BIEL, Switzerland--July 11, 2013: IXYS Corporation an international power and IC semiconductor company, today announced that its wholly owned UK subsidiary, IXYS UK Westcode Ltd., has provided the Oxford University Energy and Power group (EPG) team with PV solar cells for their award winning Eco-vehicle, nicknamed 'Peggie'.
The vehicle features a reconfigurable PV array, using the IXYS SolarMD modules SLMD121H09L that manoeuvres the maximum power point of the solar panel to coincide with the battery terminal voltage.
"IXYS has a history of innovation in the renewable energy field and we are proud to support the efforts of the Oxford EPG team in realising this bold and revolutionary design. Our congratulations go out to the entire team for their hard work and dedication and we are looking forward to more cooperation for future projects," comments Nicholas Tarling, Product Engineer at IXYS UK.
Not only did the team manage a 50% increase in vehicle range, 564km/kWh, from their 2012 effort, they were also awarded the overall technical innovation prize out of a pool of over 200 teams from across Europe.
"We would like to take the opportunity to thank IXYS for their support in supplying the PV cells for the 2013 vehicle. We wired up 130 IXYS cells into a re-configurable solar array, controlled by a matrix of MOSFET switches. This was a bit of an experiment that demanded high performance, consistency and reliability from the cells to be effective. In the end, the IXYS cells produced 20% of the vehicle's propulsion requirements and we believe exceeded the output of all other competing PV systems in our class," comments Pete Armstrong, team technical manager.
About IXYS UK
Located in Chippenham, England, IXYS UK Westcode Ltd is the IXYS leading manufacturing site for very high power thyristors, SCRs and rectifiers ranging up to 6500 Volts and 15,000 Amps. IXYS UK continues to supply high technology components for a wide range of applications such as wind and solar energy, welding, AC and DC motor drives for oil, marine and water treatment facilities, uninterruptible power supplies, motor soft starters, transportation, induction heating, mining equipment and many other industrial applications.
Since its founding, IXYS Corporation has been developing power semiconductors and mixed signal ICs to improve power conversion efficiency, generate solar and wind power and provide efficient motor control for industrial applications. IXYS, and its subsidiary companies, offer a diversified product base that addresses worldwide needs for power control in the growing cleantech industries, renewable energy markets, telecommunications, medical devices, transportation applications, flexible displays and RF power.
