INDUSTRY POWER ELECTRONICS
European supplier Right now, the number of SiC MOSFET suppliers is set to increase, with one of the biggest manufacturers of power transistors, ST Microelectronics, launching a 1200 V, 45 A device.
“We are using all of the skills we’ve assembled – manufacturing, design, service, supply chain – to become a leader also in wide bandgap technologies,” claims Michele Macauda, SiC and GaN Marketing Manager at STMicroelectronics.
According to him, many customers that buy SiC Schottky diodes from them have been asking the company for SiC MOSFETs. ST has taken some time to answer this call by ensuring that the new transistor delivers industry-leading reliability and quality. Guide price for the MOSFET, which is housed in a proprietary package optimised for high thermal performance, is $35 when shipped in quantities of 1000 or more.
“We are working with our key customers and partners to ensure that we are competitive,” says Macauda. “As is the history of the semiconductor industry, prices will likely come down in the coming years.”
Plans for the company include expanding the MOSFET range by introducing devices with higher and lower current ratings, and higher blocking voltages. “We also plan to offer different package options,” adds Macauda, who expects the majority of transistors to be initially deployed in solar invertors. Further ahead, makers of products for hybrid electric and electric vehicles should account for the lion’s share of sales.
Competition in Japan The pioneer of SiC MOSFETs in Japan is Rohm, but in the last few years Mitsubishi Electric has also launched products. In July 2012 Mitsubishi started shipping samples of SiC power modules, and in 2013 it followed this up with the launch of modules for home appliances, industrial equipment and rail traction systems, and this year it added modules for high- frequency switching applications.
A Cree wafer containing 50 A SiC MOSFET die.
“We have in-house customers in various applications fields, like traction, home electronics and industry,” explained a spokesperson on behalf on Mitsubishi. “We believe that we can enhance competitive advantage by providing devices to in- house customers and getting detailed feedback from them.”
To increase market share for SiC MOSFETs, those at Mitsubishi believe that SiC substrates must fall in price and their procurement must be more stable.
Meanwhile, Roussel argues that the increased number of suppliers could help all of these firms: “With the JFET there are only two sources, whereas with the MOSFET there are various sources. Multi-sourcing is something that is key for the system integrators.”
The French analyst does not calculate a figure for the SiC MOSFET market, but he has determined a value for the SiC power electronics market, which is a mixture of die, discretes and modules – and he estimates that two-thirds of this is related to the MOSFET, with the remainder associated with Schottky barrier diodes.
“Today, the overall market [for SiC power devices] will be $115-120 million, and the market size will probably range from $500-600 million in 2020.” When looking that far ahead, there are uncertainties, with market growth relying on the deployment of SiC devices in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. Recently, it appears that makers of these types of vehicles may be pushing out deployment of wide bandgap devices until the next decade.
Mitsubishi’s recently launched traction inverter system, which features SiC diodes and transistors, has a switching loss approximately 55 percent less than its conventional inverter system incorporating IGBTs power modules.
That’s not good news for the MOSFET, but even so, shipments of this device will still rise at a healthy rate over the coming years.
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net Issue VI 2014 Copyright Compound Semiconductor
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