Silicon carbide has long been a material to watch out for. This material offers immense benefits, including the potential to significantly technology production. However, the high cost of production kept many companies from developing the material’s potential. Instead, silicon dominated the electronics industry for years.
Now, things are changing. The benefits offered by silicon carbide, or SiC, now play an important role in producing new technologies. In addition, increases in production efficiency overcome previous cost issues to make this a much more viable alternative.
As a result, the benefits and more reasonable pricing of SiC inspire many companies to consider the switch from silicon. If you are considering a change like this, make sure you know the facts first.
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What Is Silicon Carbide?
Silicon carbide is a material constructed from pure silicon and pure carbon. While SiC takes on several different structural forms, the 4H-SiC polytype hexagonal crystal structure suits most applications best. This form offers superior physical bonds that increase stability.
Enhanced stability and physical strength set SiC apart as an ideal semiconductor base. When doped with nitrogen or phosphorus, SiC forms an n-type semiconductor. Conversely, when doped with aluminum, beryllium, boron, or gallium, SiC creates a p-type semiconductor.
Despite the advantages SiC affords for new technology construction, the industry never fully embraced this material in the past. A chief reason behind the industry’s hesitance revolves around difficulties with eliminating defects within SiC materials. Inability to properly eliminate defects led to poor performance from technologies made with SiC.
However, recent advancements and improved methodologies promise to address purity issues. New processes for eliminating defects in SiC spurred breakthroughs in both interest and usage. Now, opportunities for using SiC are more pronounced than ever before.
Clear Advantages Over Silicon
The most important thing to know about silicon carbide is this: it offers many advantages over silicon. These advantages make a compelling case for switching to SiC over traditional silicon constructions.
For one, SiC’s ability to withstand high voltages exceeds silicon’s maximum voltage threshold by ten times. It also offers higher electron mobility and less power loss without compromising reliability.
SiC specifically addresses some failings associated with silicon. Silicon features a 1.12eV bandgap. This bandgap limits reductions in component size, impacting how fast and reliable small-scale silicon components perform. On the other hand, SiC offers a 3.26eV bandgap. This enhanced bandgap allows SiC to circumvent limitations previously imposed by silicon for smaller technologies with improved performance.
Similarly, SiC takes the cake when it comes to thermal conductivity. Its thermal conductivity measures around 1490 W/m-K, while silicon only offers a thermal conductivity rating of around 150 W/m-K. As a result, silicon carbide-based technologies manage heat much more efficiently.
All of these benefits fuel the growing shift from silicon to SiC. This shift may shake up the industry much as the revolutionary trend of 3D printing in manufacturing.
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Important SiC Applications
Silicon carbide performs well in a wide range of applications. Such diversity in application functions quickly spread its use across the tech sector.
SiC plays an integral role in the semiconductor industry. Manufacturers commonly incorporate into MOSFETs, JFETs, Schottky diodes, and more, particularly for applications requiring a higher voltage threshold.
SiC also offers plenty of potential for automotive industry applications, specifically for battery-powered electric vehicles. In these vehicles, SiC promises longer power life on a single charge, reduces charging time, and generally increases battery efficiency.
The benefits of SiC are so clear that many EV producers now use SiC batteries more often than silicon. Tesla features silicon carbide-based technologies as a core component of their electric vehicles, which may help them maintain their dominance in that industry.
The benefits of silicon carbide provide an edge in other industries as well. Specifically, SiC’s ability to handle higher voltages and temperatures makes it attractive in sectors where these factors pose serious concerns. Examples include solar technologies and data centers, both of which require material technologies capable of optimal performance in challenging environments. However, as the shift from silicon to SiC continues, these benefits set the stage for even more sectors to utilize SiC.
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More Silicon Carbide Is Coming
In the past, manufacturers struggled to source silicon carbide due to the impracticality of large-scale production. These drawbacks afforded silicon, which holds very few advantages over silicon carbide otherwise, a leg up since silicon boasted much greater availability.
However, manufacturing and technology trends signal change. Estimates predict silicon carbide market growth of over $2 billion by 2026. This incredible growth stems in large part from significant investment in silicon carbide production by both the public and private sectors. Significant investment, research, and development efforts across both the public and private sectors and market growth predictions all point towards the production of silicon carbide ramping up.
Increased production of silicon carbide suggests increased demand. Improving production efficiencies and increasing supply drive down costs, removing this last great barrier.
Increased production also signals new silicon carbide-driven technologies on the horizon. Companies currently shifting from the production of 150 mm wafers to 200 mm wafers indicate changes in customer needs and technical specs.
All signs suggest that now is the time to get ahead of the supply chain with a plan for your silicon carbide shift. Leveraging new production capacity and increasing interest in silicon carbide-based technology offers businesses a unique opportunity to stake a claim at the forefront of this emerging trend in technology.
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Understanding Silicon Carbide
Silicon carbide stands to play a significant role in the semiconductor industry and tech industries as a whole. Its advantages over silicon are clear and the many benefits of silicon carbide cannot be ignored. All of this makes understanding silicon carbide and considering how to make use of it more important than ever before.
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