The Development of SiC Technology
and Its Application in the Power Grid
Prof. YU Kunshan
Smart Grid Research Institute of SG
Department of Electrician New Material and Microelectronics
2012.9
Shanghai
Outline
1
• Introduction
2
• Characteristics and Advantages
3
• Latest Progress
4
• Application
5
• Key Technologies
6
• Prospect Application of Power Grid
7
• Conclusion
2
1 Introduction
Power device is widely used in transportation, iron and steel smelting, motor drives
and power systems.
It is indispensable in the development of low-carbon economy, energy conservation,
control field warming .
The requirements of power devices in power grid:
 High operating voltage
 High power density
 High junction and Operating
Temperature
 High power capacity
 High switching frequency
 Low losses
 Easy Control
Silicon power devices determined by the material
properties is closed to the performance limit.
3
1 Introduction
Typical applications of power devices in power grid.
STATCOM
LCC-HVDC
DVR
VSC-HVDC
Inverter
Multi-HVDC
4
1 Introduction

The demand of power devices in power grid.
AC transmission technology
Domestic thyristor-based FACTS
equipment has developed, such as:
SC, HR, FCL, SVC.
Demand
Higher voltage, Greater capacity.
The relevant demonstration studies Higher voltage, better performance
based on Turn-off devices FACTS of series and parallel.
equipment have been carried out ，
such as：STATCOM, UPFC.
Domestic Turn-off devices -based Greater flow capacity, More cooling
DFACTs equipment has developed， capacity.
such as：DVR，SSTS，DSTATCOM，
APF.
More Efficiency FACTS or DFACTs， Research and integrated of power
electronic devices based on new
such as：TCPST, CSC, SST.
materials.
5
1 Introduction

The demand of power devices in power grid
DC transmission technology
Demand
HVDC technology based on thyristor
R&D of thyristor based on new
has developed and the capacity is
material(SiC)
growing.
VSC-HVDC technology has been
 Presspack IGBT
carried out.
More compact, more efficient HVDC
and DC grid technology.
Research and integrated of power
electronic devices based on new
materials
6
2 Characteristics and Advantages
High Voltage
Current density
High Temperature
Low Loss
 The critical avalanche breakdown electric field
intensity is 10 times that of silicon.
 The current density can reach 4 times that of the Si.
 The thermal conductivity is three times that of
silicon, can work properly at 300 ℃.
 The temperature coefficient is close to zero.
 Switch much faster than silicon devices,
reducing the switching losses.
 Conduction resistance of several tenth of the
equivalent silicon devices, reducing conduction
losses and the total energy consumption can be
reduced more than 30%.
SiC is suitable for the power electronic devices with highpower, high temperature and anti-radiation.
7
2 Characteristics and Advantages
Use of silicon carbide, the
thickness of the device is
reduced to silicon’s 1/10.
8
2 Characteristics and Advantages
Wide Band gap
High breakdown electric field
High carrier drift velocity
High thermal conductivity
High Temperatures
High Voltage
High Frequency
Low Loss

GaN thermal conductivity is not high enough , have advantages in
terms of high-frequency；

