1200V SiC MOSFET Technology Provides a New Level of Efficiency and Performance to Power Conversion Designs

Infineon Technologies (Korea CEO Seung-soo Lee) announced innovative silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET technology that enables previously unattainable levels of power density and performance in product designs.

Infineon's CoolSiC™ MOSFETs provide a new level of flexibility that increases efficiency and frequency. This technology enables power conversion system developers to improve reliability and reduce system costs while saving space and lowering weight and cooling requirements.


“For over 20 years, Infineon has been at the forefront of developing SiC solutions that meet the demands for energy savings, miniaturization, system integration, and enhanced reliability. Infineon’s SiC Schottky diode and J-FET technologies have enabled the achievement of power densities and performance impossible with conventional silicon, and we have now made significant progress by combining SiC technology with power MOSFETs,” said Helmut Gassel, President of Infineon’s Industrial Power Control business unit.

SiC MOSFET capabilities are very powerful. Power conversion systems can operate at frequencies more than three times higher than currently used switching frequencies. Consequently, the copper and aluminum materials used in reactors and system housings can be reduced, making it easy to implement smaller and lighter systems with less effort and simpler installation. New solutions supporting energy saving are implemented by power conversion application designers, and these applications can utilize the new dimensions of performance, efficiency, and system flexibility of SiC MOSFETs.

The new 1200V SiC MOSFET is optimized to combine reliability and performance and operates with 'new standard' dynamic losses that are 10 times lower than those of 1200V silicon (Si) IGBTs. Initially, it will support system enhancements in applications such as solar inverters, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), or charge/storage systems, and will later be expanded to configurations supporting industrial drives.

This MOSFET is fully compatible with the +15V/-5V voltages typically used for driving IGBTs. It also combines a threshold voltage rating (Vth) of 4V with the short-circuit robustness and fully controllable dv/dt characteristics required for target applications. Other key advantages over Si IGBTs include temperature-independent switching losses and threshold-voltage-free on-state characteristics.


The new MOSFET, which embodies years of accumulated experience in SiC semiconductor development, is based on an advanced trench semiconductor process and represents Infineon's most advanced and comprehensive CoolSiC technology family. This family includes Schottky diodes, 1200V J-FET devices, and a wide range of hybrid solutions integrating Si IGBTs and SiC diodes into module devices.

The first discrete 1200V CoolSiC MOSFET has an on-resistance (RDS(ON)) rating of only 45mΩ. The devices are available in 3-pin and 4-pin TO-247 packages and are suitable for solar inverters, UPS, battery charging, and energy storage applications. Both devices incorporate robust rectifier body diodes that operate with virtually no reverse recovery losses, allowing for easy use in synchronous rectification. The 4-pin package features an additional (Kelvin) pin connected to the source pin that can be used as a reference potential for the gate drive voltage. This eliminates the effects of voltage drop caused by source-loop inductance, further reducing switching losses, particularly at high switching frequencies.

Infineon has also released 1200V 'Easy1B' half-bridge and booster modules based on SiC MOSFET technology. Combining PressFIT connections, excellent thermal interfaces, low stray inductance, and a robust design, these modules offer RDS(ON) rating options of 11mΩ and 23mΩ, respectively.