Cree Launches Industry’s First Commercial Silicon Carbide Power MOSFET; Destined to Replace Silicon Devices in High Voltage (= 1200V) Power Electronics

In a move that heralds a performance revolution in energy efficient power electronics, Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a market leader in silicon carbide (SiC) power devices, has introduced the industry’s first fully-qualified commercial silicon carbide power MOSFET. This establishes a new benchmark for energy efficient power switches and can enable design engineers to develop high voltage circuits with extremely fast switching speeds and ultralow switching losses.

The SiC MOSFET can be used today for solar inverters, high-voltage power supplies and power conditioning in many industrial power applications. Over the next several years, SiC power switches and diodes could also expand into motor drive control, electric vehicles and wind energy applications. The market for power semiconductors in these applications is estimated at approximately $4 billion today, reaching nearly $6 billion by 2015.

The addition of the SiC power MOSFET to Cree’s world-class silicon carbide Schottky diode family enables power electronics design engineers to develop "all-SiC” implementations of critical high power switching circuits and systems with levels of energy efficiency, size and weight reduction that are not achievable with any commercially available silicon power devices of comparable ratings.

"This introduction of our SiC power MOSFET represents many years of materials research, process development and device design,” said John Palmour, Cree co-founder and chief technology officer, Power and RF. "But the end result is that the industry’s first ‘ideal’ high voltage switching device is no longer a future technology – it is commercially available and ready for design-in today. Together with our 600V, 650V, 1200V and 1700V SiC Schottky diodes, Cree Power has established a new class of SiC power components that are destined to lead the power semiconductor industry in the years to come, and eventually replace silicon devices in the majority of critical power electronics applications with breakdown voltage requirements of 1200V or higher.”

"Cree’s release of the SiC MOSFET represents a major step forward in power technology and enables a new standard in performance and reliability to be reached,” said Per Ranstad, Product Manager at Alstom Power - Thermal Services in Sweden. "At Alstom, we have been working with Cree to demonstrate the capabilities of this new device, in particular seeing its impact on energy efficiency in power systems, and we are definitely excited by the results we have achieved to date.”

Cree’s SiC MOSFET, the CMF20120D , provides blocking voltages up to 1200V with an on-state resistance (R_DSon) of just 80mO at 25^°C. Setting Cree’s SiC MOSFET apart from comparable silicon devices, the R_DSon remains below 100m? across its entire operating temperature range. This consistency of performance characteristics across operating conditions, along with a true MOSFET device architecture (normally-off), makes it ideal for power electronics switching circuits. Compared to commercially available silicon MOSFET or IGBT devices of similar ratings, in tests conducted by Cree the CMF20120D had the lowest gate drive energy (Q_G <100nC) across the recommended input voltage range. Conduction losses were minimized with forward drop (V_F) of <2V at a current of 20A.

The CMF20120D SiC MOSFET provides significant advantages over silicon devices, enabling unprecedented system efficiency and/or reduced system size, weight and cost through its higher frequency operation. It can meet or beat silicon MOSFET switching speeds and reduce switching losses in many applications by up to 50 percent.

Compared to the best silicon IGBTs, the Cree device improves system efficiency up to 2 percent and operates at 2-3 times the switching frequencies. Higher component efficiency also results in lower operating temperatures. Combining these lower operating temperatures with the CMF20120D’s ultra-low leakage current (<1µA) adds significantly to system reliability.

SiC MOSFET Applications in Power Electronics

Cree’s CMF20120D is ideal for high voltage applications where energy efficiency is critical. Solar inverters are an example where SiC MOSFETs can be used in both the boost and inverter sections of the DC-to-AC converters. Switching losses are decreased by more than 30 percent using SiC MOSFETs; and when combined with Cree’s SiC Junction Barrier Schottky diodes, overall system efficiency has been demonstrated at >99%.

Similar efficiency benefits can be achieved in other applications that require high blocking voltages in combination with fast, efficient switching, such as industrial motor drives, high power DC data center power architectures, PFC (power factor correction), boost and high frequency DC/DC conversion circuits in industrial, and computing and communications power systems. In addition to potential efficiency gains, the low switching losses of Cree’s SiC MOSFETs and diodes can enable design optimization at switching frequencies up to three times those built with commercially available silicon devices.

Cree’s Leadership in SiC Technology

"Silicon carbide technology is critical to developing the next generation of advanced, energy-efficient power electronic system designs,” explained Cengiz Balkas, Cree vice-president and general manager, Power and RF. "We believe that the addition of the industry’s first commercial SiC MOSFET will speed the development of smaller, faster, lighter and more efficient power devices in certain critical power device applications, with the potential to reduce global electric power consumption. This MOSFET is the first SiC MOSFET product that Cree plans to release, drawing on our technology and patent base.”

Cree has been a recognized leader in SiC MOSFET process and design development for more than 20 years, demonstrating the first vertical SiC MOSFET devices; the first SiC MOSFETs at >600V; the highest voltage MOSFETs ever fabricated (10kV); and numerous processing developments to enhance SiC MOS interface quality and reliability. Cree has been awarded more than 50 patents on SiC MOSFET technologies, with numerous patents pending.

The CMF20120D power devices are fully qualified and released for production. Samples are available now from Digi-Key (www.digi-key.com). For samples and more information about Cree’s 1200V devices or any of Cree’s 600V, 1200V and 1700V SiC Schottky diodes, visit www.cree.com/power.

About Cree

Cree is a market-leading innovator of semiconductor solutions for wireless and power applications, lighting-class LEDs, and LED lighting solutions.

Cree’s product families include power-switching devices and radio-frequency/wireless devices, blue and green LED chips, high-brightness LEDs, lighting-class power LEDs, and LED fixtures and bulbs. Cree solutions are driving improvements in applications such as variable-speed motors, wireless communications, general illumination, backlighting and electronic signs and signals.

For additional product and company information, please refer to www.cree.com

This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of factors, including the risk that we may be unable to manufacture these products with sufficiently low cost to offer them at competitive prices or with acceptable margins; the risk that we may be unable to develop and commercialize additional SiC power MOSFET products necessary to serve all of the market opportunities identified in this release; the risk we may encounter delays or other difficulties in ramping up production of our new products; customer acceptance of the new products; the rapid development of new technology and competing products that may impair demand or render Cree’s products obsolete; and other factors discussed in Cree’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 27, 2010, and subsequent filings.

Cree is a registered trademark of Cree, Inc.