SEMIKRON acquires the Finnish company Nidecon
Integration of Nidecon’s Power Quality Filters in SEMIKRON’s Power Electronics Systems
SEMIKRON International, a leading manufacturer of power semiconductors, took over the Finnish Company Nidecon Technologies Oy, as of December 29, 2011. Nidecon is a specialist in power quality filter technology for drives and renewable energies and has its headquarter in Vantaa, Finland.
Nidecon’s product portfolio includes LC/LCL filters, dUdT filters, common mode reactors and harmonic chokes for passive power factor correction. The current range covers 4A to 2000A. SEMIKRON aims to integrate Nidecon’s innovative power quality filters into power semiconductor solutions and to provide local production in the seven SEMIKRON Solution Centers located in France, China, Korea, USA, Brazil, India and South Africa.
Nidecon’s CEO Jarkko Salomäki states: “Belonging to the global SEMIKRON group, Nidecon can take advantage of SEMIKRON`s production facilities, sales channels and packaging technologies.” “Nidecon´s product range is quite complementary to Semikron´s product portfolio”, says Dirk Heidenreich, CEO of SEMIKRON International GmbH. “It opens up new opportunities for the integration of power electronics components.” New proprietary technologies enable Nidecon to reduce the typical filter size by 35% to 50%. Therefore, these innovated technologies are ideally suited for SEMIKRON power semiconductor solutions with integrated semiconductors, cooling, DC-link capacitors and driver electronics.
Prior to the acquisition, Nidecon was owned by the Finnish Industry Investment, the Finnish government-owned venture capital and private equity company and Power Fund I, a venture capital fund focusing on investing in renewable and distributed energy generation technology and energy-saving technology companies. The fund is managed by VNT Management.
About SEMIKRON:
SEMIKRON is an internationally leading power semiconductor manufacturer. The German-based family enterprise employs 3900 people worldwide. A global network of 36 companies with production plants in Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Korea, Slovakia, South Africa and USA guarantees fast and competent on-site customer care.
SEMIKRON is a one-stop provider of chips, discrete semiconductors, transistor, diode and thyristor power modules, power assemblies and systems for markets such as industrial drives, wind and solar, hybrid and electric vehicles, the rail industry and power supplies. SEMIKRON is the market leader in the field of diode/thyristor semiconductor modules, enjoying a 30% share of the worldwide market. (Source: IMS Research, The World Market for Power Semiconductor Discretes & Modules – 2011 Edition)
The dedication to the hybrid and electric vehicle market is evident in the development and production of power semiconductors for this market but also the majority take-over of Compact Dynamics GmbH, a development specialist for innovative control systems, the joint venture with drivetek, a provider for application-specific control technology, and the take-over of VePOINT, developing and producing inverters, DC/DC converters and chargers.
Recently, SEMIKRON has introduced a revolutionary packaging technology for power semiconductors which does away with bond wires, solders and thermal paste. The new SKiN Technology is based on the use of a flexible foil and sintered connections rather than bond wires, solders and thermal paste. This results in a higher current carrying capacity and 10 times the load cycle capability – unthinkable with the restrictive wire bonding used in power electronics in the past. Therefore converter volume can be reduced by 35%. This reliable and space-saving technology is the optimum solution for vehicle and wind power applications.
About Nidecon
Nidecon is a manufacturer of technologically advanced power quality filtering solutions. The company’s head office is located in Vantaa (Finland). Since the foundation in 2006 Nidecon has striven to solve customer problems in modern power electronic applications, e.g. motor drives, high-speed applications and renewable energy systems. Nidecon’s product range includes LC/LCL filters, dUdT filters, common mode reactors and harmonic chokes covering the current range from 4A to 2000A. Nidecon’s products utilize advanced modular magnetic technology to optimize the filter size. In addition, Nidecon products feature innovative cooling solutions: integrated liquid cooling and effective forced air cooling. With integrated liquid cooling up to 95% of the losses can be dissipated by the cooling liquid. Effective forced air cooling ensures effective hotspot elimination and is enabled by Nidecon’s novel winding concept. Nidecon products are customized to guarantee that they are optimized for the customer’s application. With the New-Inductive-DEsign-CONcept Nidecon offers high-performance products and, hence, helps the customer to upgrade his application to a higher level.