Silicon Carbide (SiC): The Future of Power?
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Silicon carbide, also known as SiC, is a semiconductor base material that consists of pure silicon and pure carbon. You can dope SiC with nitrogen or phosphorus to form an n-type semiconductor or dope it with beryllium, boron, aluminum, or gallium to form a p-type semiconductor. While many varieties and purities of silicon carbide exist, semiconductor-grade quality silicon carbide has only surfaced for utilization in the last few decades.
How to Create Silicon Carbide
The simplest silicon carbide manufacturing method involves melting silica sand and carbon, such as coal, at high temperaturesup to 2500 degrees Celsius. Darker, more common versions of silicon carbide often include iron and carbon impurities, but pure SiC crystals are colorless and form when silicon carbide sublimes at 2700 degrees Celsius. Once heated, these crystals deposit onto graphite at a cooler temperature in a process known as the Lely method.
- Lely method: During this process, a granite crucible heats to a very high temperature, usually by way of induction, to sublimate silicon carbide powder. A graphite product rod with lower temperature suspends in the gaseous mixture, which inherently allows the pure silicon carbide to deposit and form crystals.
- Chemical vapor deposition: Alternatively, manufacturers grow cubic SiC using chemical vapor deposition, which is commonly used in carbon-based synthesis processes and used in the semiconductor industry. In this method, a specialized chemical blend of gases enters a vacuum environment and combines before depositing onto a substrate.
Both methods of silicon carbide wafer production require vast amounts of energy, equipment, and knowledge to be successful.
How is Silicon Carbide Useful?
Historically, manufacturers use silicon carbide in high-temperature settings for devices such as bearings, heating machinery components, car brakes, and even knife sharpening tools. In electronics and semiconductor applications, SiC's advantage main advantages are:
- High thermal conductivity of 120-270 W/mK
- Low coefficient of thermal expansion of 4.0x10^-6/°C
- High maximum current density
These three characteristics combined give SiC excellent electrical conductivity, especially when compared to silicon, SiC's more popular cousin. SiC's material characteristics make it highly advantageous for high power applications where high current, high temperatures, and high thermal conductivity are required.
In recent years, SiC has become a key player in the semiconductor industry, powering MOSFETs, Schottky diodes, and power modules for use in high-power, high-efficiency applications. While more expensive than silicon MOSFETs, which are typically limited to breakdown voltages at 900V, SiC allows for voltage thresholds at nearly 10kV.
SiC also has very low switching losses and can support high operating frequencies, which allows it to achieve currently unbeatable efficiencies, especially in applications that operate at over 600 volts. With proper implementation, SiC devices can reduce converter and inverter system losses by nearly 50%, size by 300%, and overall system cost by 20%. This reduction in overall system size lends SiC the ability to be extremely useful in weight and space-sensitive applications.
