Featured in Gaining Traction – 02-2022

Silicon carbide’s second coming

Silicon carbide (SiC) has promised inverter makers higher power density, higher efficiency, and a total bill of materials that comes in closer to its more established rival in silicon. Has SiC finally arrived? Tristan Rayner spoke to the people at the forefront of the wider-bandgap material to find out the back story and what’s next.

By

Tristan Rayner

11 Feb 2022

Silicon carbide producers are migrating from 150 mm to 200 mm wafers. Production costs remain a challenge for SiC, but there is plenty of potential for reductions. | Image: Bosch

The next generation of PV inverters has long been promised to be powered by silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors. The shift toward high-voltage SiC metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) replacing silicon insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) has been decades in the making. With significant advantages for multiple industries, volume production has finally seen rapid increase …

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