As the industry's first device to address bipolar degradation in 10kV SiC MOSFETs, the device maintains reliable performance, including the use of the body diode, which is essential for medium-voltage UPS systems, wind power, and solid-state transformer applications.
Freedom of design: simplified systems, lower cost of ownership
The availability of 10 kV SiC technology allows for design flexibility that was not previously possible, resulting in an exponential improvement in system size, weight, reliability, and cost of ownership.
System cost reduction of approximately 30%: The use of 10 kV SiC enables simpler system architectures, consolidating multi-cell designs into fewer cells and reducing three-level inverters to a two-level topology
Power density improvement of over 300%: Increasing switching frequencies from 600 Hz to 10,000 Hz simplifies gate control and excitation circuitry, while reducing magnetic components
Up to 50% reduction in system-level thermal requirements: Achieving 99% conversion efficiency enables simpler and more efficient thermal management compared to IGBT-based systems
Harnessing the potential of pulsed power: enabling next-generation applications
With a faster rise time of less than 10 nanoseconds, the new technology allows for the replacement of conventional mechanical spark switches—which degrade over time due to high-current, extremely high-temperature electrical arcs that drive up maintenance and total cost of ownership—with SiC MOSFET-based solid-state switches. These solid-state devices eliminate electrical arcs, enable efficient power transfer, and improve the timing accuracy of pulsed power transfer, while reducing system size and complexity for high-performance pulsed power applications such as geothermal energy, AI data center power generation, semiconductor plasma etching, and sustainable fertilizer production.
“This milestone is the culmination of nearly 30 years of excellence in crystal growth, coarse epitaxy, and high-voltage device manufacturing, all vertically integrated,” said Dr. Cengiz Balkas, Chief Commercial Officer at Wolfspeed. “The commercialization of 10 kV MOSFETs allows our customers who have been prototyping at this voltage to move their designs into production, thus accelerating time to market. We are not only ushering in a new era for high-voltage SiC, but we are making it a reality.”.
