What are the advantages of gallium nitride technology from consumer grade to automotive grade
As one of the core technologies in the field of power electronics, GaN-based power conversion technology is widely used in consumer electronics, data centers and other fields, which plays a key role in improving the efficient use of power and achieving energy conservation and emission reduction. At present, GaN is shifting from low-power consumer electronics market to high-power data center, photovoltaic inverter, communication power supply and other markets. These applications require higher power density, higher energy efficiency, higher switching frequency, better thermal management and smaller size, and GaN is a key step to achieve these goals.
Compared with silicon devices, gallium nitride power devices have the advantages of higher current density, drift mobility, excellent heat resistance, eleconductibility and heat dissipation. Due to the physical characteristics of GaN, it can provide miniaturization and high efficiency solutions for power electronic equipment. For example, the low switching attrition and high operating frequency of GaN can significantly improve the operating efficiency and power density of power supply, which greatly promotes its application in the power supply market.
According to industry forecasts, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the global GaN power device market is expected to reach 30% from 2021 to 2027, and its market size is expected to exceed 1 billion US dollars by 2027. The driving force of this growth mainly comes from the demand for miniaturization and high efficiency of power electronic equipment.
It is estimated that the compound annual growth rate of the global GaN power device market will reach 30% from 2021 to 2027, and the market size is expected to exceed 1 billion US dollars by 2027 (Source: Yole)
At present, the development of domestic GaN power component market is mainly driven by consumer electronics, and the key applications are fast chargers, audio, wireless charging, power supply and other consumer products. It is predicted that by 2026, the market size of gallium nitride power devices will grow to 1.33 billion US dollars, with a compound growth rate of 65%. In addition, the data center and automobile market are also important potential field for gallium nitride products, which can reduce power consumption and cost by applying gallium nitride products.
However, the application of GaN is more than that. Among many application fields, the automobile industry is undoubtedly the most potential. With the rapid development of electric vehicles, the demand for energy saving and high efficiency also increases. Therefore, major car companies began to develop GaN for various parts of automobiles, especially in key parts such as on-board chargers and HVDC converters. The low switching attrition of GaN can significantly improve the operation efficiency of electric vehicles, and reducing the burden of on-board heat dissipation system and increasing the recharge mileage. Secondly, the high operating frequency of GaN field effect transistor can reduce the size of power magnetic devices by about 60%, reduce the system cost, improve the overall power density, and open up new possibilities for the development of new energy vehicles. Based on these advantages, gallium nitride has great potential in the automobile market.
Choosing silicon, silicon carbide or gallium nitride as the material depends on the specific requirements of the application scenario, such as cost,the frequency of thermal conductivity and conduction. It is reported that the European Union has started the project in 2021, with the goal of increasing the voltage of GaN to 1200V and increasing the wafer size from 6 inches to 12 inches. This means that GaN products have been applied to electric vehicles and other fields. In the future, with the construction of base stations, the demand for gallium nitride will continue to grow.
In addition, the application of GaN in electric vehicles (EV) can significantly improve the charging speed, reduce the equipment volume and increase the overall efficiency of the system. According to industry insiders, GaN can significantly improve the charging efficiency of electric vehicles, shorten the charging time by 60%, and increase the power of the charger from 6.6 kW to 22 kW, thus increasing the whole charging speed by three times. In addition, GaN plays a key role in bidirectional circuits, reducing battery power loss by 5% and indirectly increasing battery life by 5%.
Finally, compared with traditional silicon devices, GaN technology can greatly save manufacturing procedure and the use of processing chemicals and energy, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions during manufacturing and transportation. Every Gallium Nitride Power IC shipped can reduce carbon dioxide by 4 kg. That's why electric vehicle pioneer Brua will publicly say that they will switch from SiC to GaN as a key factor in further reducing the size and weight of chargers, while also reducing carbon dioxide emissions to meet the environmental protection goals.
In terms of market size, the total potential market space (TAM) of gallium nitride chips in an electric vehicle exceeds $250, including nearly $50 for on-board chargers, about $1.5 billion for DC/DC inverters, and nearly $200 for main drive applications. According to predictions from industry experts, by 2025, the total market opportunities of gallium nitride chips in electric vehicles will exceed 2.5 billion US dollars/year. According to CASA, the thirdly generation semiconductor industry alliance, the compound annual growth rate of silicon carbide industry is expected to be close to 37.5%, reaching 24.5 billion by 2026.
According to Gong Ruijiao, compound semiconductor analyst of TrenForce, driven by these markets, the market size of gallium nitride power components will increase from 180 million US dollars in 2022 to 1.33 billion US dollars in 2026, with a compound growth rate of 65%. For the automotive market, gallium nitride is currently in the early stage of experimental, but many manufacturers are actively engaged in research and development. It is predicted that by 2025, gallium nitride will penetrate into low-power OBC and DC-DC in small batches.
