New Industry Products

Infineon Partners with PIONIERKRAFT for Solar Power Sharing

October 19, 2021 by Gary Elinoff

The new technology will enable household-to-household energy sharing in a manner that skirts the EU’s bureaucratic obstacles.

Infineon as a company is committed to energy efficiency and green energy. In this press release, the company describes the strides achieved by PIONIERKRAFT in enabling solar power distribution, as well as the Infineon components and support that made the achievement possible.

 

PIONIERKRAFT’s PIONIERKRAFTwerk. Image courtesy of Infineon.

 

As described by Infineon, PIONIERKRAFTwerk is a hardware and software package that will facilitate solar energy transfers between households in a decentralized manner. With this package, if one multi-family house is producing excess solar energy, the surplus can be seamlessly transferred to where it’s needed. As described, this methodology eliminates intermediate storage, though it’s hard to see how that requirement can be completely avoided under all circumstances.

 

A European Solution

The press release stresses regulatory/technical hassles particular to solar power distribution within the European Union, and we’re only hearing Infineon’s side of the story because PIONIERKRAFT’s announcement is in German only.

It’s envisioned that multi-family units with solar power are connected to PIONIERKRAFT’s platform via the Internet. It’s also possible for non-solar households to participate to receive surplus power. As described, “The solution also regulates the power flows without using the public grid.” 

Thanks to the internet, distribution calculations and decisions can be made anywhere, but it’s hard to imagine a substitute for the “public grid” to affect the actual multi-kilowatt power transfers. However, at present, transfers only in the 2kW range are anticipated.

But the real stars of the show, making PIONIERKRAFT’s efforts possible, is Infineon’s diverse array of semiconductor devices.

 

The IMBG120R030M1H

The IMBG120R030M1H is part of Infineon’s CoolSiC family. A 1200V silicon carbide (SiC) trench MOSFET with a 30mΩ RDS(ON), the device features a maximum drain current of 56 amps and a maximum junction temperature of 175℃.

Dynamic characteristics include (typical, @25℃):

  • Input capacitance: 2290pG
  • Output capacitance: 105pF
  • Total gate charge: 63nc

Important Switching characteristics (typical, @25℃):

  • Turn-on delay time: 11nS
  • Rise time: 14ns
  • Turn-off delay time: 25nS
  • Fall time: 11ns

 

The 1ED3122MU12H

The 1ED3122MU12H is a single-channel, isolated gate driver aimed at IGBTs, and both silicon and SiC MOSFETS, each rated as high as 2300V. The driver incorporates a galvanically isolated coreless transformer, and the output side supply voltage can be as high as 40V.

The driver can typically sink and source 10A of peak output current and it features an active Miller clamp. It can operate in fast switching applications and at high ambient temperatures and has earned UL 1577 certification. These features, and the high voltage isolations that it offers, make the 1ED3122MU12H suitable for 1500V solar inverter applications.

 

The IPD70R1K4P7S 

The IPD70R1K4P7S is a 700V CoolMOS P7 device that can handle a continuous drain current of 4A at 20℃. Infineon specifically recommends this device for flyback topologies applicable to applications in lighting, chargers, and adapters.

Key parameters include:

  • RDS(ON): 1.4Ω (max)
  • Total gate charge, or Qg: 4.7nC (typ)
  • Switching loss at 400V: 0.6µJ

It is this power MOSFET that is a key component of PIONIERKRAFTwerk.

About PIONIERKRAFT

The goal of the company’s founders is to develop local energy-sharing solutions. The PIONIERKRAFTwerk is itself purposed to increasing the share of energy consumed locally.