Rohm opens German power test lab
The 300m² Power Lab is based at Willich-Münchheide near Dusseldorf and is equipped with several custom test benches with a separate high voltage area.
“Electric vehicles, charging station infrastructure, industrial machinery, solar and wind power plants as well as white goods such as washing machines require more and more Power semiconductors to comply with the energy efficiency requirements, which have to be tested and validated at early stage of the development phase,” said Aly Mashaly, Manager of the Power Systems Department an dhead of the lab. “Because there were no suitable test benches on the market, we decided to develop and design the test benches based on our own requirements subsequently. In this way, we ensure the high scalability of the test benches and their flexibility for future modifications.”
The test benches have the state-of-the-art laboratory equipment using latest technologies with high safety features. ROHM can electrically characterize all of its semiconductor components such as SiC MOSFETs, SiC diodes, IGBTs, Si Power MOSFETs and gate drivers with voltages up to 8000VDC.
The power test bench enables the tests on AC-DC, DC-DC, DC-AC and AC-AC converters under real application conditions up to 15kVA with high-precision measurements of efficiency and losses provided by power analysers. The test bench include an AC power supply as a grid emulator and both AC and DC electronic loads with maximum voltages under test are 1500VDC and 400VAC.
A calorimetric test bench is for analyzing the thermal behaviour of the power discrete devices, modules, electronic boards and complete power electronics systems. This test bench can test at very high current supplies with hundreds of Amps and has a climatic chamber for tests under special temperature conditions ranging from -40°C to +180°C. Humidity can be set between 10 and 98%.
The high voltage test bench for voltages up to 8000V, is located in a separate room to protect the tester during the operation. This allows engineers to investigate and test the insulation sections, so called “clearance and creepage distances” on board and system level up to 6000V.
“We are proud to efficiently assist the projects of our customers with state of the art equipment. This investment shows our determination to be one of the major suppliers in SiC and Si Power discrete and integrated device technologies, thus to play an important role in the growing power market,” said Christian André, President of ROHM Europe. “The new Power Lab is a central piece of our quality and reliability scheme.”