Diamond preparation is very difficult, the processing technology is
restricted ；

SiC power devices fastest growing in high voltage power device.
9
3 Latest Progress
SiC power device
Switch
Rectifier
Bipolar diodes
SBD、JBS
Unipolar
transistors
Bipolar
transistor
PIN
MOSFET
JFET
BJT,
GTO
IGBT
10
3 Latest Progress
Schottky
diodes
Infineon/SiCED
Mitsubishi
Rohm
Semisouth
IR
STMicroelectronics
…
PiN/JBS diodes
IGBT/Thyristor
Cree
Cree
MOSFET
Before 2011
SiC devices
Cree
JFET/SIT
Fairchild
Cree
Mitsubishi
Semisouth
Philips
Infineon/SiCED Rohm
Hitachi
GE
Toshiba
…
…
BJT
TranSiC
Cree
…
The CREE prepared 20kV devices , low-voltage devices
have entered the market.
11
3 Latest Progress
Schottky
diodes
PIN
diodes
POWER
MOSFET
1300A/5000V
10kV
180A/4.5kV
19.5kV
100A/10kV
thyristor
100A/5kV
GTO
100A/9kV
IGCT
200A/4.5kV
IGBT
13kV
One-to-one correspondence with the
silicon-based devices, a variety of silicon
carbide devices have been developed in
the lab.
1700V, 50A SiC SBD has been
commercialized.
1700V, 50A SiC MOSFET has been
commercialized.
MOSFET
GTO
12
3 Latest Progress
Schematic diagram of SiC SBD
Cree－1200V/50A SiC SBD
13
3 Latest Progress
Cree 10kV 20A SiC 模块
Large wafers, big chip, acceptable yield
Cree has producted 10kV/20A JBS diode on 3-inch wafer. Chip area
is ​15mm x 11mm, yield is 37%.
14
3 Latest Progress
The left shows Cree product a 10kV/20A PIN diode on 2-inch wafer ,
the yield reached 40%. Right is a PiN diode with positive 3.2V/180A,
reverse leakage 1μA/4.5KV.
15
3 Latest Progress
TranSiC 1200V/20A BJT .
Rutgers University producted 1kV/20A BJT
on 2-inch wafer 。
SiC BJT switching quickly , can work at 100kHz. The process is
relatively simple, relatively high yield.
16
3 Latest Progress
Cree produced a 10kV/20A MOSFET on a 3-inch wafer. The area of ​ the
chip is more than 8mm x 8mm.
17
3 Latest Progress
3.4 SiC JFET
2009, SiC JFET products to
market
18
3 Latest Progress
Cree Inc. reported a silicon carbide
n-channel IGBT with 22mΩcm2
characterized resistance and reverse
voltage of 13kV, about 10 times
lower than 13kV silicon carbide
unipolar devices.
19
3 Latest Progress
In 2009, Cree reported a silicon carbide GTO， N- Substrate
Cree 9kV GTO， Single-chip current 400A
20
3 Latest Progress
55kW three-phase Inverters used 600V/600A IGBT and 600V/75A SiC SBD, the
efficiency is more than 90% . The loss of reverse is substantial decline at the peak
power 47kW.
21
3 Latest Progress
A 1200V 800A SiC dual power module for DC / AC inverter circuit is composed
by 20 80A SiC MOSFETs and 20 50A SiC JBS, the inverter loss is 40% less than
that of Si hybrid modules, up to 97.5%.Switching frequency to four times higher.
22
3 Latest Progress
Domestic Research
Domestic：urgent needs to enhance the
research level of SiC power device
Compared to other countries, SiC is a comprehensive study of the
late start has become a hot topic in recent years.
Although having the basic process and the foundation of highvoltage device, there is a large gap from us to foreign advanced level.
23
3 Latest Progress
The leading R&D Department is military, major in radar and
microwave devices. The R&D of power electronic devices
efforts does not match the user demand.
The requirement of devices processing is strict.
There is no civilian device process line here in China.
24
4 Application
Widely uesed in household
appliances, office equipment,
power management and UPS
Schottky diode has went into the civilian market;
Kansai Electric Power Company for wind, solar inverter,
Mitsubishi Electric for silicon carbide inverter air conditioner ,
The conversion efficiency can be increased from 95% of the silicon device to 97-99%.
4 Application
Toyota hybrid electric vehicles have been used
in motor control, and higher breakdown voltage,
less open resistance value rate, 600 °C high
temperature operation, improve power
conversion performance of hybrid electrical
power automotive.
26
4 Application
Reduce ship weight
Aircraft carrier CVN-78
1 、 Aircraft launching system using
the new technology of silicon carbide
power .
2、 SiC-based high frequency power
electronic module, the volume and
weight of the transformer is less than
half the volume and weight reduction
can be a better configuration of the
other tasks sensor systems, weapons
and other equipment.
Reduce the total weight of the aircraft
carrier 170 tons, the volume is
reduced by 290 m3 .
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4 Application
More Electric Aircraft MEA
MEA aircraft needs high
efficiency and high
temperature transistor,
SiC power device for
energy efficiency helps to
develop more small, more
light and faster aircraft .
28
4 Application
Three-phase PV inverter efficiency
29
5 Key Technologies
30
5 Key Technologies
Technology of the fabrication
No.
Name
Device
Requirement
1
Fast and ultra thick
epitaxial technology
CVD Epitaxial
furnace
2
High activation rate
ion implantation
technology
High temperature
high-energy ion
injection machine
3
High temperature
annealing technology
High temperature
annealing furnace
1600℃
4
High temperature
oxidation technology
High temperature
oxidation furnace
1400℃
thickness more
than 100um
800keV,400℃
31
5 Key Technologies
Development goals
Achieve 6 inches wafer and above.
SiC wafer
Get rid of the dependence .
The price of unit area has down to 1/10.
Rectifier change to large current (above 100A).
SiC device
Improve the characteristics.
Mass Production .
Breakthrough the limit of packaging temperature
Peripheral
technology
The control circuit and the peripheral devices
Improve the controlling method.
The new noise reduction strategy .
5 Key Technologies
10kV MOSFET、
IGBT
Progresses in
the
development
of device
10kV SiC PIN
6500V MOSFET
1200V – 6500V Si
&SiC Hybrid model
6500V PiN
4500V MOSFET
4500V JBS
3300V MOSFET
3300V JBS
1200V
SBD
2012
1500V
MOSFET
2013
Future Prospects
2014
2015
2016
33
6 Prospect Application of Power Grid
Significant demand for grid
Transmission system
Improve safety and reliability
Increase transmission capacity
Improve transmission
efficiency
Maximize the access to
renewable energy to Power
system
Distribution system
Improve the security,
reliability and economy value
Improve the performance of
electrical equipment
Improve energy efficiency
SiC power device will provide a efficient solution
34
Electronics technologies used in renewable generation
Decreases loss:2/3，Increase generating capacity:2-3 %
35
6 Prospect Application of Power Grid
SiC device（ High
voltage 30kV 、large
capacity 3000A）
2
DC circuit
breaker
1
By using SiC power
devices, an all-DC
power grid will be
established eventurally
3
VSC- DC
Grid
Key Technologies of DC
5
DC cable
4
measurement,
control and
protection in DC
36
7 Conclusion
 Experts concerned the excellent performance of SiC power
devices. It need to make more mature development of diverse
applications.
 SiC power devices will drive the generation, transmission, and
distribution with technological progress.
 The new SiC power devices used in various types of grid and
electric equipment, it makes the possibility that the electric
equipment can be attached power quality control ability. This
feature will change the pattern of power quality control technology .
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