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As innovation in areas such as electric vehicles, renewable energy, and 5G continues to accelerate, SiC (silicon carbide) semiconductors have become a cost-competitive solution based on continuous improvement and better performance than older technologies. SiC semiconductors have advantages such as higher breakdown voltage, higher operating temperature, lower conduction losses, and faster switching speeds. The use of SiC semiconductors depends on the specific application, but their reliability and reduced cost make them an attractive choice for engineers seeking new solutions. United Silicon Carbide (UnitedSiC), a leading SiC power semiconductor manufacturer, joined Qorvo in November 2021, expanding its business to electric vehicles, industrial power supplies, circuit protection, renewable energy, and data center power supplies. The pursuit of environmental and energy efficiency is driving design decisions related to SiC-FETs, and SiC's inherent advantages make it a preferred solution to meet consumer and industry needs. As SiC prices continue to fall and performance improves, it has become a replacement for existing older technology components and a starting point for new designs.
The cost-benefit relationship is complex and volatile, making it difficult for power engineers to quantify. This article explains how SiC semiconductors are a solution based on continuous improvements and are more cost-competitive than older technologies.
This blog post was originally published by United Silicon Carbide (UnitedSiC), which joined the Qorvo family in November 2021. The addition of UnitedSiC, a leading manufacturer of silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors, enables Qorvo to expand into fast-growing markets such as electric vehicles (EVs), industrial power supplies, circuit protection, renewable energy, and data center power.
The quest for environmental and energy efficiency drives design decisions regarding SiC-FETs.
As the pace of innovation in areas such as electric vehicles, renewable energy, and 5G continues to accelerate, more and more engineers are seeking new solutions and higher technology requirements to meet consumer and industry needs. SiC semiconductors are a preferred option to meet these needs, and they are also constantly improving, providing more cost-competitive performance than older technologies.
Oscar Wilde, the Irish poet, novelist, and fairy tale writer, wrote in his play Lady Windermere's Fan that a cynic "knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." This phrase is often used to satirize people who are short-sighted and fail to see the big picture. He contrasts the "cynic" with the "visionary" who focuses on benefits rather than costs.
Power engineers sometimes need to play both roles. While a given component remains expensive, there is often a complex cost-benefit relationship between the cost of the component and the improvement it can deliver, which changes over time and is often difficult to quantify. Take power semiconductors, for example. As a relatively new disruptive innovation, SiC was necessarily expensive when it was first commercialized, and most engineers would have put it at the end of their “nice to have” list, despite knowing that it has potential advantages over silicon-based products such as IGBTs and Si-MOSFETs. However, as SiC prices have continued to fall and its performance has continued to improve, SiC has proven its reliability and has risen in the minds of engineers, now serving as a replacement for existing older technology parts and an entry point for new designs. The use of SiC depends on the specific application. Solar and electric vehicle engineers were the first to adopt the technology because improving efficiency has always been a high priority in their field. But as wafer costs have fallen, performance has improved, the value of energy savings has increased, and the cost of related components has fallen, engineers in a wider range of applications have no reason not to make a change.
Figure 1: SiC system costs are lower than IGBT solutions
SiC has many inherent advantages, such as high critical breakdown voltage, high operating temperature, excellent on-resistance, small die area, good switching loss quality factor, and fast switching speed. The latest UnitedSiC "3rd Generation" SiC-FET devices using normally closed cascodes further expand the application range. For 1200V and 650V devices, the latest products in our UF series have the lowest on-resistance in their class, less than 9 milliohms and 7 milliohms respectively. This series of devices has a low-loss body diode effect, can maintain inherent robustness under overvoltage and short-circuit conditions, and is as easy to drive as Si-MOSFET or IGBT. In fact, with the use of TO-247 packaging, these devices can be used as drop-in replacement devices for most Si-MOSFET or IGBT parts, giving you an immediate performance improvement. For new designs, UnitedSiC has also launched a low-inductance, thermally enhanced DFN8x8 package, which takes advantage of the high-frequency capabilities of SiC-FETs.
Visionaries are adding user and environmental benefits to the value equation and are increasingly designing with SiC-FETs for system energy savings. There is so much more we can do. If we design our systems around SiC-FETs, we can increase switching frequencies without significantly sacrificing efficiency, and even eliminate components such as discrete rectifier diodes and snubber networks. The size, weight and cost of other associated components such as heat sinks, inductors/transformers and capacitors can also be reduced. In extreme cases, even entire cooling systems that are inherently inefficient can be eliminated, resulting in further cost savings. Especially in electric vehicle traction inverter applications, the efficiency gains are a virtuous cycle. Because SiC-based inverters use lighter components, the battery can last longer between charges, which further extends the vehicle's range.
SiC technology is still evolving and is expected to further improve performance. In the next generation of products, on-resistance will be further reduced as switching losses are reduced, voltage ratings will be increased, wafer size will be further reduced, and production will be improved, resulting in cost reductions. There will also be more variants and a wider range of packaging options for applications with higher voltages and power levels.
Oscar Wilde also said, “Success is a science; if you have the right conditions, you get the right results.” The conditions are perfect for SiC today, and they will only get better. When calculating value, the cost of not innovating with UnitedSiC products may surprise you.
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