Cree launches industry’s first surface mount 1200V silicon carbide Schottky diode
DURHAM, USA: Cree Inc. announced the availability of the industry’s first commercial 1200V surface mount SiC Schottky diode.
Packaged in an industry-standard surface mount TO-252 D-Pak, the Schottky diodes deliver the same proven performance as Cree’s TO-220 through-hole devices, with a smaller board footprint and lower profile. This can enable the design of smaller, lower cost, and more efficient solar power micro-inverters, compared to systems designed with larger and bulkier through-hole parts.
“Our customers designing high-efficiency micro-inverters for solar power applications wanted to simplify their designs without compromising system efficiency. They were looking for a surface mount device that could deliver the same performance they had come to expect from SiC Schottky diodes – zero reverse recovery losses, high frequency operation with a low EMI signature, and reduced operating temperatures,” explained Cengiz Balkas, Cree vice president and general manager, Power and RF.
“Given Cree’s experience in developing high-voltage SiC power devices, the move to the surface mount D-Pak was a natural extension of our Schottky diode product line to serve this critical market.”
NI delivers industry-leading RF performance in PXI form factor
INDIA: National Instruments has introduced the NI PXIe-5665, a 3.6 GHz RF vector signal analyzer (VSA) that delivers best-in-class RF performance in a cost-effective PXI form factor.
The new VSA features industry-leading phase noise, average noise level, amplitude accuracy and dynamic range. The VSA’s PXI platform also facilitates peer-to-peer streaming; includes a flexible multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) architecture for phase-coherent measurements; and offers measurement speeds that are at least five times faster than traditional rack-and-stack instruments – all of which make it ideal for demanding automated RF test applications.
“Not only is the NI PXIe-5665 VSA the highest performing instrument in its class, but it is available at a fraction of the cost of traditional rack-and-stack instruments,” said Phil Hester, senior vice president of research and development at National Instruments. “Because our new PXI RF analyzer combines high-end performance with modular flexibility into one compact, affordable package, engineers now can use the same instrument from design to production.”
The VSA combines the new NI PXIe-5603 downconverter with the new NI PXIe-5653 local oscillator synthesizer and the NI PXIe-5622, a 150 MS/s intermediate frequency (IF) digitizer. This combination creates an ideal solution for spectrum and wideband vector signal measurements over a frequency range from 20 Hz to 3.6 GHz with analysis bandwidths up to 50 MHz.
AVX’s UQCL series capacitors provide high current, high Q and low ESR
GREENVILLE, USA: AVX Corp., a leading manufacturer of advanced passive components and interconnect solutions, has developed a multilayer capacitor (MLC) chip series with new dielectric and internal electrode materials in a 0402 size.
These materials allow for a much lower equivalent series resistance than in previous versions of RF capacitors. Designated the UQCL Series, the chips are ideal for RF/microwave applications ranging from 10MHz to 4.2GHz.
“This new series has a fine-grained, high density, high purity dielectric material to keep out moisture, and includes an electrode system that has been optimized for high frequency performance,” said Larry Eisenberger, AVX product manager. “This makes the UQCL Series ideal for applications with high current carrying capabilities and high quality factors. The capacitors also offer low ESR and high series resonance.”
Applications such as microwave RF/IF amplifiers, mixers, oscillators, low noise amplifiers, and filter networks, as well as medical devices such as MRI coils, would all benefit from the UQCL Series’ characteristics, according to Eisenberger.