Power electronics for EVs report

The demand for electric vehicle (EV) power electronics will increase dramatically in the next 10 years.

That’s primarily driven by rapid growth in the battery electric vehicle (BEV) car market where IDTechEx predicts a 15% CAGR globally over the next decade.

The weighted-average battery capacity of BEV cars is increasing in all regions, piling pressure on battery supply chains and creating uncertainty, explains the report Power Electronics for Electric Vehicles 2023-2033.

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, it adds.

 IDTechEx provides a deep-dive into EV power electronics with technology insights into the evolving semiconductor and package materials, including Si, SiC and GaN semiconductors, die-attach materials, wire bonding, thermal management, and more.

It presents granular forecasts detailing unit sales, GW and US$ demand for inverters, onboard chargers (OBC) and DC-DC converters segmented by voltage (600V, 1200V) and semiconductor type (Si, SiC, GaN).

Si IGBTs have dominated the medium-to-high power device range for 20 years including in EV power electronics but are giving way to a new generation of WBG materials – SiC and GaN, the report says.

“This will fundamentally impact the design of new power devices, including the package materials, as ever smaller and higher power-density modules, operating at higher temperatures, emerge.

“SiC MOSFET adoption is the main story of the mid-term outlook and will grow rapidly to dominate market share, with adoption timelines for individual device types given in the report, adding that costs today for bulk Gan are prohibitive, but Gan-on-Si will initially be adopted with the first 600V GaN inverters starting to emerge.

“OBCs and DC-DC converters operate at much lower powers than inverters, but WBG semiconductors will still be beneficial and adopted at a similar rate in these device types.

“As well as increasing overall power density, the greater efficiency allows for faster charging of the battery from the OBC, and less energy loss during low voltage battery charging (via the converter), increasing range.”

The IDTechEx report predicts GaN market entry occurs for OBC and DC-DC converters slightly earlier than for inverters due to the lower power and voltage requirements.

 The report highlights and compares sintered materials and provides insight into the emerging supply chain.

The first generation of power electronic packages used Al wire bonding which was easily applied to dies without too much force or time. However, Al has poor surface area coverage (<20%) and a lower thermal conductivity than copper,” IDTechEx adds.

“This is leading the market to different types of copper bonding, which brings new manufacturing challenges with a requirement for higher bonding powers, right at a time when WBG materials cause dies to shrink in thickness and become more fragile.”

 The report covers case studies for different Cu bonding types in EV applications.