MinDCet

Belgium

Leveraging extensive expertise in high-voltage and power ASIC design, MinDCet delivers tailored integrated circuit solutions. MinDCet solutions encompass the full development spectrum, working closely with our customers from conceptualization through to the low-to-medium volume production stage, backed by in-house production testing facilities and pre-production testing capabilities. The high quality development standards are affirmed in MinDCet’s ISO9001 certification.

 

Core development activities are focused on wide-bandgap gate drivers (GaN and SiC), high-voltage (>650V), radiation-hardened and high-temperature ASICs for power control, sensing and motor driving applications.

 

Additionally, MinDCet Measurement Systems develops and produces patented measurement systems for analyzing losses in inductors (MADMIX) and capacitors (MADCAP). These measurement systems are adding value to renowned R&D facilities and universities around the world.

Services

ASIC Design

Our customers require unique integrated circuit solutions, when off-the-shelf products cannot fulfill their requirements. MinDCet develops encompassing solutions in partnership with the customer by guiding them from the idea stage to the implementation of the custom IC. During this process, MinDCet takes care of the entire development and production chain. Dedicated teams of IC designers, layout engineers, characterization/test engineers and application engineers ensure a predictive and controlled flow from idea to final product. Whether your product needs radiation hardening, high temperature-, high-speed-, high-voltage- and high-reliability-capabilities, MinDCet has the expertise and readiness to provide a fitting result.

 

A 40V / 5A intelligent half-bridge IC.

ASIC Production Testing

MinDCet is your single point of contact, managing the entire IC process: foundry access, prototyping, characterization, packaging, test development, and the final production and testing. Our network of partners ensures a stable production flow. Since 2019, test development and final production testing are conducted in-house in our new cleanroom facilities. This approach offers significant benefits in timing and cost reduction as the characterization and test steps are combined. Additionally, the closed-loop interaction between our test engineers and IC designers enables short response times, an essential aspect towards a stable production flow.

 

MinDCet lab engineer programming a production IC test setup

Measurement Systems

In the early days of MinDCet, we discovered that switched-mode power supply (SMPS) inductors and capacitors were missing the required models to accurately simulate SMPS circuits. As a key component in the power IC development, this deficit triggered our in-house development of the MADMIX and MADCAP equipment. These patented systems allow measurement of AC losses in SMPS inductors and capacitors under real-life, switched-mode stimuli. Today this equipment is commercially available, serving its critical role in many labs throughout the world.

 

The MADMIX inductor measurement system.

IP Cores

GaN Gate Driver

  • Output drive current up to 2 A
  • Propagation delay: 30 ns
  • Slew rate capability in excess of 100 V/ns
  • No gate overcharging by true floating regulators on HS and LS gate driver
  • Integrated non-isolated level shifters, functional to -4V
  • High-side operation up to 200 V
  • 100% duty cycle enabled through integrated charge pump
  • Integrated linear regulators for the integrated digital and charge pump driver
  • Programmable dead-time generation
  • Programmable LDO output voltage (16 steps)
  • Gate driver temperature sensing
  • Operating ambient temperature range -40°C to 125°C
  • Versatile safety features:

– undervoltage lockout on the high-side and low-side regulated supplies

– undervoltage lockout on the logic supplies

– gate voltage monitoring

– closed-loop dead-time control

– temperature sensing

– overcurrent detection

– average current telemetry (in combination with an external shunt)

  • RoHS compliant

SiC Gate Driver

  • Driver for 3uC SiC FET
  • 12A pull up and pull down peak current
  • Multistep turn-on and off
  • Miller clamp
  • PWM switching up to 50kHz, with propagation distortion <20ns
  • Diagnostics and Safety features:

– Programmable Vds/DESAT monitoring

– On-chip over-temperature detection

– Over-voltage and under-voltage protection

  • Programmable configuration