Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Shinji Hatae

Gourab Majumdar

Akihisa Yamamoto

Khalid Hassan Hussein

Masanori Fukunaga

Tatsuo Oota

Kazuaki Hiyama

Fumitaka Tametani

Kota Manabe

Tomohiko Kaneko

Takahiko Hasegawa

Mitsutaka Iwasaki

Toru Iwagami

Takanobu Yoshida

Korehide Okamoto

Mitsuharu Tabata

Ken Takanashi

Kousuke Yoshimura

Takashi Marumo

Masayuki Koura

A voltage conversion circuit apparatus that adjusts a timing skew between the switching control of the first switching element and the switching control of the second switching element includes: a skew storage portion that stores a timing skew between the switching controls of the first and second switching elements after the voltage conversion circuit apparatus is manufactured; and a timing adjustment portion that corrects the stored timing skew and thereby adjusts the timing relation between a first pulse signal and a second pulse signal so as to bring within a permissible range the timing skew that occurs when the switching controls of the first and second switching elements are performed by using the first pulse signal and the second pulse signal.

DC-DC converter with an auxiliary circuit for performing soft-switching

Provided is a DC-DC converter capable of reducing not only a turn-off loss but also a turn-on loss. A snubber capacitor has one end connected to an anode of a step-up diode, a current input end of a step-up switching element and a main reactor. A first snubber diode has a cathode connected to other end of the snubber capacitor, and an anode connected to a cathode of the step-up diode. A second snubber diode has an anode connected to the cathode of the first snubber diode and other end of the snubber capacitor. A snubber reactor has one end connected to the anode of the first snubber diode, and other end connected to a cathode of the second snubber diode.

DC-DC converter

A semiconductor device is provided in which a plurality of MOSFETs including a vertical MOSFET is formed on a substrate. The device includes a silicon carbide substrate having front and back surfaces facing each other, an isolating region formed in the substrate to extend from the front surface to the back surface of the substrate, and first and second MOSFETs formed on opposite sides of the isolating region, respectively.

Power semiconductor device

A plurality of power semiconductor chips (power transistors or the like) are arranged, being separated from each other with a free space of a terminal board interposed therebetween. A radiating block is in contact with an insulating layer (a package and grease below the terminal board) below an arrangement region of each of the power semiconductor devices and a region between power semiconductor devices, and this increases a heat dissipation effect. With this construction, it is possible to provide a power semiconductor device and a power semiconductor module which ensure an excellent dissipation effect of heat radiated in operation of the power semiconductor chips.

Power semiconductor device and power semiconductor module

The present invention is to provide a power semiconductor device including a heat radiator having a principal surface and an insulating substrate bonded on the principal surface of the heat radiator via a first solder layer. The power semiconductor device also includes at least one semiconductor chip mounted on the insulating substrate via a second solder layer. The insulating substrate has a thin-layer and thick-layer edges, and is bonded on the principal surface of the heat radiator so that the first solder layer has a thickness thinner towards a direction from the thin-layer edge to the thick-layer edge (T >T ). Also, the semiconductor chip is mounted on the insulating substrate so that a first distance between the thick-layer edge and the semiconductor chip is less than a second distance between the thin-layer edge and the semiconductor chip (L <L ).

A controller for controlling a power device in response to an input signal includes a first signal generator for generating a first signal in response to the input signal; a level shifter for changing an output level of the first signal to a value which is a function of a first main power supply potential in order to produce a second signal; and a first control signal generator for generating the control signal for a first semiconductor device in response to the second signal. The level shifter includes at least one level shifting semiconductor element wherein the semiconductor element is controlled by the first signal and the at least one level shifting semiconductor element exhibiting breakdown voltage characteristics whereby a breakdown voltage has a value not less than a voltage in the range between a value of the first and a value of a second main power supply potential.

Controller for power device and drive controller for motor

It is an object of the present invention to provide an inverter circuit including a power arm ensuring a high breakdown voltage and having low probability of malfunction. In a power arm element consisting of a switching element and a diode connected in inverse-parallel connection thereto, n free wheeling diodes (n&gE;2) connected in series are connected in inverse-parallel connection to a switching element ( ). A breakdown voltage between an anode and a cathode of each free wheeling diode is defined to be 1/n of a breakdown voltage of the switching element ( ). That is, the breakdown voltage of each free wheeling diode is reduced to 1/n to reduce a thickness of a n drift region. A transient voltage characteristic during flow of a free wheeling current can be thereby kept low. The drop in the breakdown voltage is compensated with the n free wheeling diodes connected in series, to thereby ensure breakdown voltage of a degree approximately the same as that of the switching element.

