SiC semiconductor technology for fuel-efficient and compact new energy vehicles

To be honest, many new energy vehicles now have reached a technological bottleneck, and how to further improve the economy of the vehicles has become a headache for engineers. However, the technology released by some Japanese companies not long ago seems to have given us new hope, that is, SiC (silicon carbide) semiconductors and their components used in new energy vehicles.

What is silicon carbide? What are the advantages of this material?

The semiconductor materials we commonly use, especially the processors, memory chips and other chips in various electronic products, are usually made based on silicon crystals (single crystal silicon or polycrystalline silicon). In fact, there is another type of semiconductor that is made based on compound crystals, and SiC (silicon carbide) semiconductors are one of them.

Due to the difference in material properties compared to silicon-based semiconductors, SiC (silicon carbide) semiconductors have better high-frequency, high-power, and high-radiation performance than silicon-based semiconductors, which makes the former now more used in high-tech fields such as aerospace. With the popularization of this material technology, electric locomotives, hybrid vehicles and other transportation vehicles that use high-power semiconductor components have also begun to use it.

Application 1: Hybrid components jointly developed by Toyota and Denso - Power Control Unit (PCU)

Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratory (CRDL) and well-known parts manufacturer Denso have been cooperating to develop silicon carbide semiconductor materials since the 1980s, and in mid-May they officially released parts based on silicon carbide semiconductor materials for use in power control units (PCUs) of new energy vehicles. Since the power control unit is responsible for converting energy (including the inverter we are more familiar with), there will be considerable energy loss - PCU usually loses 25%, or one-quarter of its energy, during conversion, of which 80% comes from semiconductor components .

The new SiC (silicon carbide) semiconductor devices have greatly reduced the energy loss caused by semiconductor devices. It is expected that after the new technology matures and is applied, the total energy loss can be reduced by 10%. That is to say, for hybrid vehicles, 10% of fuel can be saved , which is still a considerable improvement under the existing technological framework.

Application 2: Inverter based on SiC semiconductors integrated with electric motors

The developer of this technology is familiar to us. It comes from Mitsubishi Electric, a Japanese electrical appliance manufacturing giant. Since silicon carbide semiconductor components are more compact, the inverter developed with it is also smaller in size, so it can be well integrated with the motor. In addition to the smaller inverter size, it also simplifies the connection circuit between the inverter and the motor, and the heat dissipation design of the system is also simpler, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Summary : In fact, the development of new energy vehicles is greatly restricted by basic technologies. The application of silicon carbide semiconductor components can already improve the performance of vehicles - although there is still a distance to equip mass-produced models. If breakthroughs can be achieved in batteries and other aspects, it will be a revolutionary progress, and the popularization of electric vehicles will not be just a slogan. We will also pay attention to the latest progress of these basic automotive technologies and bring you the latest automotive technology information.