Tesla's Model 3 introduced the use of silicon carbide MOSFETs produced by STMicroelectronics, marking the beginning of silicon carbide's journey into automotive applications. The silicon carbide MOSFET module has increased Tesla's inverter efficiency from 82% in Model S to 90% in Model 3.
BYD's flagship model, the Han, is equipped with high-performance silicon carbide MOSFET motor control modules, enabling it to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.9 seconds. BYD expects to fully replace IGBT semiconductors with silicon carbide semiconductors by 2023, with an estimated 10% increase in vehicle range performance over the current level.
With the continuous advancement of the green and low-carbon strategy, enhancing energy utilization efficiency and energy conversion efficiency has become a consensus across various industries. Wide bandgap semiconductors, represented by silicon carbide and gallium nitride (third-generation semiconductors), have become the new focus of the market. "Wide bandgap semiconductors offer superior performance such as high frequency, efficiency, power, high voltage tolerance, high temperature tolerance, and strong radiation resistance. Their efficiency advantage brings energy-saving advantages, which is a key contribution to carbon neutrality," Ren Min, General Manager of the Board of Directors of Suzhou Energy Communication High Energy Semiconductor Co., Ltd., told China Electronics News.
Wide bandgap semiconductors will significantly reduce energy loss. "Based on their advantages of small dynamic parameters, high efficiency, low loss, and low heat generation, wide bandgap semiconductors have made a positive contribution to energy conservation and emission reduction, and will play an important role in advancing carbon neutrality," Yuan Guoming, Marketing Manager of the Power Solutions Division at ON Semiconductor, told China Electronics News.
Specifically, wide bandgap semiconductors meet the energy-saving needs in power electronics, optoelectronics, and microwave/RF applications. In power electronics, silicon carbide power devices can reduce energy loss by more than 50% compared to silicon devices, reduce equipment by more than 75%, and effectively improve energy conversion efficiency. In optoelectronics, gallium nitride has high photoelectric conversion efficiency and good heat dissipation capabilities, making it suitable for manufacturing low-energy, high-power lighting devices. In the RF field, gallium nitride RF devices have advantages such as high efficiency, high power density, and wide bandwidth, leading to more efficient, energy-saving, and smaller equipment.
The low power consumption and high energy efficiency of wide bandgap semiconductors have attracted domestic and foreign technology providers and downstream application companies to deploy in this field. On the supply side, international companies such as Cree, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, ON Semiconductor, and ROHM, as well as domestic companies like BYD, Sanan Optoelectronics, CRRC, TECTRONIC, Basic Semiconductor, and Suzhou Energy Communication, are supplying diodes, transistors, and power modules based on silicon carbide and gallium nitride and applying them in various power systems such as control, drive, and battery.
On the product side, wide bandgap semiconductors are becoming more and more accessible to consumers. In 2018, Tesla began using silicon carbide MOSFETs produced by STMicroelectronics in its Model 3, marking the start of silicon carbide's integration into electric vehicles. The silicon carbide MOSFET module has increased Tesla's inverter efficiency from 82% in Model S to 90% in Model 3, reducing both conduction and switching losses, and improving range performance.
In February 2020, Xiaomi released a 65W gallium nitride charger product that can charge devices with Type-C interfaces. The charger sold out immediately upon launch, with reservations exceeding 100,000, sparking the popularization of gallium nitride in the consumer market.
Wide bandgap semiconductors are beginning to see large-scale application. The carbon neutrality goal has triggered changes in the power system and industrial structure, promoting the development of new industries such as new energy vehicles and setting higher energy efficiency targets for high-energy-consuming scenarios like data centers, as well as driving the intelligent transformation of traditional fields like rail transit. These new trends will open up substantial incremental markets for wide bandgap semiconductors.
"Carbon neutrality involves the entire electricity generation, transmission, and consumption chain, and wide bandgap semiconductors have development opportunities in key areas such as electric vehicles, charging