Infineon signs Chinese IGBT deal

LONDON – Infineon Technologies AG has signed a license agreement with Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Co. Ltd., a Chinese manufacturer of wind power equipments allowing the company to make core components for wind turbines.

Goldwind is licensed to produce stack Infineon IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors) power die for use in ac-converters for wind turbines. Infineon will also supply IGBT stacks to Goldwind. IGBTs are power semiconductors which enable the efficient conversion of the variable frequency output from the generator to a fixed frequency appropriate for the grid in the region concerned.

Infineon did not indicate how much the agreement might be worth to the company in terms of semiconductor sales.

Infineon plans to set up an application engineering center in Beijing. As wind turbines evolve toward higher capacity and grid friendliness, full-power converters has become one of the most critical elements of PMDD (Permanent Magnet Direct Drive) wind turbines, the type manufactured by Goldwind. Infineon has been supplying IGBT stacks to converters developed and manufactured by Goldwind since 2007.

Having applied the IGBT stacks in its 1.5-megawatt wind turbines, Goldwind plans to extend it to its 2.5-MW and further to 3.0-MW units now under volume production after the local ramp-up.