Panasonic and Sansha Electric Jointly Develop A Compact SiC Power Module with Low Operating Loss

Osaka, Japan - Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic) and Sansha Electric MFG Co., Ltd. (Sansha Electric) today announced that they have developed a very compact Silicon Carbide (SiC) power module together with highly efficient operation of power switching systems. The SiC power module has sufficiently good reliability and greatly helps to reduce the size of power switching systems such as industrial inverters and power supplies.

SiC is very promising due to its superior material properties and is expected to reduce the power consumption of various switching systems. These high power switching devices need to be packaged into a so-called power module in which multi transistors are integrated. The developed SiC power module is based on the following proprietary technologies.

1) Panasonic's SiC DioMOS (Diode-integrated MOSFET) has the features of a reverse conducting diode without any external diode. The total chip area of SiC is reduced by half from a conventional SiC, which helps to reduce the total footprint of the module. The improved design of the DioMOS structure reduces on-state resistance to 6mΩ at 150A.

2) Sansha Electric's Techno Block module technologies utilize solder bonding for the SiC chips without any wire bonding. This configuration reduces the height of the module by half from conventional ones as well as they can serve three times better endurance of power cycling tests.

The fabricated SiC power module integrates two SiC transistors into one package and achieves 6mΩ of on-state resistance with a rating current/voltage of 150A/1200V. The total volume of the module is reduced by one third compared to a conventional SiC power module. These features together with good reliability enable very compact and highly efficient power switching systems.

These research and development results will be presented at the exhibition "The Applied Power Electrics Conference 2015," from March 15 to 19, 2015 (Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S).

About Panasonic

Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development and engineering of electronic technologies and solutions for customers in residential, non-residential, mobility and personal applications. Since its founding in 1918, the company has expanded globally and now operates around 500 consolidated companies worldwide, recording consolidated net sales of 7.74 trillion yen for the year ended March 31, 2014. Committed to pursuing new value through innovation across divisional lines, the company strives to create a better life and a better world for its customers. For more information about Panasonic, please visit the company's website at http://panasonic.net/.

About Sansha Electric (SanRex)

Founded in 1933 in Osaka, Japan, SanRex, a brand name of Sansha Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd. has been a pioneer in the industrial world as a manufacturer of Power Semiconductors and Power Supplies. With a focus on power semiconductors SanRex products are employed in many industries, such as Photo Voltaic (PV) Inverters, Lighting Ballasts for movies theaters, Power Supplies for waste product treatment... etc. They have shown a proven ability to fulfill our duty as a leading semiconductor manufacturer. We will continue our dedication to produce products of the highest quality and reliability for our esteemed and satisfied customers. We remain an ISO certified company of the international standards ISO9001 and ISO14001.