onsemi Launches Fourth Generation EliteSiC M4 Silicon Carbide Platform with up to 30% Higher Power Density and 35% Lower Losses
onsemi on November 10 in Scottsdale, Arizona introduced EliteSiC M4, its fourth generation silicon carbide platform built on a trench architecture. The company said the platform delivers up to 30 percent higher power density and 35 percent lower losses compared with the previous generation.
Silicon carbide is a wide bandgap semiconductor material used in high voltage power conversion. onsemi said the growth of AI, electrification and energy infrastructure is creating a common challenge for power system designers, delivering significantly more power without proportional increases in size, energy losses and cooling requirements, and that EliteSiC M4 addresses that challenge within existing system constraints.
On specific metrics, the platform reduces specific on resistance by between 20 percent and 50 percent, while enabling faster switching. Switching figures of merit improve by 67 percent in hard switching and 50 percent in soft switching, supporting compact power supply designs.
On ruggedness, the platform is designed for demanding operating environments, with qualification supporting temperatures of 185 degrees Celsius and above, enabling use in high voltage automotive and space applications. On packaging, it is designed to support existing packages, including top side cooled surface mount packages and high power modules.
onsemi said its silicon carbide technology builds on more than 16 billion miles of real world operation in vehicles around the world.
Achyut Shah, Group President of the Power Solutions Group at onsemi, said in the release that power requirements are rising faster than the physical infrastructure around them, and that EliteSiC M4 combines a foundation of proven reliability with the performance customers need to rethink the balance among power, efficiency, size and cost.
Harald Hartel, Vice President for BU eMotor Controls at Schaeffler AG, said in the release that as vehicle power levels increase, traction inverter design becomes a tighter balancing act between efficiency, thermal performance, power density and reliability, and that higher efficiency and power density can give greater flexibility to optimize the traction inverter for range, thermal performance and packaging.
On applications, the company pointed to three markets. For AI data centers, higher density power conversion helps operators get more compute from every megawatt. For electric vehicles, more compact and efficient traction inverters can help automakers improve vehicle range. For energy infrastructure, more efficient and higher density conversion helps solar, energy storage and other high voltage systems reduce conversion losses.
On availability, the EliteSiC M4 750 volt bare die for automotive traction inverters is available now. Additional product offerings for a range of voltages up to 1200 volts are expected to be available beginning in 2027.
onsemi trades on Nasdaq under the ticker ON and is a member of the S and P 500 index. It delivers intelligent power and sensing technologies across automotive, industrial and AI data center end markets.
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Source: GlobeNewswire
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons 词条主图：Chevrolet C/K (fourth generation)
