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the time of publication of this book, SiC had already scaled the summit of the initial hype and cleared the valley of disillusion- ment. SiC has effectively overcome all the critical issues over the past couple of years, such as technology stability, and ana- lysts see stable growth driven by numerous applications in the automotive and energy fields, said Friedrichs.
“Two aspects are mainly driving this development: the maturity of the technology and the sustainability of the value proposi- tion,” which justifies the continued higher price levels for wide- bandgap products, Friedrichs said.
SiC-based devices will help achieve a degree of system opti- mization that has never been possible before, said Su. “Often, the decision to change from silicon to SiC depends on the cost differential of these two parts,” he said. “It can be challenging to make a clear business case for [SiC to] all customers. But this is changing quickly, too, as the price of SiC devices is coming down due to commercial competition as well as technical prog- ress and maturity.”
Di Giovanni noted that the role of e-mobility in society has accelerated as EV makers have been able to offer models with SiC-enabled features that just aren’t possible with conven- tional silicon products, triggering a chain reaction for large- scale deployment. “And now, with SiC having been operating for several years in the harsh environments of the automotive market, it has also become more attractive for industrial applica- tions,” said Di Giovanni.
Supply chain
Di Giovanni observed that automotive OEMs adopted SiC- based devices more quickly than expected, creating supply bot- tlenecks for the base material, but those pressures eased as wafer manufacturers invested to expand capacity.
Friedrichs, noting that “market researchers see automotive applications as the main driver for SiC,” identified the remain- ing supply challenges as “stable quality and the implementation of technologies that allow reuse of substrates, for example.” But he added that “with the typical design cycles in the automotive industry, semiconductor manufacturers have enough time at hand to prepare for large volumes accordingly.”
One possible supply challenge is likely to be related to the EV boom, especially to support traction-inverter business require- ments, said Su. “This is by far the largest expected SiC market, and if its growth accelerates, there could be a shortage in terms of high-quality SiC material supply and wafer process capacity for the global SiC industry,” he said. “That is why we recom- mend that large EV OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers establish long- term partnerships with device manufacturers to align demand
SiC has effectively overcome all the critical issues over the past couple of years, and analysts see stable growth driven by numerous applications.
and supply expectations, in order to prevent future difficulties in securing the quantity of power semiconductors they need for EV production.”
Automotive future and beyond
While the automotive sector is clearly the largest revenue growth market opportunity for SiC, focused on traction inverters, on-board chargers, and other power-converter appli- cations, “several industrial applications are also experiencing increasing demand for SiC devices to improve their system efficiency and size/weight,” said Su. “In the U.S., we have defi- nitely seen growth opportunities in areas like PV [photovoltaic] inverters and energy storage systems, UPS systems, power supply units for data servers, and industrial motor drives.”
Friedrichs said that the biggest opportunities for SiC can be found in electromobility and renewables, for power-related tasks ranging from generation to transmission to storage. “The overall growth rates are significant in these segments, and SiC offers the ideal technology to meet the technical requirements,” he said.
Di Giovanni called automotive electrification “the main unstop- pable driving force behind adoption of SiC today.” The strin- gent requirements of the automotive industry have accelerated the availability of highly efficient products, thus encouraging the use of SiC in applications beyond just motor drives.
“Growing demand is also prompting semiconductor manufac- turers to accelerate the introduction of 8-inch wafers,” said Di Giovanni.
Nitin Dahad
is editor-in-chief of Embedded.
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Market Overview SiC Market: Traction, Trends, and Future