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At this yr’s APEC in Lengthy Seaside, California, Wolfspeed CEO Gregg Lowe’s speech was a serious spotlight of the convention program. Lowe, the chief of the one vertically built-in silicon carbide (SiC) firm and cheerleader of this energy electronics know-how, didn’t disappoint.
In his plenary presentation, “The Drive for Silicon Carbide – A Look Again and the Street Forward – APEC 2024,” he known as SiC a market hitting the foremost inflection level. “It’s a narrative of 4 many years of American ingenuity at work, and it’s secure to say that the transition from silicon to SiC is unstoppable.”
Determine 1 Lowe: The way forward for this superb know-how is simply starting to daybreak on the world at giant, and inside the subsequent decade or so, we are going to go searching and surprise how we lived, traveled, and labored with out it. Supply: APEC
Lowe informed the APEC 2024 attendees that the demand for SiC is exploding, and so is the variety of purposes utilizing this broad bandgap (WBG) know-how. “Know-how transitions like this create moments and recollections that final a lifetime, and that’s the place we’re with SiC proper now.”
Apparently, simply earlier than Lowe’s presentation, Balu Balakrishnan, chairman and CEO of Energy Integrations, raised questions concerning the viability of SiC know-how throughout his presentation titled “Innovating for Sustainability and Profitability”.
Balakrishnan’s counterviews
Whereas telling the Energy Integrations’ gallium nitride (GaN) story, Balakrishnan narrated how his firm began closely investing in SiC 15 years in the past and spent $65 million to develop this WBG know-how. “Sooner or later, sitting in my workplace, whereas doing the maths, I spotted this isn’t going to work for us due to the quantity of vitality it takes to fabricate SiC and that the price of SiC is a lot greater than silicon,” he mentioned.
“This know-how won’t ever be as cost-effective as silicon regardless of its higher efficiency as a result of it’s such a high-temperature materials, which takes a humongous quantity of vitality,” Balakrishnan added. “It requires costly tools since you manufacture SiC at very excessive temperatures.”
The subsequent day, Energy Integrations cancelled its SiC program and wrote off $65 million. “We determined to discontinue not due to know-how, however as a result of we consider it’s not sustainable and it’s not going to be cost-effective.” he mentioned. “That day, we converted to GaN and doubled down on it as a result of it’s low-temperature, operates at temperatures much like silicon, and largely makes use of similar tools as silicon.”
Determine 2 Balakrishnan: GaN will ultimately be cheaper than silicon for high-voltage switches. Supply: APEC
So, why does Energy Integrations nonetheless have SiC product choices? Balakrishnan acknowledged that SiC can go to greater voltages and energy ranges and is a extra mature know-how than GaN as a result of it began earlier.
“There are specific purposes the place SiC may be very enticing at the moment, however I’ll dare to say that GaN will get there generally sooner or later,” he added. “Basically, there isn’t something flawed with taking GaN to greater voltages and energy ranges.” He talked about a 1,200 GaN gadget Energy Integrations just lately introduced and claimed that his firm plans to announce one other GaN gadget with even a better voltage very quickly.
Balakrishnan acknowledged that there are issues to be solved. “However these challenges require R&D efforts slightly than a know-how breakthrough,” he mentioned. “We consider that GaN will get to the purpose the place it’ll be very aggressive with SiC whereas being far cheaper to construct.”
Lowe’s protection
In his speech, Lowe additionally acknowledged the SiC-related price and manufacturability points, calling them near-term turbulence. Nevertheless, he was optimistic that undersupply vs demand points encompassing crystal boules, substrate functionality, wafering, and epi shall be resolved by the tip of this decade.
“We’ll proceed to grasp higher financial worth with SiC by shifting from 150-mm to 200-mm wafers, which will increase the realm by 1.7x and reduces the associated fee by about 40%,” he mentioned. His hopes for resolving price and manufacturability points additionally appeared to lie in an enormous funding in SiC know-how and the automotive trade as a serious catalyst.
For a actuality test on these counterviews concerning the viability of SiC, an organization coping with each SiC and GaN companies may supply a balanced perspective. Therefore, Navitas’ sales space at APEC 2024, the place the corporate’s VP of company advertising, Stephen Oliver, defined the evolution of SiC wafer prices.
He mentioned a 6-inch SiC wafer from Cree price practically $3,000 in 2018. Quick ahead to 2024, a 7-inch wafer from Wolfspeed (renamed from Cree) prices about $850. Shifting ahead, Oliver envisions that the associated fee may come right down to $400 by 2028 whereas being constructed on 12-inch to 15-inch SiC wafers.
Navitas, a pioneer within the GaN area, acquired startup GeneSiC in 2022 to cater to each WBG applied sciences. On the present, along with Gen-4 GaNSense Half-Bridge ICs and GaNSafe, which includes circuit safety performance, Navitas additionally displayed Gen-3 Quick SiC energy FETs.
Within the closing evaluation, Oliver’s viewpoint about SiC tilted towards Lowe’s pragmatism in SiC’s shift from 150-mm to 200-mm wafers. The current know-how historical past is a testomony to how economic system of scale has been in a position to handle price and manufacturability points, and that’s what the SiC camp is relying on.
An enormous funding in SiC gadget innovation and the backing of the automotive trade must also be useful alongside the way in which.
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