Diodes - Economic Power Electronics

When one thinks of semiconductors, one thinks primarily of computer chips such as RAM or micro­pro­cessors and less of diodes and power modules. Since power electronics are playing an increas­ingly important role, we as a distri­butor have also strength­ened our position in this sector with NAINA Semi­con­ductor.

Semicon­ductors are of great impor­tance for electrical engineering. Their conduc­tivity can depend on the direction of current flow, a threshold value (threshold voltage) or a control signal. Diodes (bridge rectifiers) are used for rectifying AC voltages of all powers. Diodes have the largest share of heat loss in switched-mode power supplies. It is there­fore parti­cularly important to optimally design the compo­nents for the respective application.

Schottky diodes are often used for parti­cularly fast, i.e. high-frequency switching processes. Z-diodes, formerly Zener diodes, are particularly suitable for limiting to defined limit values. If power control is required (e.g. speed of motors or dimmers in lighting technology), con­trollable elements such as thyristors, IGBTs or MOSFETs are used.