Silicon Carbide一The Most Important Semiconductor Material in the 5G Era
Most 5G products have high power, high voltage, and high temperature, but for traditional silicon (Si) materials, they often generate losses in high voltage and high-frequency operations, which can no longer meet the technological needs of the 5G era. Silicon carbide (SiC) starts to emerge.
Compared to Si, SiC electronic components mainly have three advantages: reducing energy loss in power conversion, easier miniaturization, and high temperature and pressure resistance.
According to the report from Yole Développement, the size of the SiC power semiconductor market will grow to $ 2 billion by 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 30% from 2018 to 2024. Among them, the automotive market is undoubtedly the most important driving factor, and its proportion in the SiC power semiconductor market is expected to reach 50% by 2024.
As SiC can provide higher current density, it is often used to make power semiconductor components. Yole indicates that the largest application market for SiC is the automobile market. Compared with traditional solutions, using SiC can make the system more efficient and lighter, with a more compact structure.
At present, the applications of SiC components in new energy vehicles are mainly power control units (PCUs), inverters, and vehicle chargers.
- Power Control Unit: It is the “central nervous system” of the vehicle-electrical system, which manages the flow direction and transmission speed of the electric energy between the battery and the motor. Traditional PCUs are made of silicon, and there will be large power losses when strong currents and high voltages pass through silicon transistors and diodes of hybrid electric vehicles. The power loss in this process can be greatly reduced by about 10% with the use of SiC.
- Inverter: The use of SiC in automobile inverters can greatly reduce the size and weight of the inverter, achieving energy saving. At the same power level, the package size of the full SiC module is significantly smaller than that of the Si module, which can reduce the switching loss by 75%. Tesla Model 3 is a SiC inverter produced by ST and Infineon. Tesla is the first company to integrate full SiC power modules in the main inverter.
- Car chargers: SiC components are accelerating their penetration into the field of car chargers. Based on the statistics from Yole, by 2018, more than 20 auto factories have adopted SiC SBD or SiC MOSFET components in their car chargers, and this market is expected to maintain a growth of 44% by 2023.
SiC Industry Chain
The United States, Europe and Japan have the strongest SiC industry in the world, among which the SiC industry in the US accounting for about 70% to 80% of the global SiC output value. The main companies are Cree, Transphorm, II-VI, Dow Corning.
In Europe, there is a complete SiC industry chain, including substrate, epitaxy, components and applications. The main SiC companies in Europe are Siltronic, ST, IQE, Infineon, etc.
Japan is the leader in the development of SiC equipment and modules. The main Japanese companies are Panasonic, ROHM Semiconductor, Sumitomo Electric, Mitsubishi Chemical, Renesas, Fuji Electric, etc.
The development of SiC industry in China is still in its infancy and the scale is far less than that of the three countries and regions mentioned above. The SiC industry in China currently has layouts in substrates, epitaxy and components. The main companies are: CLP, Tianke Heda, Tyco Tianrun, Shandong Tianyue, Dongguan Tianyu, Shenzhen Basic Semiconductor, Shanghai Junxin Electronics, Sanan Integration, etc.