X-FAB announces full production release of high-voltage galvanic isolation technology

Pure-play analog/mixed-signal and specialty foundry X-FAB Silicon Foundries SE of Tessenderlo, Belgium has announced the full volume production release of its new high-temperature galvanic isolation semiconductor process. The proprietary technology is fully automotive qualified, and offers greater reliability levels than options offered by competitors, it is claimed.

Galvanic isolation electrically separates circuits in order to improve noise immunity, remove ground loops, and increase common mode voltage. It can also protect human interfaces from contact with high voltages. An example where this plays an important role is the control of insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) or silicon carbide (SiC) power modules in industrial and automotive environments. Further applications include data communication in field bus systems, battery management systems or medical equipment.

Advantages of the new galvanic isolation process include:

operational temperatures of up to 175°C;
successfully tested up to 6000Vrms @ 50Hz and 10,000VDC;
uninterrupted barrier layer with 0ppm residual contamination;
demonstrated conformance with the latest IEC 60747-17 semiconductor coupler draft standard; and
support for working voltages up to 1.7kV.

X-FAB offers two types of packaged galvanic isolation devices for customer evaluation. The capacitive coupler test chip (G3-C1) has an isolation layer thickness of 11µm and was tested to withstand up to 6000Vrms (the maximum limit of the test setup). An inductive coupler test chip (G3-T06) is also available for customer evaluation and has an isolation layer thickness of 14µm.

The new galvanic isolation technology is manufactured at X-FAB’s Dresden facility, which is certified for automotive manufacturing in accordance with the IATF-16949:2016 International Automotive Quality Management System (QMS) standard. Design kits for all major electronic design automation (EDA) platforms can be downloaded from X-FAB’s customer web portal. Samples can be supplied on request. Full process qualification reports are also available.

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Tags: SiC power devices

Visit: www.xfab.com