We mentioned in the article “Gen 3 semiconductor” that silicon carbide (SiC) is one of the two main protagonists of the third generation of semiconductors. I suggest you, be sure to read this previous article first, and then read on.
Silicon carbide (SiC) was discovered in 1891 by American inventor Edward G. Acheson.
The breakthrough in semiconductor
Under the same specifications, the size of silicon carbide-based MOSFET is only 1/10 of that of silicon-based MOSFET, and the on-resistance is 1/100 of the latter. Compared with silicon-based IGBTs, the total energy loss of SiC-based MOSFETs can be reduced by 70%.
Note:
Insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is a kind of semiconductor device, which is mainly used for output control of AC motors of electric vehicles, railway locomotives and EMUs.
Metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), is a field-effect transistor that can be widely used in analog circuits and digital circuits.
Technical diffilcuties
Difficulty in refining raw materials
For silicon carbide, the first step in refining the purity of carbon powder is very difficult, slow crystal growth, slow crystal cutting speed and other factors. These factors make it difficult to reduce the cost.
First of all, the basis of high-quality silicon carbide crystals is to have high-purity carbon powder, but the purification process requires extremely high technology, and the synthesis also takes time to explore.
Second, silicon carbide crystals grow very slowly. It takes about 7 days for silicon carbide to grow a centimeter; in comparison, it takes 2-3 days to pull out an 8-inch silicon rod about 2 meters long.
Silicon carbide has high hardness, which not only takes a long time to cut, but also has a low yield. Generally speaking, the cutting of silicon wafers only takes a few hours, while the silicon carbide wafers take hundreds of hours.
The current mainstream process
Silicon carbide substrate sizes mainly include 2 inches (50mm), 3 inches (75mm), 4 inches (100mm), 6 inches (150mm), 8 inches (200mm) and other specifications. The larger the size, the more chips can be manufactured per substrate, the less waste at the edge, and the lower the cost per chip.
In the silicon-based semiconductor industry, the wafer cost is the largest item (about 50%), while the added value of silicon carbide is concentrated in the upstream substrate (about 47% of the cost). Therefore, the actual control of the silicon carbide industry chain is actually in the hands of the substrate suppliers.
Silicon carbide wafers are increased from 6 inches to 8 inches, the number of chips will increase from 488 to 845, and the edge waste will be reduced from 14% to 7%.
Silicon carbide is mainly divided into semi-insulating type and conductive type. At present, the mainstream substrate size of semi-insulating products is 4 inches, and it is moving towards 6 inches. The mainstream substrate size of conductive products is 6 inches, and it is seeking to evolve to 8 inches.
The costs
Material cost
In 2020, the price ratio of 650-volt silicon carbide MOSFETs to traditional silicon-based IGBTs was about 4:1, and in 2018, the figure was as high as 10:1, according to CASA.
Development cost
The biggest hardware upgrade requirement for high-voltage fast-charging models lies in on-board power semiconductors. The original silicon-based IGBT chip has reached the physical limit of the material. Only SiC (silicon carbide), which has the advantages of high voltage resistance, high temperature resistance, and high frequency, can meet the needs of high-voltage fast-charging models. BYD has predicted that by 2023, electric vehicles will completely replace silicon-based IGBTs with silicon carbide-based automotive power semiconductors. Even more surprising is that this alternative is three times more expensive than the original silicon-based IGBT chip solution.
If the inverter uses silicon material, the price is much higher, and when using silicon carbide, the cost must be more than tripled immediately. In addition to inverters, wiring including electric motor systems, power conversion, etc. needs to be replaced from traditional silicon-based products to silicon carbide parts. This makes the cost of high-voltage fast-charging models many times higher. Let’s talk about infrastructure costs. The 800-volt supercharge generally needs to reach 360kW or even 480kW.
Characteristics and application fields of silicon carbide
Characteristics of silicon carbide
Silicon carbide semiconductor is the core material of the newly developed semiconductor. The devices made by it have the characteristics of high temperature resistance, high voltage resistance, high frequency, high power, radiation resistance, etc., and have the advantages of fast switching speed and high efficiency. The parts produced by it have the characteristics of high temperature resistance, high voltage resistance, high frequency, high power, radiation resistance, etc., and have the advantages of fast switching speed and high efficiency, which can greatly reduce product power consumption, improve energy conversion efficiency and reduce product share. volume of.
Application fields of silicon carbide
Currently, there are 3 main application markets for 3rd generation semiconductors.
- The first is to use gallium nitride materials to make 5G and high-frequency communication materials (RF GaN for short). Qualcomm (ticker: QCOM) once produced very hot silicon chips and could not use it on mobile phones at all; they had to go back to Winfoundry (Taiwan stock code: 3105) and AWSC (Taiwan stock code: 8086) ) to place an order for Qualcomm.
- The second market is the manufacture of power converters with gallium nitride (Power GaN for short), which is currently the hottest field. In the past, the most difficult part in the production of related products was to obtain a silicon carbide substrate, a silicon carbide substrate, a 6-inch wide wafer, and the asking price was as high as 80,000 yuan.
