SiC—Silicon Carbide Webinar Series

SiC—Silicon Carbide Webinar #4: Understanding SiC chip cost, the impact of defects, and the case of price parity with Si at the system level

Silicon devices are dominating power electronics due to their excellent starting material quality, streamlined fabrication, low-cost volume production, proven reliability and ruggedness, and design/circuit legacy. Although Si power devices continue to make progress, they are approaching their operational limits primarily due to their relatively low bandgap and critical electric field that result in high conduction and switching losses, and poor high temperature performance.

SiC power chips are gaining significant market share and are projected to capture over 30% of the power chip market by 2029. Their cost, however, remains above that of similarly rated silicon chips and increases disproportionately with area. In this presentation, various elements of SiC chip cost will be qualitatively analyzed including contributions of substrate, epitaxy, and chip manufacturing. Material defects will be discussed in terms of their impact on chip area scalability and yields, and wafer test maps will be presented to elucidate their correlation. Finally, the case of system-level price parity between Si and SiC will be made, achieved primarily through reduced mass and volume of magnetic components, and simplified thermal management.

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Biography