Silicon is the first-generation basic material in the semiconductor industry. At present, more than 95% of integrated circuit components in the world are manufactured with silicon as a substrate. At present, with the development of applications such as electric vehicles and 5G, the demand for high-power, high-voltage and high-frequency devices is growing rapidly.
SiC materials have the properties of large forbidden band width, high thermal conductivity, high saturation migration rate of electrons and high breakdown electric field. SiC devices are used in the fields of high temperature, high pressure, high frequency, high power electronic devices and extreme environments such as aerospace, military, and nuclear energy. The application field has irreplaceable advantages, which make up for the shortcomings of traditional semiconductor materials and devices in practical applications, and are gradually becoming the mainstream of power semiconductors.
According to data from Yole Développement, the global SiC device market was worth 420 million U.S. dollars in 2018, and it grew to 564 million U.S. dollars in 2019. In the future, with the development of electric vehicles, power batteries, and power supply and solar energy, the SiC device market will further grow rapidly, especially driven by electric vehicles and power batteries. It is estimated that in 2024, the global SiC device market will grow to 2 billion U.S. dollars, with a compound growth rate of nearly 30% between 2018 and 2024. According to Yole's forecast, the SiC device market will continue to grow in 2020, and it is expected to start to grow rapidly in 2023 with the rise of electric vehicles.
From the perspective of the industrial structure, the current global SiC industry structure presents a three-legged situation of the United States, Europe, and Japan. Among them, the United States is the world's largest, accounting for 70%-80% of global SiC production. The silicon carbide wafer market CREE has a market share of as much as 60%; Europe has a complete SiC substrate, epitaxy, device and application industrial chain. The global power electronics market has a strong voice; Japan is an absolute leader in equipment and module development.
In the application of electric vehicles, Tesla has integrated SiCMOSFET power modules into Model3 inverters. Model3 inverter has 24 power modules, each module has 2 SiCMOSFET die. A Model3 uses 48 SiCMOSFET dies; Toyota started using SiC power devices in 2014. After adopting SiC power devices, compared with only silicon-based devices, the size of the power control unit (PCU) has been reduced by 80%; at present, the Chinese car manufacturer BYD has also begun to deploy in SiC.