions to a minimum. The Rapid 1 family is optimized for Power Factor Correction (PFC) topologies commonly used in major home appliances such as air conditioners and washing machines, as well as for the boost stage of solar inverters switching between 18kHz and 40kHz.

Rapid 2 providing optimized QRR and trr
The Rapid 2 diode family is designed for applications switching between 40 kHz and 100 kHz. Providing low reverse recovery charge (Qrr) and reverse recovery time (trr), the Rapid 2 family offers maximum efficiency by minimizing reverse current effects that affect power switch turn-on losses. Rapid 2 targets PFC stages used in servers, communication rectifiers, TVs, laptop power adapters, welding machines, etc. Rapid 2 diodes operate very efficiently with high-speed IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors) such as Infineon’s CoolMOSTM MOSFET and TRENCHSTOP™ 5.

Supply period
Engineering samples are currently available, and mass production is scheduled for May 2013. More information is available at: www.infineon.com/rapiddiodes .