The biggest threat of IGBT silicon carbide

Power devices are often the finishing process, and the biggest threat to IGBT heat sinks has dominated the high-voltage power applications market. In recent years, a new process of silicon carbide (SiC) has emerged. The dielectric breakdown strength of silicon carbide is more than 9 times that of conventional silicon devices. Therefore, the power devices produced using the silicon carbide process have lower on-resistance and smaller chip size. . Explosion-proof heat pipe heat sinks, in addition to ordinary silicon power devices, silicon carbide devices operate at higher frequencies and can withstand higher ambient temperatures. Therefore, in the high-voltage power market, silicon carbide devices are simply a perfect replacement for IGBTs, but why have IGBTs still dominated the application so far?

The answer is cost. According to the original component of the ROHM Semiconductor (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., the original specification of the products, the price of silicon carbide devices is 5 to 6 times that of the original silicon devices. Such a high price naturally hinders the application of silicon carbide power devices, and users will consider using silicon carbide products only when the performance and reliability requirements are extremely severe. In 2014, the global silicon power device market was about $10 billion, but the silicon carbide power device market was only $120 million.

So why is the cost of silicon carbide power devices so high? The main reason is related to the properties of silicon carbide. Suwon Dejian said that because silicon carbide materials are much harder than traditional silicon materials, they are prone to defects when crystals are formed. In addition, too hard will cause the rate of crystal formation to be slow, and the size of the wafers will not be large. It can only be 6 inches now. The low pass rate and slow production rate are no wonder that the price of silicon carbide is so high.

Although the silicon carbide (SiC) process has many advantages, the high cost is still the biggest obstacle to its promotion.

Now the biggest problem facing the development of silicon carbide technology is how to solve the high cost caused by the excellent material. However, Suwon Dejian is full of confidence in whether he can finally solve the material problem. He said that although there is no specific technical means to reduce costs immediately, it is always possible to gradually reduce costs as long as it is to be explored. For example, he said that silicon materials can only be 3 inches and 4 inches in the 1970s. With the continuous development of technology, the defects are getting less and less, and the size is getting bigger and bigger. In the future, the cost of silicon carbide will definitely fall.

The price of silicon carbide is now about half lower than it was five years ago, but Suwon Dejian believes that in terms of current production technology, the price of silicon carbide devices will be reduced by half more than five years, of course, if there is a brand new Technology appears, maybe the price will drop faster.