Silicon carbide transistor maker SemiSouth has announced a board demonstrating SiC JFETs in a cascode half-bridge configuration.
"Enabling a quick evaluation of the SJDP120R085 JFET, the demo board platform is suitable for many applications including boost, buck, inverter and PSU half-bridge power stage designs," said the firm.
In cascode, the JFET is driven via a source-connected mosfet, allowing existing, commercially available mosfet drivers to be used instead of more complex JFET gate drivers.
It also converts a normally-on JFET into a normally-off cascode.
The normally-on SJDP120R085 is a 1.2kV device with a positive temperature coefficient for ease of paralleling, 27A saturation current and 85m?(max) on-resistance.
The demo board comes complete with Gerber files and a part list to allow users to build their own circuits.
At the same time, the firm announced a new device, the SJDP120R340.
This is a normally-on SiC trench JFET that, "when compared with silicon mosfets, enables higher switching speeds and substantially lower losses", said SemiSouth.
Rated at 1.2kV, maximum on resistance is 340m? (270m? typical), and the transistors are aimed at photovoltaic micro inverters, switching power supplies, motor drives, and induction heating.
Samples are available today, with volume production planned for Q2 2012.