Power semiconductor device, power arm and inverter circuit

In a semiconductor substrate, semiconductor regions belonging to the IGBT are formed in an IGBT region and semiconductor regions belonging to the diode are formed in a diode region. The IGBT and the diode are connected in anti-parallel to each other. A trench in which an insulator is buried is formed between the IGBT region and the diode region. The insulator restricts the reverse recovery current which flows from the diode region into the IGBT region. Thus, semiconductor regions of an IGBT and a diode connected in anti-parallel with each other are fabricated in a single semiconductor substrate and the chip size is reduced.

Semiconductor device

A power module is provided with an insulating substrate with a heat sink being bonded to one surface thereof and a circuit pattern being formed on the other surface. The circuit pattern is formed by an electrode layer. A switching semiconductor element and a free wheeling diode that is connected to a switching semiconductor element in anti-parallel therewith are placed on the circuit pattern. A controlling IC for controlling the switching semiconductor element is placed on the free wheeling diode. Thus, it is possible to make the entire power module compact, and it becomes possible to provide an inexpensive power module which can prevent the controlling IC from malfunctioning due to heat generated by the switching semiconductor element.

Power module

A semiconductor device comprising at least one power device, at least one control element for controlling the power device(s), a plurality of first terminals connected to the power device(s), a plurality of second terminals connected to the control element(s), a support member having a heat sink disposed on a lower surface of the support member and the power device(s), control element(s), and first and second terminals arranged on the upper surface of the support member, and a package including the support member for sealing the devices and one end of the terminals such that first and second terminals protrude from different sides of the package. The arrangement allows a reduced size three-phase motor drive controller, a reduction in noise interference to the control element, and reduction in terminal pitch size.

An inverter apparatus includes an inverter circuit for driving a load. This inverter circuit has at least a pair of switching elements connected in series in a forward direction between both polarity terminals of a dc supply for supplying power to a load. An inverter drive circuit is employed for driving each switching element of the inverter circuit and has at least one high withstand voltage IC wherein the signal level reference potential is different in the input signal and the output signal. A clamping circuit clamps the potential of the low voltage side reference terminal, to which a potential, that is a reference for operation of the high withstand voltage IC in the inverter drive circuit and is a reference for a signal on the low potential side of the high withstand voltage IC, is applied. The voltage is clamped to the high voltage reference terminal to which is applied a reference potential for the high potential-side signal in the high withstand voltage IC. The inverter apparatus also includes a voltage dividing circuit for voltage dividing a voltage between the low voltage side reference terminal of the high withstand voltage IC in the inverter drive circuit and the negative electrode of the dc supply.

Inverter device

It is an object to enhance a breakdown voltage without requiring a complicated manufacturing process while maintaining a stable operation. A control signal (A) output from an MCU ( ) is transmitted to a driving circuit ( ) for driving a power switching element ( ) of an upper arm through two-stage level shift circuits. The level shift circuit in a first stage is constituted by a series circuit of a switching element ( ) and a resistive element ( ), and the level shift circuit in a second stage is constituted by a series circuit of a switching element ( ) and a resistive element ( ).

Power converter with increased breakdown voltage maintaining stable operation

To prevent malfunction or breakdown due to a surge voltage in a power converter for converting DC into AC or the like so as to supply electric power to a load, not only a control signal is transmitted via a level shift circuit which is provided correspondingly to each of switching semiconductor elements forming a main circuit and shifts a level of a reference potential at its output side so as to follow variations of a reference potential of the switching semiconductor element to the switching semiconductor element, but a DC control power source for supplying electric power to the level shift circuit and a negative pole of the switching semiconductor element are connected to each other through at least one of an inductor and a resistance.

Power converter

A controller for power devices which is not required to individually insulate high and low potential portions and to include an insulated power supply is disclosed. An external controller (6) is connected to a second internal control circuit (4) which is in turn connected to a level shift circuit (5) and a gate electrode of a transistor (Q2). Power supply voltage (V1) is applied to the second internal control circuit (4) for operation thereof. The level shift circuit (5) is connected to a first internal control circuit (3) which is in turn connected to a gate electrode of a transistor (Q1) and a charge pump circuit (7). Control of a first semiconductor circuit is made through the level shift means in response to an input signal generated on the basis of a second main power supply potential, thereby achieving increased responsiveness of the power devices to a control signal and improved integration.

Disclosed is a method of driving a power converter which can simplify a charging sequence of a charge pump capacitor to reduce the time required to design the device without using a voltage protective circuit and optimum design required to determine the capacitance of the charge pump capacitor. A charging pulse signal for a capacitor (CP) is provided as an input signal from an external control device (EC) substantially simultaneously as a control power source (PS) is switched on to provide a predetermined control power source voltage (V.sub.PS). A driver circuit (DR20) outputs a control signal (V.sub.D) to turn on a transistor (Q2) in a pulse-like manner, starting charging the capacitor (CP). The charging pulse signal continues being provided after completion of the charging of the capacitor (CP) and stops being provided immediately before a PWM signal is provided.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Shinji Hatae