Nexperia has announced a range of new silicon germanium (SiGe) rectifiers with 120 V, 150 V, and 200 V reverse voltages that combine the high efficiency of their Schottky counterparts with the thermal stability of fast recovery diodes.

Targeting automotive, communications infrastructure and server markets, the new 1-3 A SiGe rectifiers are of particular benefit in high-temperature applications like LED lighting, engine control units or fuel injection. Design engineers using the new, extremely low leakage devices can now rely on an extended safe-operating area with no thermal runaway up to 175 degrees. At the same time, they can optimize their design for higher efficiency which is not feasible using fast recovery diodes commonly used in such high-temperature designs. By boosting a low forward voltage (Vf) and low Qrr, the SiGe rectifiers have an advantage of 10-20 % lower conduction losses.

The PMEG SiGe devices (PMEGxGxELR/P) are housed in size- and thermally-efficient CFP3 and CFP5 packages that have become the industry standard for power diodes. By featuring a solid copper clip the packages’ thermal resistance is reduced and transfer of heat into the ambient environment is optimized, allowing small and compact PCB designs. Moreover, simple pin-to-pin replacements of Schottky and fast recovery diodes are possible when switching to SiGe technology.

Jan Fischer, Nexperia product manager commented: “Utilising Nexperia’s innovative Silicon Germanium technology gives engineers unprecedented options to design their power circuitry and finally build market-leading products. SiGe perfectly complements Nexperia’s power diodes offering which includes more than 100 Schottky and fast recovery rectifiers in the clip-bonded FlatPower (CFP) package. And, we continue to grow this portfolio to always offer our customers a part which is the ideal fit for their application."

The first four AEC-Q101-qualified 120 V SiGe rectifiers are already in mass production. A further eight 150 V and 200 V devices are sampling now. For more information on Nexperia's SiGe rectifiers please visit www.nexperia.com/sige-rectifiers.