Wolfspeed has announced what it says is the industry’s first commercially available 10,000 V silicon carbide (SiC) power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). The company positions the device for medium-voltage power conversion use cases tied to grid modernization, industrial electrification, and AI data center infrastructure, where higher-voltage switching can change converter topologies and system packaging.
Wolfspeed reports that the 10 kV SiC MOSFET’s intrinsic time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) lifetime analysis predicts 158,000 years of operation at continuous 20 V gate-bias voltage. It also claims it is the first in the industry to solve bipolar degradation in 10 kV SiC MOSFETs, enabling reliable performance that includes body-diode usage, which Wolfspeed cites as relevant for mid-voltage uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, wind power, and solid-state transformer applications.
On system-level implications, Wolfspeed says moving to 10 kV SiC enables simpler architectures by consolidating multi-cell designs into fewer cells and shifting three-level inverters to a two-level topology, reducing system cost by approximately 30%. It also claims more than 300% higher power density by increasing switching frequency from 600 Hz to 10,000 Hz, which it says simplifies control and gate-drive circuitry and reduces magnetics size. Wolfspeed further reports up to 50% lower system-level thermal requirements by achieving 99% conversion efficiency, compared with silicon insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT)-based systems.
Wolfspeed also highlights pulsed-power switching, stating the technology has a rise time of less than 10 nanoseconds and can replace mechanical spark-gap switches with SiC MOSFET-based solid-state switches. The company says this approach eliminates arcing, improves timing precision of pulsed-power transfer, and reduces size and system complexity for applications including geothermal power, power generation for AI data centers, semiconductor plasma etching, and fertilizer production.
Regarding product availability, Wolfspeed says the 10 kV CPM3-10000-0300A SiC MOSFET die is available for customer sampling and qualification.
Source: Wolfspeed
