Infineon high-voltage motor control modules

I wrote an article about the push for efficiency in motor control, It should come out in June. I talked to people at Fairchild, ST Micro and International Rectifier. Like any engineering project, once it is done and shipped you see some real cool stuff you should have included. In this case I feel bad for not knowing all that Infineon is doing in the high-voltage power business. Oh well, I am new at this job after all.

The redoubtable Agnes Toan at Infineon sent along a two press releases of some high voltage modules they make. What caught my eye was just how high the voltages were—1700 volts for their PrimePACK modules. They are IGBT based and are 45% lighter than other modules of the same power. From their release:

“The PrimePACK modules are based on an innovative packaging concept that also utilizes the advantages of the Infineon IGBT4 chips, which feature excellent electrical ruggedness. The unique module design offers many advantages, such as the special layout of the IGBT chips inside the module that significantly improves heat distribution. The IGBT chips are closer to the baseplate's screw-fastening points, resulting in a low thermal resistance between the baseplate and heatsink. Internal stray inductance is reduced by approximately 60 percent from that of comparable modules.”

The other Infineon press release Agnes sent along was directly aimed at high efficiency motor controls. They call these modules CiPoS (Control Integrated Power System). These modules can get your appliance efficiencies up to 94%. What is cool about these parts is the use of silicon on insulator technology (SOI) in the gate driver as well as the high level of integration. These modules can replace 23 discrete components. Power can be as high as 3kW (that’s 4 horsepower). Cost is $12.50 in 1000s.

What excites me about this is the way it can reduce energy consumption while maintaining our power-hungry lifestyles. I also hope that these amazingly cheap, well, Agnes wouldn’t want me to say cheap, these amazingly inexpensive modules meant for consumer appliances may help in lowering cost and size of industrial motor control as well. A 4 hp spindle motor is a big motor.