Application of SiC Silicon Carbide in Power Semiconductors
In the technical product release in the past two years, “SiC silicon carbide” has become a frequently mentioned star product of all multinational component suppliers and OEMs, including Magna, BorgWarner, Mahle, Continental, etc. Claimed they used silicon carbide.
For example, the EQXX released by Mercedes-Benz earlier this year declared: “It is equipped with a rear axle motor with a maximum power of 150kW, and a silicon carbide power module is applied to further reduce losses.”
It is conceivable that in the future, cars will be electrified, so the demand for SiC silicon carbide power devices is huge. According to a forecast released by Yole, a market research and consulting company, from now to 2025, the annual growth rate of the silicon carbide market will reach 30%, and the market size will exceed 2.5 billion US dollars.
When the scale reaches $1.5 billion, cars equipped with silicon carbide devices will dominate the market.
The mass production of power semiconductor SiC silicon carbide and IGBT is concentrated in a few companies such as Infineon Infineon in Germany, NXP NXP, STMicroelectronics STM, ON Semiconductor ONsemi, etc. Infineon has obvious advantages.
At present, the domestic manufacturer that can achieve independent research and development to mass production is BYD. Its BYD semiconductor products include mainstream IGBTs and high-end products such as SiC silicon carbide MOFEST, etc., covering a very comprehensive range.
BYD Semiconductor’s SiC automotive power module is very compact, only the size of a palm, and has an output power of 250KW. Self-produced SiC power semiconductors have also enabled BYD electric vehicles to significantly improve the motor drive efficiency and reduce the volume of the motor drive controller by more than 60%.
It is precisely because of the importance of SiC silicon carbide that Bosch, which ranks first in auto parts, announced two years ago that it will continue to promote the research and development of silicon carbide chips and achieve mass production.
Bosch’s mass production is not only SiC-packaged modules, but also mass production from the most basic wafers and chips.
In 2021, Bosch has built an additional 1,000-square-meter clean room at the Reutlingen wafer fab, and a new 3,000-square-meter clean room will be built by the end of 2023. Currently using 150mm wafers, and soon plans to use 200mm wafers, a single wafer can take months to complete hundreds of process steps in countless machines.
Bosch will continue to expand the production capacity of silicon carbide power semiconductors, and plans to increase the output to the level of hundreds of millions. At the same time, it has started to develop second-generation silicon carbide chips with higher power density, which is expected to be put into mass production in 2022.
In the future, to realize our electric vehicle’s “curve overtaking” dream, we must make breakthroughs in key technologies. For electric vehicles, SiC silicon carbide power chips are the technology we most need to break through.
