1200V SiC FETs in Gruppo PBM Battery Chargers on Show

Wolfspeed, A Cree Company, is demonstrating its latest 1200V SiC MOSFETs at the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC (2016). Those are the same devices that Gruppo PBM, a leader in industrial battery chargers, used in its new HF9 battery charger family to enable higher efficiency and power density at a lower overall system cost.

Demand for safe, efficient and fast-charging industrial batteries has increased exponentially along with the proliferation of power electronics. The HF9 product family is designed to provide the highest possible efficiency while achieving easy scalability for power ranging from six to 16 kilowatts. These benefits are made possible in part by Wolfspeed 1200V SiC MOSFET technology.

“We selected Wolfspeed™ SiC Planar MOSFETs for our new HF9 battery charger family because they enabled us to improve our battery chargers while achieving operational savings, increased productivity and increased safety. This was not possible with the best IGBTs in the market,” said both Marco Mazzanti and Giancarlo Ceo, who respectively serve as CTO and R&D Engineer at Gruppo PBM.

Based in Italy, Gruppo PBM specializes in rugged high-frequency battery chargers, dischargers and testers. By using Wolfspeed SiC MOSFETs in its latest HF9 family, Gruppo PBM not only achieves improved efficiency, but also a reduction in component count, improving the overall reliability in the system by lowering the operating temperatures and—most importantly—reducing overall system cost.

“Wolfspeed’s SiC MOSFETs, especially our new C3M 900V family, are enjoying rapid adoption in the growing battery charger market segment,” explained Edgar Ayerbe, Wolfspeed’s power MOSFET marketing manager. “Our products increase power density and dramatically lower switching losses, making it possible to introduce smaller, cooler and lower cost chargers for the automotive and industrial markets.”