Products and solutions for solar energy

Introduction ST’s range of new products and solutions dedicated specifically to the photovoltaic world demonstrates our commitment to providing smarter solutions for the needs of the solar energy market. The diagram below shows the full extent of ST’s involvement in the photovoltaic world. ST positioning in the photovoltaic world - Off-line converters - PWM controllers - Power MOSFETs - Diodes - Photovoltaic ICs - Battery management ICs - PLM transceivers - RF MCUs (ZigBee®) - RF modules (ZigBee®/Bluetooth®) - Serial interface Inverter Solar battery chargers Junction box Auxiliary SMPS DC-DC...

Photovoltaic grid-connected system architectures The traditional grid-tied architecture of photovoltaic systems concentrates all the electronics in the central inverter. This is the centralized approach. To gain in terms of global system energy production, reliability, safety, communication and monitoring, the trend today is to move towards the distributed approach where the electronics is partially or fully distributed close to each panel. Distributed approach Centralized approach System energy production System reliability • System monitoring • • String inverter Power optimizer The following...

Figure 1 Block diagram of a string and central inverter based architecture Inverter DC-DC converter DC-AC converter MOSFET/IGBT drivers MOSFET/IGBT drivers Protection devices Control unit Power transistors Power transistors String combiner box High-voltage DC bus Control unit Auxiliary SMPS Protection devices Local monitoring Signal conditioning Remote monitoring (Internet access) Junction box Power path Wired/wireless communication ST’s product offering for the central inverter architecture is shown below. The key products for each functional block described above are described in the table...

Functional block Product type Power transistors Control unit Diodes Protection devices String combiner boxes Description 650/1200 V field stop trench gate IGBT with ultrafast diodes 600 V IGBT with ultrafast diode: - SD series, very low drop IGBT (ideal in low-frequency switches of mixed-frequency topologies ) - WD series based on a new advanced planar technology (tailored for high switching frequencies, over 100 kHz) 600/650 V high-voltage rectifiers for BC2 topology 600 V ultrafast high-voltage rectifiers, Turbo2 technology 1000 V ultrafast high-voltage diodes 600 V silicon-carbide diodes High-performance...

ST’s evaluation boards designed for the central inverter based architecture are shown below. Evaluation boards for string and central inverter architectures Sales code STEVAL-ISV001V1 Description 1 kW inverter for UPS or for standalone systems 3 kW PV converter for grid-connected applications Power optimizer based architectures Architectures based on power optimizers represent partially distributed photovoltaic grid-connected systems (Figures 3 and 4) where part of the electronics from a central or string inverter is moved close to each panel. This architecture includes three main functional...

Figure 3 Low-voltage power optimizer based architecture (simplified block diagram) AC grid High voltage DC bus Inverter High voltage DC Power optimizer DC-AC converter DC-DC converter MOSFET/IGBT drivers MOSFET/IGBT drivers Power transistors Power transistors Control unit Control unit Power optimizer Signal conditioning Auxiliary SMPS Power optimizer Signal conditioning Protection devices Auxiliary SMPS Protection devices Power optimizer Data concentrator Control unit Power optimizer Power optimizer Local monitoring Memory Protection devices String 1 Remote monitoring (Internet access) Power...

Figure 4 High-voltage power optimizer based architecture (simplified block diagram) AC grid High voltage DC bus Inverter High voltage DC Power optimizer High voltage DC DC-DC converter MOSFET/IGBT drivers MOSFET/IGBT drivers Power transistors Power optimizer DC-AC converter Control unit Diodes Power optimizer Power transistors Control unit Signal conditioning Signal conditioning Auxiliary SMPS Protection devices Auxiliary SMPS Protection devices Data concentrator Control unit Local monitoring Protection devices Remote monitoring (Internet access) Power path Wired/wireless communication ST’s product...

Product offering for power optimizer based architectures

Product offering for power optimizer based architectures (cont’d) Functional block Product family Auxiliary power supplies Inverters (DC-AC) Protection devices Control units Data concentrators Protection devices Description 600 V ultrafast IGBTs with ultrafast diode - SD series, very low drop IGBT (ideal in low-frequency switches of mixed-frequency topologies) - WD series based on a new advanced planar technology (tailored for high switching frequencies, over 100 kHz) 1000 V ultrafast high-voltage diodes 600 V ultrafast high-voltage rectifiers, Turbo2 technology 600 V silicon-carbide diodes High-performance...

ST’s evaluation boards designed for the power optimizer based architecture are shown below. Evaluation boards for power optimizer architectures Sales code STEVAL-ISV008V1 STEVAL-ISV009V1 STEVAL-ISV013V1 STEVAL-ISV013V2 STEVAL-ISV013V3 STEVAL-ISV018V1 Description 300 W DC-DC converter with MPPT (40 Vdc output voltage solution, MPPT at cell string level) 300 W DC-DC converter with MPPT (40 Vdc output voltage solution, MPPT at panel level) 300 W high-voltage power optimizer for solar panels (400 VOUT solution) PLM communication daughter board for STEVAL-ISV013V1 ZigBee wireless communication daughter...

Microinverter based architectures Architectures based on microinverters represent fully distributed photovoltaic grid-connected systems (Figure 5) in which all the electronics is moved close to each panel. This kind of architecture includes two main functional blocks: QQ The microinverter provides the MPPT, the complete power conversion, the connectivity and AC grid connection. Singleor two-stage power conversion architectures can be used to convert DC voltage and current from the solar panel into AC voltage and current suitable for the grid. Panel-level connectivity allows remote monitoring...