Silicon carbide (SiC) is a durable chemical compound made of silicon and carbon that exhibits wide bandgap semiconductor properties for higher voltage electronics devices.
SiC MOSFETs boast three times lower ON resistance and high speed performance compared to minority carrier devices like silicon bipolar transistors, leading to improved voltage, power density and temperature capabilities. This makes for greater withstand voltage, power density and temperature tolerance capabilities.
High Power Density
Power density in power supply designs is often determined by the performance of semiconductor devices used to power converters and inverters. Silicon (Bandgap: 1.1eV) was once considered an optimal material for high-performance transistors; however, as designs progress to higher operating temperatures, frequencies, and voltages, SiC’s limitations begin to become clear. Here wide bandgap semiconductors such as SiC can come into play.
SiC’s wider bandgap of 3.3 eV allows more electrons to migrate from its valence band into its conduction band, making it a more effective semiconductor than silicon. Furthermore, this allows for thinner drift layers which significantly decrease resistance per area reducing resistance per area and increasing withstand voltages while decreasing ON resistance with temperature and current fluctuations.
SiC’s higher critical electric field – approximately 10x that of silicon – allows bipolar devices made of SiC to have significantly thinner and lighter n-layers, leading to smaller form factor inductors and capacitors which require less space for cooling, further increasing power density. One such isolated DC/DC bias supply from Texas Instruments called UCC12050 can deliver 500mW isolated power in a 2.65-mm wide body SOIC package; engineers can design smaller lighter-weight power supplies suitable for various applications including electric vehicle battery charging with faster power conversion resulting from SiC transistors’ high switching frequency switching frequency resulting in fast power conversion resulting in higher energy efficiency.
High Temperature Resistance
SiC’s ability to withstand high temperatures makes it an excellent material choice for many power electronics applications requiring reliable performance in extreme temperatures. SiC’s higher temperature resistance enables improved thermal dissipation, helping to minimize power loss from heat sinking while simultaneously increasing device lifetimes in challenging thermal environments.
SiC silicon provides exceptional creep and corrosion resistance compared to other semiconductor materials, making it suitable for use in high temperature applications where stability is essential, such as rocket nozzles, electric vehicle motors or gas turbines.
SiC’s superior breakdown electric field strength offers high-voltage power devices greater withstand voltages and lower ON resistance compared to silicon, due to its much thinner drift layer and higher impurity concentration. Therefore, majority carrier devices such as Schottky barrier diodes and MOSFETs can be configured to offer this high withstand voltage with reduced ON resistance over a wide temperature range.
SiC’s wide bandgap enables higher switching frequencies with reduced switching losses for greater power efficiency in smaller packages – creating new possibilities in device design.
High Thermal Conductivity
SiC’s high thermal conductivity enables it to dissipate heat generated by semiconductor devices and other electronic devices, making it an indispensable part of power electronics. Furthermore, its ability to withstand higher temperatures makes it ideal for power generation in aerospace applications like high-performance jet engines and missiles.
SiC is an organic compound semiconductor with an electronic bandgap significantly larger than silicon’s (1.1eV). This wide gap allows more current to flow through at a lower voltage and improves switching speed and reliability – making SiC an attractive replacement option for silicon in high temperature applications.
PFA coatings offer excellent resistance to corrosion, oxidation, wear and fracture even at elevated temperatures, making them suitable for use as corrosion protection on steel parts, medical implants and automotive components such as brake rotors and mechanical seals.
SiC is available in various forms, from CVD and reaction bonded polycrystalline, to single-crystal 3C-SiC manufactured through chemical vapor deposition; its high purity makes it a superior alternative to sintered and reaction bonded grades that typically feature low purity and variable atomic composition.
High Stability
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a synthetically produced hard material combining silicon and carbon, known as SiC for short. As the third hardest substance on Earth behind diamond and boron carbide, SiC’s ability to withstand high temperatures, chemical and thermal shocks as well as mechanical stress make it suitable for advanced technological and industrial applications that demand extreme durability and resilience.
Sic silicon’s exceptional stability can be attributed to its diamond cubic form crystal structure with half of the carbons replaced by silicon atoms. This lattice structure is known for providing superior phononic heat conductivity due to having similar atomic radii that facilitate scattering phonons more readily; combined with its 10-fold higher breakdown electric field strength over silicon, sic silicon makes creating higher voltage power devices easier than using standard silicon-based devices.
Semikron Danfoss of Germany has developed a process for improving commercially available boron-doped small-diameter SiC fibers that enhances their thermo-structural performance and environmental resistance, strengthening individual fibers while simultaneously reversing weaving stresses, so they can be formed into desired shapes more easily. Tests show these improved fibers to have excellent tensile, creep-rupture strength up to 2700degF as well as significantly increased thermal degradation resistance.
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