Infineon's EasyPACK CoolSiC modules and EiceDRIVER X3 drivers chosen for alpitronic EV hypercharger

Following the successful launch of the HYC150 and HYC300 of their hypercharger product line, alpitronic recently introduced the state-of-the-art 50 kW DC electric-vehicle charger HYC50.

It’s the first wall-mounted DC charger in this power range featuring two charging ports that allow fast-charging of one vehicle at 50 kW or of two vehicles simultaneously at 25 kW each. This is made possible by using EasyPACK CoolSiC MOSFET 1B and 2B modules from Infineon Technologies AG, in combination with the EiceDRIVER X3.

“With Infineon’s CoolSiC EasyPACK modules in combination with a perfect matching driver IC, we were able to significantly improve the efficiency of our new hypercharger,” said Philipp Senoner, co-founder and managing director of alpitronic.

“We are pleased to have Infineon as a reliable and competent partner at our side, providing a wide range of CoolSiC MOSFET, gate drivers and the necessary understanding of our specific requirements,” he added

By using the CoolSiC technology, the HYC50 achieves up to 97 percent efficiency and enables a bidirectional design. As a result, this hypercharger is suitable for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) operation. At the same time, the charger has a compact footprint of 1250 x 520 x 220 mm³ and weighs less than 100 kg.

Its compact size makes the charger ideal for indoor wall mounting, though it can also be mounted flexibly on a pedestal outdoors. The charger supports the charging standards CCS1 and CCS2 with a capacity of 150 A, CHAdeMO with a capacity of 125 A, as well as GBT.

In this particular design, Infineon’s EasyPACK 1B and 2B modules, which include CoolSiC MOSFETs, a NTC temperature sensor, and PressFIT contact pins, were able to increase power density by about 50 percent. By using CoolSiC technology, the noise level was also significantly reduced from 65 dB to less than 50 dB.

“In addition to comprehensive system expertise and many years of experience, we offer first-class solutions such as our portfolio of EasyPACK 1B and 2B modules with the latest 1200 V CoolSiC MOSFET technology to increase the efficiency as well as the power density,” explained Dr. Peter Wawer, president of the Industrial Power Control Division at Infineon. “The devices can be flexibly combined with suitable drivers to meet the requirements of each customer and their individual project.”

Besides the necessary power devices, Infineon also provided the matching drivers. The X3 driver IC is particularly suitable for the modules in this design, offering a number of decisive advantages through its configurability and active and passive monitoring options.

For instance, it enables additional sensor points for operational monitoring, with several gate drivers providing additional temperature points as well as gate voltage monitoring. The temperature and voltage can be adjusted exactly according to the requirements of the SiC MOSFETs, minimizing static conduction losses and avoiding overloads.

Furthermore, the operating points in the field can be optimized by OTA (Over-the-Air) updates — these can also influence the parameters in the gate driver. This means that the systems in different climates can be optimized for the corresponding environmental conditions.