Transistor Silikon Karbida

Silicon carbide is revolutionizing power electronics. It is slowly replacing traditional silicon transistors while offering significant performance enhancements.

Due to the physical and electronic properties of material, engineers may find themselves reluctant to adopt this technology. Unfortunately, misconceptions may hold them back from adopting it fully.

Silicon carbide occurs naturally as moissanite gems and synthetically produced. Both forms can be altered to behave like semiconductors by doping with elements such as aluminium, boron, gallium and nitrogen.

1. High breakdown voltage

Silicon carbide (SiC) is an electronic material found naturally in very minute quantities within meteorite, corundum deposits and kimberlite rocks, while most electronic device SiC comes from synthetic sources. SiC provides an economical alternative to traditional silicon semiconductors when dealing with demanding current/voltage requirements in demanding applications such as these.

SiC transistors have earned themselves a place among power electronics experts due to their impressively high breakdown voltage. Thanks to its 10 times greater critical electric field than silicon, SiC allows devices to function with significantly reduced drift layer resistance per area, giving rise to impressively high withstand voltages and extremely low on-resistance ratings.

Hard-switching topologies such as totem pole power factor correction and synchronous boost are possible with IGBTs, while their higher turn-on resistances lead to significant heat generation and switching losses with IGBTs and bipolar transistors, leading to considerable heat generation and switching losses.

SiC’s wide bandgap allows for smaller gate oxide layers, leading to lower parasitic elements and thus lower on-resistance and enhanced performance – an advantage especially beneficial in high-speed switching applications where high frequencies must be supported without creating excessive heat.

SiC is well known for its superior performance at high speeds, but its thermal conductivity is even better, more than three times greater than silicon’s. This allows devices made of SiC to dissipate large amounts of excess power even at higher temperatures without damage to internal structures – something silicon devices cannot do effectively, leading to higher power densities and reduced losses.

2. High thermal conductivity

Silicon carbide, commonly referred to as moissanite in nature, is a composition of silicon and carbon found naturally as an bluish-black mineral with semiconductor properties. Because electronic devices such as transistors generate heat during their operation, materials capable of dissipating it quickly are essential components.

Silicon carbide’s thermal conductivity plays an integral part in dissipating heat produced. A higher thermal conductivity allows semiconductor devices to cool faster once off.

Silicon carbide’s superior thermal conductivity can be explained by its much higher lattice defect density compared to other semiconductors like gallium nitride. This allows more heat to escape the surface of a chip and then be easily cooled off using water or air cooling methods.

Silicon carbide’s dense structure and reduced lattice strain make it superior to other semiconductor materials such as silicon in terms of performance-reducing dislocation formation.

Researchers studying silicon carbide have explored various factors that affect its thermal conductivity to better understand why this material has such high thermal conductivity, such as lattice oxygen/nitrogen content, porosity, grain size, phase transformation and additive composition. By evaluating these elements individually and discovering connections among them that explain why specific aspects of it exhibit high thermal conductivity – knowledge which can then be applied towards further improving it.

3. High switching speed

Silicon carbide, more commonly referred to by its chemical name SiC, is a chemical compound composed of silicon and carbon that can be mass produced. Naturally found as moissanite mineral and having semiconductor properties it has found use as an abrasive, ceramic material and raw material in metal production industries.

Silicon carbide transistors offer greater blocking voltage capabilities and lower specific on-resistance than traditional silicon IGBTs, enabling higher switching speeds than their silicon counterparts and thus offering engineers more system optimization opportunities to create smaller, lighter designs with better power conversion efficiency – including those used as traction inverters for electric vehicles.

However, while wide bandgap power semiconductors such as SiC may provide many advantages, these devices do have drawbacks. One key issue with using such semiconductors is their inability to tolerate high temperatures – this leads to issues like increased leakage current in off state applications and decreased reliability.

Engineers have taken to using cutting-edge technologies that operate at higher switching frequencies, offering advantages like lower conduction losses, faster switching and increased efficiencies – which allow power systems to operate more efficiently, reduce passive component sizes for energy storage systems and support an array of end use applications such as electric vehicle (EV) traction inverters, circuit protection and renewables.

Wide bandgap technologies like SiC have the potential to replace traditional silicon in certain applications, though their increased switching frequency presents some unique challenges that must be met through advanced manufacturing methods and precision test tools. In this blog post, we will look at key considerations when choosing high-speed power semiconductors as well as some best practices for using them effectively in designs.

4. Low on-resistance

Silicon is widely used in electronics, but when applied to high-power applications it begins to show its limitations. Silicon carbide, in comparison, offers much wider bandgap and operates at higher temperatures – providing more power and speed as well as reduced drive requirements and improving circuit design.

This is particularly relevant to high-frequency applications like soft-switching LLC or TPPFC (transition phase power factor correction). Minority carrier devices are often employed to reduce IGBTs’ turn-on resistance at these frequencies; however, their significant switching loss and heat production limit their use at higher frequencies. Conversely, majority carrier devices (Schottky barrier diodes and MOSFETs) within SiC semiconductors enable higher voltage ratings with reduced turn-on resistances.

SiC semiconductors feature high breakdown strength, which allows thinner drift layers and consequently reduced on-resistance compared to their metal counterparts, providing ideal conditions for rapid switching speeds. When coupled with their shorter gate lengths, this makes SiC MOSFETs suitable for fast switching speeds.

Pure silicon carbide is an electrical insulator by nature; however, by adding impurities (dopants), or doping agents to it it can be transformed into an electronic semiconductor. Nitrogen and phosphorus doping results in an n-type semiconductor while doping with beryllium, boron, aluminium or gallium can create a p-type semiconductor.

SiC MOSFETs have caused a dramatic shift in power electronics. Boasting higher blocking voltage, faster switching times and lower on-resistance than their silicon counterparts, SiC MOSFETs are leading the way to future generations of power electronic devices.

5. Low power dissipation

Silicon-based power components like insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and silicon superjunctions have long been reliable power sources, but when exposed to higher temperatures or switching frequencies they begin to show their limitations. Wide bandgap semiconductors like silicon carbide MOSFETs offer breakthrough performance solutions that may overcome these limitations.

Silicon Carbide (SiC) has long been used as an abrasive on grinding wheels and ceramics, but recently, SiC is also seeing widespread adoption to replace traditional silicon-based power devices in high-power electronics applications. This remarkable shift is being driven by SiC’s exceptional physical and electronic properties; an alloy made up of silicon and carbon.

As is common with compound semiconductors, SiC exhibits polytypism with different crystal structures formed depending on how its chemical composition varies in one dimension. 4H-SiC polytype is widely preferred for power applications due to its close-packed hexagonal atomic structure that facilitates fast switching times and high blocking voltage capabilities.

Silicon and SiC devices differ in performance largely because of their bandgap width, the amount of energy necessary to switch from an insulating state into conducting state. A wider bandgap allows more electrical energy to be transferred more rapidly and efficiently – an advantage particularly useful in high-power applications like electric vehicle traction inverters.

SiC’s lower thermal resistance than traditional silicon devices is another key advantage, enabling smaller inductive and capacitive components and thus lowering total system losses (including conduction losses and switching power losses ). In a half-bridge inverter this may result in greater efficiency as well as lower system cost.