Future Technological Breakthroughs In Power Devices

As the core components of electric energy conversion and circuit control of electronic devices, power semiconductors have great development potential in the automotive and industrial fields, and their demand is also rising.

Previously, at the "2023 China Automotive Semiconductor New Ecosystem Forum" held in Wuxi, Ding Rongjun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, attended the conference and delivered a keynote speech on "Development and Application of Power Semiconductor Technology"，the development history of power semiconductors, the technical characteristics and applications of power devices, and the technical trends of power semiconductors in the future are elaborated.

The development of power devices has promoted industrial changes in the industrial field

Academician Ding Rongjun believes that power semiconductors are "electricity and electrical" CPUs, and power semiconductors will be used whenever energy is transmitted. Since the world's first germanium-based bipolar transistor was invented by Bell Laboratories in the United States in 1947, the era of microelectronics industry has begun.

In the view of academician Ding Rongjun, the development history of global high-speed rail is also a history of power semiconductor technology innovation and industrial progress. From rectifier diodes to thyristors, power electronics technology was born; the emergence of thyristors promoted the advancement of rectifier locomotives to phase-controlled locomotive technology; from thyristors to GTOs, the technological upgrade from DC drives to AC drives was realized;

From GTO to IGBT, digital drive and control have been realized, which has promoted the development of high-speed and heavy-duty rail transit technology.

Looking back on the development of power devices, Academician Ding Rongjun believes: "From the discovery of germanium materials to the present, the development of power devices has been less than a century. However, with the pull of application requirements, power semiconductors have developed rapidly，it has made a revolutionary breakthrough in electronic technology, and then promoted the industrial transformation of the entire industrial field. "

"However, unlike digital chips, digital chips pursue advanced manufacturing processes, and new products often replace old products. In power semiconductors, whether it is a diode or an IGBT, each device has its own characteristics and applications.Therefore, it is difficult to say that the emergence of new devices can completely replace other devices, and each power device has its place for use. "Academician Ding Rongjun said.

IGBT is a representative product of the third technical revolution of power semiconductor devices

The characteristics of IGBT are voltage drive, high input impedance, small drive current, fast switching frequency, high withstand voltage, application range 600V~6500V, it can be widely used in rail transit, smart grid, new energy, aerospace, ship drive, AC frequency conversion, wind power generation, motor drive, automobile and other industrial fields.

From the perspective of demand, new energy vehicles mainly use 750V-1200V IGBTs, with an annual demand of more than 1 million units, showing explosive growth; rail transportation is the largest demand field for high-voltage IGBTs, with an annual demand of about 300,000 units; in the field of new energy, wind power converters and photovoltaic inverters mainly use 1200V-1700V IGBT M and H modules, with an annual demand of about 500,000 units; grid applications mainly use 3300V welding and 4500V crimping IGBTs, with an annual demand of about several ten thousand.

New materials and new topologies are key paths for future technological breakthroughs in power devices

The development of power device technology is driven by the inherent needs of "improving performance" and "reducing cost". Therefore, for the development trend of power semiconductor technology in the future,

Academician Ding Rongjun believes that as Si-based materials are gradually approaching their physical limits and Moore's Law is approaching the performance limit, new materials and new topologies will be the key path for future technological breakthroughs in power semiconductor devices. In the future, "new materials, new structures , new packaging, and intelligence" to realize the technological evolution of power devices.