Re:Global chip shortage may soon turn into an oversupply crisis
by pwr-electronics on Sunday February 27, 2022 @08:36PM
(#30495136)
It's not a detail. It's a more complete picture. Both of your comments are different slices of the same pie.
I don't see anything written above that pertains specifically to any type of FET.
Your last paragraph is a new topic. It's true that Si can be as efficient as SiC and GaN, despite what the marketing usually says. But there are other benefits to new materials. They already support higher voltages with planar technology, and 3D will increase that further. Gate driving will get easier and more rugged.
Re:Global chip shortage may soon turn into an oversupply crisis
by baybal2 on Sunday February 27, 2022 @08:53PM
(#30495302)
> Your last paragraph is a new topic. It's true that Si can be as efficient as SiC and GaN, despite what the marketing usually says. But there are other benefits to new materials. They already support higher voltages with planar technology, and 3D will increase that further. Gate driving will get easier and more rugged.
There are 1000V+ silicon switches today which are not as fast, but have for, for example, very good RDSon. 1000V I think is an upper limit one would go for passenger car EV motors.
Re:Global chip shortage may soon turn into an oversupply crisis
by pwr-electronics on Sunday February 27, 2022 @09:04PM
(#30495393)
True, but even GaN will eventually exceed that, and there are other applications that will benefit.
I think he specifically means high-end, high-frequency power FETs, since all the rage today is about them.
I would add that there is no real need for super-high-end switches in EVs, and component size for them is not a huge premium. There is no shortage of smart inverter topologies which achieve very good size, and efficiency without using any kind of fancy GaN of SiC switches. They will not be as small as them on the lower end, but around 100kw there is virtually no difference.