In the past two years, silicon carbide is becoming a rising star in the automotive field, which has aroused the attention and deployment of car companies and technology providers. Relevant information shows that in 2016, Tesla took the lead in adopting 24 silicon carbide MOSFET modules from STMicroelectronics on Model 3. Subsequently, foreign car companies such as Toyota and Volkswagen, and domestic companies such as BYD and NIO announced that they would adopt silicon carbide solutions.

In such a short period of time, what has caused silicon carbide to be sought after? What kind of development pattern does silicon carbide present in the automotive field?

New energy vehicles become the main driving force

Nowadays, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, the use of more silicon (Si)-based materials has basically approached its physical limits, such as operating temperature, voltage blocking capability, forward conduction voltage drop, device switching speed, etc. The high frequency and high power fields show their limitations. For this reason, new materials are needed to replace them.

As a typical representative of the third-generation semiconductor materials, silicon carbide (SiC) has a wide band gap, high breakdown electric field, high thermal conductivity, high electron saturation rate and higher radiation resistance. It is high temperature, Ideal semiconductor material for high frequency and high power applications. In addition, because SiC power devices can significantly reduce the energy consumption of electronic equipment, it can make the system of new energy vehicles more efficient, lighter and more compact, which can help save costs and increase mileage.

In electrified vehicles, SiC power semiconductors are mainly used for inverters that drive and control motors, on-board DC/DC converters, and on-board chargers (OBC). “At present, the main drive inverter in electric vehicles is still dominated by IGBT + silicon FRD. However, considering that electric vehicles will require longer driving range, shorter charging time and higher battery capacity in the future, in automotive semiconductors , Silicon carbide will definitely be the future trend.” An industry analyst said.

The use of SiC devices in on-board chargers and charging piles will give full play to the advantages of high frequency, high temperature and high voltage, which can achieve high efficiency, miniaturization and high reliability of the charging system. It is understood that there are currently more than 20 car manufacturers around the world using SiC power devices in on-board charging systems.

The trend of automobile electrification is irreversible. Under this background, the silicon carbide industry will usher in the development trend. Industry giant Cree pointed out that by 2022, SiC’s market space for electric vehicles will rapidly grow to US$2.4 billion, which is 342 times the overall revenue of automotive SiC (US$7 million) in 2017.

Vigorously deploy the automobile industry chain

Based on the promising prospects of silicon carbide in the automotive industry, in recent years, in addition to the continuous increase of semiconductor companies, car companies and Tier1 technology providers have expanded their layout.

■ A large number of semiconductor manufacturers influx

From the perspective of global SiC device development participants, it is currently dominated by American, European, and Japanese manufacturers. Among them, three companies, Infineon of Germany, Roma of Japan, and Cree of the United States, currently occupy approximately 90% of the SiC market, and are in a leading position among the three pillars. ROHM said in an interview with Gasgoo that ROHM’s SiC production capacity is expected to increase by 5 in fiscal year 2024 (as of March 31, 2025) compared with fiscal year 2019 (as of March 31, 2020). Times more. In addition to the above three, foreign semiconductor companies such as STMicroelectronics and ON Semiconductor have also made good progress.

Driven by the huge market demand, a number of outstanding companies have also emerged in the country, such as Yangjie Electronics, Basic Semiconductor, Zhuzhou CRRC Times, Sanan Integration, China Electronics Technology 55, Zhenqi Technology, etc.

■ Car companies move frequently

When semiconductor companies are crazy about it, auto manufacturers can’t stand it anymore, and they have moved frequently in recent years.

It is reported that Toyota Central R&D Laboratory and Denso Corporation began to cooperate in the development of SiC semiconductor materials in 1980, and in 2014 formally released components based on SiC semiconductor devices-Power Control Units (PCU) used in new energy vehicles.

The other two major Japanese car companies Honda, Nissan, and Rohm have conducted years of cooperative research on HEV/EV application of SiC semiconductor technology. Honda and Rohm have jointly developed a high-power power module using SiC semiconductor devices, changing all diodes and transistors of converters and inverters from silicon devices to SiC devices.

