Use of SiC-based MOSEFET in EVs to pick up momentum
digitimes.com
Nuying Huang, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES Thursday 26 November 2020 0 Toggle Dropdown
Tesla's adoption of SiC-based MOSFETs for Model 3 is expected to cause other electric vehicle (EV) vendors to follow suit, but their use will not be popular until year-end 2021 or 2022 because certification will take a long time and availability of SiC is likely to be quite limited, according to industry sources.
Model 3 has demonstrated the feasibility of SiC-based MOSFETs in place of prevailing Si-based IGBTs, the sources said. Use of SiC-based MOSFETs leads to higher efficiency and lower cost for systems inside EVs, the sources noted, adding that many power device makers are ready to produce SiC-based MOSFETs.
However, car-use components' certification usually takes 2-3 years or even five years, the sources indicated. Growth of SiC crystal is technologically quite unstable at present, and SiC material will be in shortage if adoption of SiC-based MOSFETs increases substantially, the sources said.
Currently, Cree supplies about 70% of SiC materials globally, said the sources. Chinese EV vendor BYD has adopted SiC-based MOSFETs for its EV model Han and has spun off its semiconductor business unit mainly for development of SiC-based MOSFETs, the sources noted.
According to Digitimes Research, SiC-based power devices took up only 1% of all car-use power devices in 2018, and the proportion will rise to 3% in 2020 and 25% in 2025. |
