Rohm Co., Ltd.

Mazda Motor Corporation

Masashi Hayashiguchi

Kazuhide Ino

Takayuki Sato

Kenji Hayashi

Takumi Kanda

Mineo Miura

Yoshihisa Tsukamoto

Soichiro Takahashi

Akihiro Noda

Jun Terada

Masaaki Matsuo

Hideki Yamada

Akihiro Suzaki

Hideki Hosoya

Hiroaki Kashihara

Kenichi Onodera

A semiconductor device includes a first terminal for a battery, a second terminal for an inverter circuit, and a transistor. The semiconductor device is configured to control a voltage applied to a control terminal of the transistor to allow supply of a current from the first terminal to the second terminal and allow supply of a current from the second terminal to the first terminal. A withstand voltage between the first terminal and the second terminal is greater than or equal to a voltage between the battery and the inverter circuit.

Semiconductor device, semiconductor module, relay unit, battery unit, and vehicle

In an inverter that includes a smoothing capacitor and a plurality of power modules, the smoothing capacitor includes a plurality of columnar unit capacitors each having electrodes at both ends thereof, a one-end-side bus plate connected to the electrode at one end of each unit capacitor, and an other-end-side bus plate connected to the electrode at the other end of the unit capacitor. The unit capacitors are arranged, with axes thereof parallel to each other, side by side in a direction perpendicular to the axes. The unit capacitors are arranged at positions equally distant from a center of the inverter. A distance between each power module and the unit capacitor closest to the power module is constant.

Light-weight high power inverter structure with equalized inductance

An inverter is disposed adjacent to a motor. The inverter includes a plurality of power modules, a smoothing capacitor, and busbars connecting the power modules and the smoothing capacitor. The plurality of power modules are disposed to be arranged along the periphery of the smoothing capacitor. The smoothing capacitor is disposed at a central portion of the inverter and also disposed in the inner portion of the inverter such that the smoothing capacitor and each of the power modules are arranged on the same plane.

Electric drive unit having arrangement constituting inverter to reduce busbar inductance and installation space

A switching deviceincludes a SiC semiconductor chipwhich has a gate pad, a source padand a drain padand in which on-off control is performed between the source and the drain by applying a drive voltage between the gate and the source in a state where a potential difference is applied between the source and the drain, a sense source terminalelectrically connected to the source padfor applying the drive voltage, and an external resistance (source wire) that is interposed in a current path between the sense source terminaland the source pad, is separated from sense source terminal, and has a predetermined size.

Switching device and electronic circuit

A semiconductor power module including an insulating substrate having one surface and another surface, an output side terminal arranged at a one surface side of the insulating substrate, a first power supply terminal arranged at the one surface side of the insulating substrate, a second power supply terminal to which a voltage of a magnitude different from a voltage applied to the first power supply terminal is to be applied, and arranged at an other surface side of the insulating substrate so as to face the first power supply terminal across the insulating substrate, a first switching device arranged at the one surface side of the insulating substrate and electrically connected to the output side terminal and the first power supply terminal, and a second switching device arranged at the one surface side of the insulating substrate and electrically connected to the output side terminal and the second power supply terminal.

Semiconductor power module

An inverter is disposed adjacent to one end of a motor in a rotational axis direction. The inverter includes a plurality of power modules each including a switching element, a smoothing capacitor, busbars that connect the power modules to the smoothing capacitor, and a thin case that accommodates these components. The switching element is constituted by a silicon carbide metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (SiC MOSFET). The smoothing capacitor and each of the power modules are disposed in an inner portion of the thin case and arranged on the same plane orthogonal to the rotational axis direction.

Electric drive unit

A semiconductor device includes a switching circuit that switches between conducting state and disconnected state. The switching circuit includes first and second switching elements electrically connected in parallel. The first switching element is an IGBT, and the second switching element is a MOSFET. When a current flowing in the switching circuit is less than a first current value, the second switching element has a lower voltage than the first switching element. When the current flowing in the switching circuit is not less than a second current value and not greater than a third current value, the threshold voltage of the second switching element ranges from −1.0 V to +0.4 V relative to the threshold voltage of the first switching element. The third current value is not greater than the rated current of the switching circuit. The first current value is less than the third current value.

