SiC Power Devices: Lowering Costs to Drive Adoption

The silicon carbide (SiC) industry is growing fast, delivering highly efficient and compact power electronics solutions to a number of 21st?Century applications. The?electric vehicle ?(EV) market is one key application, with first Tesla and now others having adopted SiC in their drivetrain inverter. The range of SiC devices being marketed, from 600 to 1,700 V, is becoming well-recognized and offers a fast switching,?wide-bandgap ?alternative to traditional silicon (Si) power devices.

While the technical advantages, including switching speed and high-temperature capability, are now well known, cost still remains a point of contention. PGC Consultancy has analyzed the SiC die costs, and in this and future articles, they will explain what is behind this high cost and what can be done to bring the price down. They also offer a long-term view as to what the costs maybe by the end of the decade, when EV sales will likely dominate the automotive sector.

According to PGC Consultancy, 100-A discrete SiC MOSFETs (both 650 V and 1,200 V) retailed at almost exactly 3× the price of the equivalent Si IGBTs during September 2021. This is despite the SiC device taking up 3× to 4× less area on a machined wafer.

There are several reasons for this cost: The main contributor is the SiC substrate, and it is quite safe to predict that this will remain the case for some time.

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