Silicon Carbide Market and Application

Silicon Carbide Market and Application – Coating Semiconductor Wafers – Cheersonic

After epitaxial growth, silicon carbide wafers are mainly used to manufacture discrete devices such as power devices and radio frequency devices. Semiconductor devices made of silicon carbide wafers have the advantages of high power, high voltage resistance, high temperature resistance, high frequency, low energy consumption, strong radiation resistance, etc., and can be widely used in new energy vehicles, 5G communications, photovoltaic power generation, rail transit , smart grid, aerospace and other modern industrial fields, play an important role in various fields.

1. Power devices

Power devices are one of the important basic components in the power electronics industry, and are widely used in the fields of power conversion and circuit control of power equipment. As the core of electrical equipment and systems, power devices are used to process, convert and control electrical energy, manage more than 50% of the world’s electrical energy resources, and are widely used in smart grids, new energy vehicles, rail transit, renewable energy Energy development, industrial motors, data centers, household appliances, mobile electronic equipment and other aspects of national economy and national life are indispensable core semiconductor products in the industrial system.

Most of the existing power devices are based on silicon semiconductor materials. Due to the limitation of the physical properties of silicon materials, the energy efficiency and performance of the devices are gradually approaching the limit, and it is difficult to meet the rapidly growing and changing new demands of electrical energy applications. Silicon carbide power devices can effectively meet the high efficiency, miniaturization and light weight requirements of power electronic systems with their excellent high voltage resistance, high temperature resistance, low loss and other properties. The field has obvious advantages. After nearly 30 years of research and development, the manufacturing technology of silicon carbide substrates and power devices has gradually matured in recent years, and has been rapidly promoted and applied, which is setting off a huge change in the field of energy conservation, emission reduction and new energy.

① New energy vehicles. The new energy vehicle industry is an emerging market with huge market space, and the popularization trend of new energy vehicles around the world is gradually becoming clear. According to the existing technical scheme, the power devices used in each new energy vehicle are worth about US$700 to US$1,000. With the development of new energy vehicles, the demand for power devices is increasing, which has become a new growth point of power semiconductor devices.

The components involved in power semiconductor applications in the new energy vehicle system architecture include: motor drive system, on-board charging system (OBC), power conversion system (on-board DC/DC) and off-board charging piles. Silicon carbide power devices are used in main inverters in motor drive systems, which can significantly reduce the volume, weight and cost of power electronic systems and improve power density.

② Photovoltaic power generation. In photovoltaic power generation applications, the cost of traditional inverters based on silicon-based devices accounts for about 10% of the system, but it is one of the main sources of system energy loss. For photovoltaic inverters using SiC MOSFETs or power modules that combine SiC MOSFETs and SiC SBDs, the conversion efficiency can be increased from 96% to more than 99%, the energy loss can be reduced by more than 50%, and the equipment cycle life can be increased by 50 times. Reduce system size, increase power density, extend device life, and reduce production costs. High efficiency, high power density, high reliability and low cost are the future development trends of photovoltaic inverters. In string and centralized photovoltaic inverters, silicon carbide products are expected to gradually replace silicon-based devices.

③ Rail transit. Rail transit vehicles show diversified development, and can be divided into trunk line locomotives, urban rail vehicles, and high-speed trains in terms of operation status. Urban rail vehicles and high-speed trains are the main driving forces for the future development of rail transit. Power semiconductor devices are widely used in rail transit vehicles, and their traction converters, auxiliary converters, main and auxiliary converters, power electronic transformers, and power chargers all need to use silicon carbide devices.

Among them, the traction converter is the core equipment of the high-power AC drive system of the locomotive. The silicon carbide device is applied to the rail transit traction converter, which can give full play to the high temperature, high frequency and low loss characteristics of the silicon carbide device, and improve the traction converter. It meets the application requirements of large-capacity, light-weight and energy-saving traction converters in rail transit, and improves the overall efficiency of the system.

④ Smart grid. Compared with other power electronic devices, power systems require higher voltage, larger power capacity and higher reliability. Silicon carbide devices break through the limitations of silicon-based power semiconductor devices in terms of large voltage, high power and high temperature. It has the unique advantages of high frequency, high reliability, high efficiency, low loss, etc., and promotes the development of smart grids in applications such as solid-state transformers, flexible AC transmission, flexible DC transmission, HVDC transmission and distribution systems. development and change.

In addition, silicon carbide power devices have also achieved mature applications in wind power, industrial power, aerospace and other fields.

With the rapid development of industries such as new energy vehicles, photovoltaic power generation, rail transit, and smart grids, the demand for power devices has increased significantly. In the future, with the accelerated development of silicon carbide and gallium nitride power devices, global power device sales are expected to continue to grow.

2. Radio frequency devices

Microwave radio frequency devices are the basic components for signal transmission and reception, and are the core of wireless communication, mainly including radio frequency switches, LNAs, power amplifiers, filters and other devices. Key parameters such as wireless communication distance and signal quality of the base station.

The high frequency, high speed and high power characteristics of 5G communication have higher requirements on the high frequency, high speed and power performance of the power amplifier. The gallium nitride radio frequency device based on silicon carbide has both the high thermal conductivity of silicon carbide and the advantages of high power radio frequency output of gallium nitride in high frequency bands, breaking through the inherent defects of gallium arsenide and silicon-based LDMOS devices. To meet the requirements of 5G communication for high-frequency performance and high-power processing capability, GaN-on-SiC RF devices have gradually become the mainstream technical route of 5G power amplifiers, especially macro base station power amplifiers.

With the development and promotion of global 5G communication technology, the construction of 5G base stations will bring new growth impetus to radio frequency devices, and the demand for semi-insulating silicon carbide wafers will also increase significantly.

The ultrasonic coating system can use advanced layering technology to precisely control the flow rate, coating speed and deposition amount. Low-speed spray forming defines an atomizing spray as a precise, controllable pattern, avoiding excessive spraying when producing very thin and uniform layers. It turns out that direct spraying using ultrasonic technology is a reliable and effective way to deposit photoresist on 3D microstructures, thereby reducing equipment failures caused by excessive metal exposure to etchant.

Ultrasonic spray systems have proven to be suitable for a variety of applications that require uniform, repeatable photoresist or polyimide film coatings. Cheersonic’s coating system can control thicknesses from sub-micron to more than 100 microns, and can coat any shape or size. It is a feasible alternative to other coating technologies such as spin coating and traditional spray coating.

Cheersonic’s non-blocking ultrasonic coating technology is known for its ultra-thin micron-layer coatings of functional and protective materials. The ultrasonic vibration of the nozzle effectively dispersed the particles in the suspension and produced a very uniform particle dispersion in the film layer, while the conductive particles did not settle out of the suspension.