ED3 Series SiC Power Modules for Wind Power Application

Humankind has exploited wind energy ever since records first began. Nowadays wind power is one of the fastest-growing renewable energy technologies. Usage is on the rise worldwide, in part because costs are falling. Global installed wind-generation capacity onshore and offshore has increased by a factor of almost 75 in the past two decades, jumping from 7.5 gigawatts (GW) in 1997 to some 564 GW by 2018, according to International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) data.

Production of wind electricity doubled between 2009 and 2013, and in 2016 wind energy accounted for 16% of the electricity generated by renewables. Many parts of the world have strong wind speeds, but the best locations for generating wind power are sometimes remote ones. Offshore wind power offers tremendous potential.

Wind is used to produce electricity using the kinetic energy created by air in motion. This is transformed into electrical energy using wind turbines or wind energy conversion systems. Wind first hits a turbine’s blades, causing them to rotate and turn the turbine connected to them. That changes the kinetic energy to rotational energy, by moving a shaft which is connected to a generator, and thereby producing electrical energy through electromagnetism.

Traditionally, there are three main types of wind turbine generators which can be considered for the various wind turbine systems, these being direct current, alternating current synchronous and alternating current asynchronous generators. Each can be run at fixed or variable speed. Due to the fluctuating nature of wind power, it is advantageous to operate the wind turbine generators at variable speed which reduces the physical stress on the turbine blades and drive train, and which improves system aerodynamic efficiency and torque transient behaviors.

During the past several years wind turbine manufacturers tend to shift from the traditional silicon power semiconductors to the new generation silicon carbide power devices.

Leapers Semiconductor’s wide SiC power modules portfolio includes several solutions for the wind power industry. Thus, ED3 series SiC power modules are perfect fit for the wind power converters. To produce highly reliable ED3 series SiC power modules Leapers Semiconductor uses high grade Si3N4 AMB substrates that combine best mechanical robustness with excellent heat dissipation properties featuring very high-power densities. On top of that Leapers Semiconductor uses silver sintering for die attach in ED3 series.

DFS300CU12I4W2 and DFS400CU12I4W2 power modules provide the increased lifetime with very low energy loss characteristics meaning that the engineers can now design converters with much higher efficiency, reliability, and reduced size. With an average 20 years lifetime of a wind turbine, using Leapers Semiconductor’s ED3 series SiC power modules will be a very cost-effective decision for any wind power converter designer.

ED3 series SiC power modules feature:

·????????Low on-resistance RDS(on)

·????????Low switching losses

·????????Low parasitic inductance and resistance

·????????Si3N4 AMB substrate

·????????Thermistor inside

·????????175°C maximum junction temperature

At the moment Leapers Semiconductor offers ED3 series SiC power modules in chopper topology with blocking voltage of 1200V and current rating of 300A and 400A.