Volkswagen Group signed a cooperation agreement with Cree in 2019 to provide SiC silicon carbide-based solutions for future Volkswagen Group cars through the supply of power modules.

Among domestic car companies, BYD Han’s EV models have begun to use the self-developed Sic MOSFET (Silicon Carbide Power Field Effect Transistor). It is expected that by 2023, BYD will achieve a full replacement of silicon-based power semiconductors for SiC-based vehicles in its electric vehicles. In June 2021, Weilai’s first silicon carbide (SiC) electric drive system C prototype was off the assembly line. The SiC electric drive system will be mounted on the ET7 to provide vehicles with a longer cruising range.

■ Tier 1 companies quickly develop strength

In addition to car companies, many Tier 1 companies have begun to make rapid progress in the silicon carbide field in recent years.

Bosch announced the start of silicon carbide-related businesses in 2019. The power silicon carbide semiconductor production base is located in Reutlingen, Germany, which mainly produces silicon carbide wafers and MOSFETs.

ZF and Cree, an American silicon carbide semiconductor company, announced a strategic partnership and plan to bring SiC electric drive systems to the market by 2022.

BorgWarner launched an 800 V silicon carbide inverter during the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show. The inverter has the ability to dissipate heat on both sides, reducing the weight of the inverter by 40%, reducing the overall size by 30%, and increasing by 25%. Power density.

At the same time, Wisdom Technology (formerly Continental Powertrain Group) announced at the beginning of the year that it will mass produce 800-volt silicon carbide inverters for Hyundai Motor Group’s new electric vehicle platform.

Looking at the country, in 2019, Hubble Technology Investment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Huawei, invested and participated in Shandong Tianyue Advanced Materials Technology Co., Ltd., holding 10% of the shares. In December 2020, Hubble Technology also invested in Hantian Tiancheng, a supplier of silicon carbide epitaxial wafers, with a subscribed capital of over 9.77 million yuan.

Obviously, with the explosion of new energy vehicles today, silicon carbide has become the focus of the layout of the domestic and foreign automotive industries. Whether it is cooperative development or independent research and development, silicon carbide has been pushed to the peak of the technology wave.

There is a problem

From the perspective of domestic automotive scenarios, although the current prospects for silicon carbide are promising and are sought after by the market, there are still various problems in the process of commercialization.

From a technical point of view, Wen Xuhui, director of the Research Department of the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that “Although the power density of automotive silicon carbide controllers has been greatly increased and the loss has been significantly reduced, the electromagnetic interference caused by fast switching is also prominent. Therefore, wide-band electromagnetic interference Prediction and high-density electromagnetic interference filtering is one of the focus of future industry research.” In addition, technologies such as chip design, chip screening and testing, module packaging, module thermal management, system integration design and module testing are all in urgent need of research.

At the industrial level, the chain from chip and power module design to application verification at the vehicle level has not yet been completed. Chip companies lack real demand breakdown and feedback at the vehicle level, and vehicle companies lack evaluation information at the chip level. In addition, cost is also a major obstacle to development. Cheng Wentao, Marketing Director of Infineon’s Power Supply and Sensing System Division, pointed out that the loss of silicon carbide material during processing is very high, and only 1/3 of the original is left after processing and polishing. The high production cost and the high technical difficulty have resulted in relatively high prices for silicon carbide devices.

From the market point of view, although domestic semiconductor companies have made progress on the silicon carbide track, there is still a certain gap between them and foreign countries. The shortcomings are mainly reflected in four points: first, the industry started late and it is difficult to catch up; second, the design, development, simulation, and testing technology is not yet mature, and the packaging and other materials are immature; third, the chain from chip design to application Not get through; fourth, the open public R&D service platform and standard support are insufficient.

In addition, from the perspective of global supply and demand, SiC products are currently in short supply. Although China is the world’s largest demand market, its domestic supply capacity is insufficient. Under the stimulus of domestic substitution demand and policy, it is expected that domestic SiC companies can take on the important task of meeting market demand and that leading companies will grow up.

Source: Shanghai KINMACHI New Material Technology organized from the Internet

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