Introductions to Silicon Carbide & Wideband Gap Technologies 

Wideband gap (WBG) is a material class of semiconductors, with a larger energy gap between how electrons are bound to atoms and how they move freely (This technology class may also be referred to as “compound semiconductors”). These materials, such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN), have better thermal properties than traditional semiconductor materials like Silicon, allowing WBG to handle higher power, higher temperature, and faster switching.

This makes wide bandgap materials ideal for high-performance electronic devices such as power electronics (power chargers), electric vehicles, high-frequency communication devices, and LEDs.

Figure 1: Illustrating Bandgaps between 4 different kinds of material. Wideband Gap would sit between Silicon & Insulator material. 

Silicon Carbide (SiC) has gained significant mainstream adoption in recent years due to the surge in demand for Electric Vehicles (EVs). SiC is ideal for use in applications such as inverters in EV cars due to lower RDS (ON), and superior performance under high voltage and temperature operating environments leading to higher power density. SiC inverters solution-based EV cars are proven to have a significantly higher range and faster charging.

SiC technology has the potential to revolutionize many industries and create new business opportunities. It represents a significant opportunity for growth and innovation. As the demand for high-performance, energy-efficient products continues to increase, SiC-based semiconductors are becoming a more attractive option for businesses in various industries.

History & Future of SiC 

Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a compound of silicon and carbon with a chemical formula of SiC. SiC is a scarce mineral that can only be found in Meteorites known as Moissanite, and virtually all the material on Earth is synthetically manufactured. The creation of SiCis was an accidental discovery by Edward Goodrich Acheson in 1890 in his attempt to synthesize diamonds. After discovering this process, Acheson developed an efficient electric furnace based on resistive heating, the design of which is the basis of most silicon carbide manufacturing today.

The simplest manufacturing process for SiC is to combine silica sand and carbon in an Acheson graphite electric resistance furnace at a high temperature, up to 2500°C (4530°F). However, the lack of high high-purity wafer production has always prevented SiC from being used in the electronics industry until the 1960s with some modification of the Lely method called Physical Vapor Transport (PVD or PVT). Even then, manufacturing Silicon Carbide is more complex than regular Silicon, so availability remains challenged. 

SiC is the trend for EVs due to their significant advantages in high voltage, high frequency, and high thermal conductivity. It gained popularity with other EV makers when market leader Tesla started adopting SiC into their car designs. 

With EV itself poised to become mainstream over internal combustion engine (ICE)cars in this decade, it is anticipated that the global demand and Capex official grow at least 3X by 2025. As more capacity and experience in manufacturing SiC electronics becomes more mainstream, it is expected that the future pricing for SiC Mosfet will reduce and result in more adoption in price-sensitive applications such as UPS and switching power supply. It should be noted that manufacturing yields for compound semiconductors are still less than traditional semiconductor manufacturing processes. 

SiC Use Cases
SiC electronics are commonly used in inverters that convert DC power from the battery to AC to the motor. A traditional inverter offers about 97% and 98% efficiency, while an inverter based on SiC can reach up to 99% efficiency. It is important to underline how increasing one or two percent efficiency can significantly benefit the entire system. It enables the use of higher voltage batteries, which reduces current and cable requirements, thus reducing costs and increasing vehicle range significantly, as an example.

The graph below shows the area of application suitable to SiC and GaN. SiC is suitable for high power and high voltage applications while GaN is more suitable for high switching speed situations with lower Voltage and Power requirements.

Figure 2: Applications using SIC and GAN 

SiC Semiconductors can also be used in other high-voltage and high-frequency applications—for example: 

SiC Market Size
With the electrification of the automotive industry, the demand and revenue of SiC semiconductor components grew exponentially in recent years to US$1 Billion in 2021. Yole Research estimates that the SiC device market size, including all types of SiC devices such as transistors, diodes, and modules, to reach $5B by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 35% from 2021 to 2026. 
 

In 2022, STM alone generated US$750M on the SiC product (up $450M in 2021) and forecasts to reach US $2 Billion in 2025. ROHM targets to reach US $1B in 2025, amongst others.

Figure 4: Leading SiC Manufacturers & Growth Rates 2021 over 2020 
 

Production Challenges & Capacity Investments

The main challenge in producing more SiC involves the characteristics of the material.

Due to its diamond-like hardness, SiC requires higher temperatures, more energy, and more time for crystal growth and processing. For context, it takes up to 2500°C (4530°F) to grow SiC crystals in comparison to 1400°C (2552°F) for regular silicon crystals. Due to the complex manufacturing process, yield rates on a larger wafer size are sub-optimal as they can be more defect prone. This makes it prohibitive to move to larger wafers sizes such as 300mm thus limiting yield and scale.

In response to the market demand, there have been significant investments in SiC fabs in recent years by leading Semiconductor manufacturers. Some notable investments include:

What it Means for Jabil 

Jabil’s annual spend is approximately US $40 million for Silicon Carbide-based components in 2022, up 65% from 2021 with further growth expected in 2023. We anticipate this demand to multiply in parallel with the industry projections and growth in end-market applications.

However, in the context where SIC production remains challenging due to its complexity, we anticipate the supply for this technology to be turbulent over the next few years until the yield rate improves and more capacity from the major Semiconductor supplier materializes.

The Jabil GCM and SRM team are working closely with the suppliers of this technology and is actively working on initiatives such as:

• Monitoring market trends: As SiC technology continues to evolve, we must stay up-to-date with the latest market trends and developments in the SiC market, which will help us identify potential new suppliers and the direction the market is headed.
   
• Building upon long-term partnerships: Many key SiC suppliers investing heavily in SiC capacity are long-term partners of Jabil. We are building upon these long-term partnerships with suppliers to secure access to the latest innovations and developments in the field.
   
• Diversifying suppliers: SiC technology is still relatively new and anticipated to be constrained in the coming years. We should work with multiple suppliers to minimize their risk of production delays or quality issues by qualifying multiple suppliers where possible by application.

Please feel free to contact me at ZhongHung_Mok@jabil.com if you have any questions or wish to have a discussion on the topic.

Mok Zhong Hung
Global Commodity Management, Semiconductors