EV development pushes power electronics revolution

According to Luke Gear of IDTechEx, passenger car electrical vehicle networks of 800 V and more — pioneered by Lucid, Porsche/Audi, and Hyundai/Kia — will eventually be the automotive standard, and the time has come for high-voltage wide bandgap materials like silicon carbide and gallium nitride for power electronics. The demands on EV (electric vehicle) passenger car power electronics will increase dramatically in the next ten years, primarily driven by rapid growth in the BEV (battery electric vehicle) car market, where **IDTechEx** predicts a 15% CAGR globally over the next decade. Currently, the weighted-average battery capacity of BEV cars is increasing in all regions, piling pressure on battery supply chains and creating uncertainty.

The result is that drive cycle efficiency must come to the forefront of powertrain design, meaning the time has come for high-voltage wide bandgap (WBG) power electronics, according to Luke Gear, Principal Technology Analyst at IDTechEx. His new IDTechEx report provides a deep dive into what’s in store for EV power electronics.

While Si (silicon) IGBTs (insulated-gate bipolar transistors) have dominated the medium- to high-power device range for 20 years, including in EV power electronics, they are giving way to a new generation of WBG materials — SiC (silicon carbide) and GaN (gallium nitride). This will fundamentally impact the design of new power devices, including the package materials, as high-voltage and high-power-density Click on the link below to read the full post online.