- The third market is the technology of gallium nitride stacked on a silicon substrate (GaN on Si). This technology greatly reduces the cost of compound semiconductors and can be used in production to process hundreds of volts of voltage conversion, which can achieve small power savings. At present, the original convenience-sized laptop transformer can be seen on the market, and it is only the size of a biscuit. At present, this technology is built into the charging of many high-end mobile phones and laptop batteries.
At present, it is mainly used in the radio frequency field represented by 5G communication, national defense and military industry, aerospace, and the power electronics field represented by new energy vehicles and new infrastructure construction. It has clear and considerable market prospects in both civilian and military fields.
Silicon carbide semiconductors will play an important role in new infrastructure construction such as 5G base station construction, UHV, intercity high-speed railway and urban rail transit, new energy vehicle charging piles, and big data centers.
Adoption by famous EV manufacturers
400 Volt System
In 2016, Tesla, which never compromised on cost control, took the lead in installing 24 silicon carbide MOSFET power modules produced by STMicroelectronics (ticker: STM) on the Model 3 main inverter. You know, at that time, the price of silicon carbide power devices was more than ten times that of the same silicon-based parts.
Tesla, as the first electric car manufacturer to adopt silicon carbide MOSFETs on a large scale, has also been plagued by the cost of 400-volt battery systems. BYD (ticker: BYDDY), Xiaopeng (ticker: XPEV), NIO (ticker: NIO), the three Chinese EV factories, had to follow up with Tesla in 2018 and immediately adopted a 400-volt battery system.
800 Volt System
Tesla’s Cybertruck and Semi both plan to use 800-volt UHV charging platforms.
In addition to the Porsche Taycan, well-known car manufacturers using the 800-volt UHV fast charging system also include Volkswagen (ticker: VWAGY) Project Trinity, NIO, Mercedes (ticker: DMLRY), Nezha S, etc.
900 Volt System
Lucid Motor Air (ticker: LCID) uses 900-volt high-voltage fast charging.
how big is the market?
According to Omdia statistics, it is estimated that by 2024, the global market size of power semiconductors will reach 53.8 billion US dollars, with broad market prospects.
According to the statistics of Strategy Analytics, the market value of power semiconductors in traditional fuel vehicles in 2019 is only US$71, which is relatively low; while the value of power semiconductors in hybrid vehicles has increased to US$425, 6 times that of traditional fuel vehicles. ; The value of power semiconductors in pure electric vehicles has increased to $387, which is 5.5 times that of traditional fuel vehicles.
Benefits
On technical sides
Since the band gap of silicon carbide is 3 times that of silicon, the thermal conductivity is 4-5 times that of silicon, the breakdown voltage is 8 times that of silicon, and the electron saturation drift rate is 2 times that of silicon. Its performance is better, and the current conduction efficiency is higher. If the electric vehicle adopts the third-generation semiconductor silicon carbide power module, the overall energy consumption of the electric vehicle can be saved by 5% to 10%.
In 2018, Tesla replaced IGBT modules with silicon carbide modules for the first time in Model 3. The case data also shows that under the same power level, the package size of silicon carbide modules is significantly smaller than that of silicon modules, and the switching loss is reduced by 75%. %, the system efficiency can be improved by about 5%. Although this replacement cost increases by nearly 1,500 yuan per vehicle, the improvement in the efficiency of the whole vehicle can use a smaller power battery under the same battery life, thus saving the cost on the battery side.
However, the 100-kilometer or more cruising range of the car itself is not enough to relieve people’s anxiety about battery life. Even establishing a network of charging stations comparable to the density of gas stations is not the key to alleviating battery life anxiety. What can really alleviate the anxiety of battery life is the fast charging speed, which is also inseparable from the third-generation semiconductors.
In addition to the field of electric vehicles, silicon carbide can also reduce the loss of UHV power grids by up to 60%, and the system loss of rail transit power devices by more than 20%.
To electric vehicle vendors
Wolfspeed chief technology officer John Palmour pointed out that the cost of an electric car using silicon carbide components is about $250 to $500 (depending on its power requirements), but silicon carbide components can be used for automakers. Savings in battery cost, battery and inverter size and weight, and cooling requirements can total up to $2,000 per vehicle.
To users
The Porsche Taycan is the world’s first model that has successfully installed an 800-volt UHV charging platform and has been mass-produced. It can quickly charge from 5% to 80% in 30 minutes.
In May 2022, the Extreme Fox Alpha S Huawei HI version was launched. Officials claimed that with the blessing of an 800-volt ultra-high voltage ultra-fast charge, the Alpha S could replenish 200 kilometers in just 10 minutes. This speed has set an industry record. Three months later, Xiaopeng wrote in the slogan of the G9 model that it can charge for 5 minutes and have a range of 200 kilometers, setting a new record again. None of this would be possible without silicon carbide.
Challenges
In addition to the above-mentioned price that is more than three times that of the traditional power system, it is not enough for the battery system of the electric vehicle itself to support the updated battery system. It is also necessary to significantly increase the charging station of the electric vehicle, and it is also necessary to upgrade the old battery system. There are existing charging stations, and the existing charging stations support new charging technologies.
Although the Taycan supports 800 volt high-voltage fast charging, generally only the Porsche Center or individual commercial center parking lots are equipped with exclusive charging piles, so usually the vehicle energy supplement is mainly based on third-party fast charging and household slow charging piles, and the time required for charging Also longer.
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