The optimism of manufacturers of wide-bandgap materials, such as GaN and SiC, was on full display at the latest Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) in Long Beach, CA, and was almost a foregone conclusion at last week’s PCIM show in Nuremberg, Germany. Michael Markides, Director, Power and Utilities, at IHS Technology, notes that while these new materials offer the promise of better performance than silicon, numerous issues have held back their adoption. As you would expect, the biggest resistance to its uptake is price, even though most companies say that the system cost will be less than that of silicon. Markides says that to date, only in a few niche applications and only with a few products does the increase in performance justify the higher price. For example, SiC has made inroads into the market for Schottky diodes because the increased cost is justified by better performance of forward voltage, higher operating temperature, decreased leakage current, and lower reverse recovery charge (Qrr). Many manufacturers of SiC devices are targeting inverters and rail car power. Markides observes that the second main reason for poor adoption of wide-bandgap materials is the difficulty in supplying the material, manufacturing, packing, and engineering, which has been a major reason GaN has not yet made major inroads in the market.
Major improvements in design and engineering to increase the reliability and performance of GaN transistors will help the technology in its adoption. GaN also has greater cost-reduction potential, because GaN power devices can be grown on silicon substrates that are larger and less expensive than SiC.
IHS expects that GaN will be a good fit for data centers offering better power density and power management. Other applications that will be good fits are medical applications, including imaging tools and MRIs. Get more information: Power Semiconductors Intelligence Service.
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