Pressing the Skyper 12 press-fit, half-bridge driver directly onto the IGBT module means that there are no costs for an adapter board, cable splices, and associated assembly and soldering processes, says Semikron.

According to the company, the driver means 30% fewer components than available solutions, and reduces the failure rate of the individual components and achieves an MTBF of over five million hours at full load.

Mixed-signal ASICs contain the power supply and protection and control functions, and the external components ensure optimum thermal spreading. Good EMC stability is claimed due to short pulse suppression and an interface ground concept. With square-wave signal transmission, the driver switches without errors at a high dU/dt. The ASICs operate over the entire temperature range with no transit time differences.

The driver sits on 17mm press-fit modules without an overhang and controls the modules up to a 15A peak current and a DC link voltage of up to 1200V.