Semiconductor device

An inverter is disposed adjacent to one end of a motor in a rotational axis direction. The inverter includes a plurality of power modules, a smoothing capacitor, busbars that connect the power modules to the smoothing capacitor, and a thin case that accommodates these components. The plurality of power modules are disposed at the periphery of the smoothing capacitor. The smoothing capacitor and each of the power modules are disposed in an inner portion of the thin case and arranged on the same plane orthogonal to the rotational axis direction. The busbars are formed to extend in the circumferential direction. An inner edge portion of each of the busbars has an arc shape or a circular shape.

Electric drive with arc shaped busbar connected to terminal of smoothing capacitor

An inverter is disposed adjacent to one end of a motor in a rotational axis direction. The inverter includes a plurality of power modules each including a switching element, a smoothing capacitor, busbars that connect the power modules to the smoothing capacitor, and a thin case that accommodates these components. The plurality of power modules are disposed at the periphery of the smoothing capacitor and arranged in the circumferential direction. The busbars are formed to extend in the circumferential direction. An inner edge portion of each of the busbars connected to a terminal of the smoothing capacitor has an arc shape or a circular shape.

In an inverter that includes a smoothing capacitor and a plurality of power modules, the smoothing capacitor includes a plurality of columnar unit capacitors each having electrodes at both ends thereof, a one-end-side bus plate connected to the electrode at one end of each unit capacitor, and an other-end-side bus plate connected to the electrode at the other end of the unit capacitor. The unit capacitors are arranged, with axes thereof parallel to each other, side by side in a direction perpendicular to the axes. The plurality of power modules is arranged, with respect to the smoothing capacitor, side by side in a direction perpendicular to the axes of the unit capacitors.

Inverter having capacitor bus plates connecting to power modules

In an inverter that includes a smoothing capacitor and a plurality of power modules, the smoothing capacitor includes a plurality of columnar unit capacitors each having electrodes at both ends thereof, a one-end-side bus plate connected to the electrode at one end of each unit capacitor, and an other-end-side bus plate connected to the electrode at the other end of the unit capacitor. The unit capacitors are arranged, with axes thereof parallel to each other, side by side in a direction perpendicular to the axes. The power modules are arranged at positions equally distant from a center of the inverter and equally distant from the smoothing capacitor.

Inverter structure

A semiconductor unit is arranged between a motor and an inverter circuit that controls the motor. The semiconductor unit includes a transistor and a controller. The transistor is arranged between the inverter circuit and a positive electrode of a battery that supplies power to the inverter circuit, and controls supplying of power from the battery to the inverter circuit. The controller is connected to a control terminal of the transistor, and controls a control voltage that is a voltage applied to the control terminal. When power starts to be supplied from the battery to the inverter circuit, the controller controls the control voltage to intermittently operate the transistor and also decreases the control voltage, which is applied to the control terminal of the transistor, to be lower than the control voltage at which the transistor is fully activated.

Semiconductor unit, battery unit, and vehicle

A power module includes a substrate that is electrically insulative and includes a substrate main surface and a substrate back surface at opposite sides in a thickness direction. The power module also includes a mounting layer that is conductive and arranged on the substrate main surface. The power module further includes a graphite plate having anisotropic thermal conductivity and including a plate main surface and a plate back surface at opposite sides in the thickness direction. The plate back surface is connected to the mounting layer. The power module further includes a power semiconductor element arranged on the plate main surface.

Power module with graphite plate

In a vehicle drive unit, a motor and an inverter are disposed adjacent in an axial direction of the motor. A smoothing capacitor and each power module are connected by a busbar. Each power module has a flat shape having a wide width, and has a first cooling surface facing the motor. The first cooling surface of each power module is placed on a placement surface orthogonal to the axial direction. The plate-shaped busbar has a second cooling surface facing the motor. The busbar is connected to the smoothing capacitor and each power module, and is formed with a wide width so as to extend along a direction in which each power module is disposed side by side. The second cooling surface is placed on the placement surface. A cooling portion facing the first and second cooling surfaces is provided closer to the motor than the placement surface.

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Kyoto, Japan

Masashi Hayashiguchi