POWER CONVERSION Trends
Enabling the Future of
Electrically Powered Systems
By Paul Kierstead, SiC Power Products, Cree
T
he world’s consumption of
electrical energy is rapidly
expanding, driven by growing
mobile media, cloud computing
infrastructure, the expansion of
industrial power demand, and an
emerging electric vehicle market.
Worldwide consumption of electricity has grown by more
than 47% from 2000 to 2012 (Figure 1), and is expected
to expand even faster in the future. This expanded pressure
on demand is fueling the need for more renewable energy
generation, smarter utility grids, and more energy efficient
power conversion systems, each of which use power
conversion electronics – the devices responsible for
converting energy from solar panels or windmills to utility grid
standards or converting utility power to useful DC and AC
power.
To maintain the proliferation of new applications and new
power conversion systems, the industry needs more efficient,
more reliable, and lower cost power system electronics.
In the process of converting electricity, power systems
both consume and waste electricity. Energy inefficiency
produces heat that needs to be dissipated and contributes
to higher electric bills, more complex systems, and higher
system and operating costs. Although these losses seem
relatively low (between five and 15 percent) they require
large and expensive heatsinks, or more complex water
cooling or air conditioning systems, to dissipate the energy
losses, which increases system size and weight and adds
Figure 1: The worldwide consumption of electricity (in
terawatt hours) spanning the years 2000 to 2012.
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complexity that translates into poor reliability and short
system lifetimes. As such, the best way to limit future new
energy needs and power conversion systems costs is to
avoid wasting energy in the first place.
The primary contributors to poor efficiency in power
systems are the silicon semiconductor devices. Power
semiconductor devices have been used in power converters
since the 1960s, but silicon based power transistors and
diodes that carry, switch, and convert the system power can
be inefficient and slow to switch due to their intrinsic material
properties. Device inefficiency in power systems is realized
as heat that needs to be dissipated. Also, slow, inefficient
switching speeds require large, bulky, and costly passive
components to filter the power, step voltages up or down,
and provide electrical isolation within the system. Despite
generations of silicon device improvements, they have
reached their practical limit.
Silicon carbide (SiC) is a superior material for making
power semiconductor devices; however, the technology to
produce reliable, cost effective SiC devices only emerged
within the past fifteen years. SiC is capable of blocking
higher voltages, carrying more current, and suffering fewer
losses per unit area, making it a truly disruptive technology
in two ways. First, SiC reduces the conduction losses
inherent to Si, which enables higher efficiency, lower thermal
management costs and improved system reliability. For
applications in which efficiency is key, this advantage can be
extremely impactful.
Second, due to its smaller die size, SiC also reduces
switching losses, enabling higher speed circuits, smaller
form factors, and higher efficiency, and allowing SiC to
switch faster than similar silicon switches, which enables
systems with smaller, lighter, and less costly inductive and
capacitive elements. Fast switching speeds also enable
the use of simpler, more straightforward system design
techniques. For power system users, these benefits translate
into lower system and operating costs, smaller physical
footprints, lower cooling costs, and longer lasting, more
reliable systems.
Silicon carbide devices have been commercially available
since 2002, starting with SiC Schottky diodes. Silicon
diodes in blocking voltages above a few hundred volts are
limited to junction devices that consume energy to create
and dissipate the junction needed to block and conduct
electricity. SiC’s superior material characteristics allow use
of field-effect (Schottky) device topologies that can block
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high voltages (as high as 15 KV) without the need to establish
a junction barrier. The result is a quantum reduction in energy
losses during switching.
SiC Schottky diodes are instrumental in enabling computer
and digital data storage power supplies to reduce energy
losses to less than half that of their silicon predecessors. They
also enable more delivered power in the same physical power
supply size, which helps reduce the cost of high performing data
centers. Applied similarly, SiC diodes helped enable the high
efficiency that fueled the initial wave of solar inverter system
growth.
As impressive as those savings are, however, SiC diodes
alone are not enough to impact more than a few power
applications. SiC transistors were needed to broaden the
applications and enable more significant system impact. The
first commercial SiC power transistors were introduced in 2011.
Today, both SiC diodes and transistors are available from more
than ten suppliers. As portfolios of various blocking voltage and Figure 2: Size and performance comparison
of a Si- vs. SiC-based charger system.
current rated devices are now proliferating, SiC-based power
systems are expanding from watts to megawatts of system devices now being sampled will bring similar advantages to
power. the smart utility grids of the future, enabling smaller, lighter
Beyond power supplies and solar inverters, SiC devices are transformers and switching gear — which can bring medium
being used in battery chargers, welding and cutting tools in voltage power deeper into factories and data centers, closer
factory automation, and for the rugged electronics required by to the point of load, enabling additional savings — as well as
the oil and gas industry. A combination of both lower and higher more flexible and decentralized grid topologies, all at a lower
voltage SiC prototype devices are even being used in the new total system cost. However, despite the impressive array of SiC
solid-state transformers and power switches that will enable solutions available today, we are only at the beginning of the SiC
DC microgrids, distributed power generation systems, changing power device revolution.
grid architectures, and the future smart grid.
Additionally, SiC power devices will play a
major role in the drive train electronics and
charging systems of electric vehicles, enabling
lighter, cheaper, and faster charging, and
extending the range between charges.
As one can imagine, the transportation and

nnovate
installation costs of the SiC solution are also
much lower than the silicon solution, adding
even more value to the SiC cost advantage.
For example, an electric bus charger system
now running the streets of China features an
impressive 60 percent weight reduction (see
Figure 2), which was driven by the faster,
more efficient switching of the SiC devices.
In addition, the SiC solution runs efficiently
enough to eliminate the need for fans,
improving overall system cost and reliability.
Moreover, in a design by Toyota on a full
COMPONENTS
SiC drive train, a prototype electric vehicle Corporation
achieved a 40% reduction of the electronics
size and weight and provided an additional 10
percent improvement of the vehicle’s mileage 1 - 866 - 426 - 6726 . WWW.COMPONENTSCORP. COM
from a charge.
Beyond these examples, SiC customers
have developed smaller, lower cost SiC based
solutions ranging from LED lighting power For over 70 Years
supplies to auxiliary power supplies for trains
Components Test Points
and industrial power systems, such as laser Jumpers
and metal cutting solutions. Corporation has been
In the future, the medium voltage SiC the industry leader in Card Edge
test point design Connectors
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