Expansion of production, merger and integration, gallium nitride manufacturers break into automobile market.
Under the background of gallium nitride getting on the bus, major semiconductor manufacturers around the world have begun to expand gallium nitride production lines. Infineon Technologies bay out the GaN system, and PI, Navitas and China's INNOSCIENCE have a large share in the gallium nitride market. Texas Instruments has also unveiled its gallium nitride solutions for automobiles, and manufacturers such as EPC and TRANSPHORM have also performed well in the low-voltage market and production capacity. Avitas has introduced integrated power IC with precision sensing function, which will improve the efficiency, autonomy and reliability of electric vehicle power supply application. This enables GaN IC to detect high-risk conditions and take actions to protect IC and system from any failure, further enhancing its stability and reliability in electric vehicle applications.
At present, many GaN manufacturers have developed 650V GaN devices and passed the certification, which are used for DC/DC conversion in vehicle chargers and EV/HEV, and have established cooperative relations with many automobile enterprises. GaN Systems provides on-board chargers for Canoo, and cooperates with FTEX to integrate 650-V GaN power equipment into electric scooter system. TRANSPHORM partnered with Marelli to provide in-vehicle charging and DC/DC conversion equipment. NEXPERIA cooperated with Ricardo to develop GaN-based inverter design for electric vehicles, and VisIC Technologies cooperated with ZF to develop GaN semiconductors for 400-V drivetrain applications. Navitas, a GaN power IC manufacturer, will merge with Live Oak Acquisition to become a listed company with a market value of 1.04 billion US dollars, supporting product development in EV/HEV and other markets. The early development of GaN modules followed the footsteps of SiC, and manufacturers are also preparing for wider industrial cooperation.
In the past ten years, Chinese manufacturers have made remarkable efforts in the field of gallium nitride, and many projects have sprung up, especially in the fields of substrate and gallium nitride epitaxy, and the performance of Chinese enterprises has become increasingly strong. There are also many participants in the low-pressure field, but relatively few participants in the high-pressure field. China has a large market, which provides many advantages for domestic substitution and iteration of gallium nitride. NEXPERIA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wingtech Technology, launched GaN FET, and its target markets include automobiles, data centers, telecommunications equipment, industrial automation and high-end power supply. NIO also cooperated with Gallium Nitride Semiconductor Company to develop an efficient power supply that can be applied in electric vehicles.
Zou Yanbo, product application director of INNOSCIENCE, said that three years ago, people's cognition of gallium nitride chips mainly stayed at the stage of good performance but high price, but now the performance of gallium nitride has been greatly improved, with obvious advantages and close cost to silicon devices. INNOSCIENCE has become the largest shipper of gallium nitride in the world. However, INNOSCIENCE's products are still concentrated in the consumer field, and it has just started to contact the automotive field. The first products put into mass production are lidar related products.
Jiang Ke, vice president of NEXPERIA, said that in 2022, Anshi Semiconductor achieved sales of 17 billion yuan and delivered 110 billion basic components to customers. At present, NEXPERIA has developed three generations of gallium nitride products, including high voltage and medium voltage packages, TO-247 packages and 5 ~ 20mQ products. NEXPERIA is focusing on developing applications in the automotive field, mainly including on-board chargers, DC/DC converters and traction inverters.
Car-level power devices, silicon carbide or gallium nitride?
At present, a common question in the industry is, in the automotive field, is silicon carbide or gallium nitride? From the application aspect, gallium nitride devices mainly have three directions at present: sapphire application in LED field, radio frequency devices and power devices.
Gallium nitride is suitable for high conduction frequency because of its wide band gap and high electron mobility. Power devices mainly take advantage of these advantages of gallium nitride. At present, there are two mainstream gallium nitride devices, one is planar devices and the other is longitudinal devices. Planar devices use aluminum plus nitrogen to form two-dimensional electronic devices, which have very high electron mobility, so they are very suitable for high conduction frequency applications.
Longitudinal devices mainly use the excellent thermal conductivity of silicon carbide substrate, which can effectively dissipate a large amount of heat and achieve better conduction frequency and temperature saving. For vertical devices, it is still in the early stage of commerce, and some mainstream manufacturers in Europe and America have begun to vigorously promote this technology. In China, although some research institutes are studying this problem, but there are rear in commercial.
Professor Shen Bo, director of the Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Research Center of Peking University, said that according to voltage classification, silicon is the main voltage, gallium nitride has advantages at medium voltage, and silicon carbide is the world at high voltage. Compared with silicon carbide, gallium nitride power electron has lower cost and better performance than silicon. Its main advantage lies in its working frequency, which is especially suitable for scenes requiring high working frequency and high efficiency. However, in terms of reliability, the power electrons of gallium nitride are not mature enough compared with silicon carbide. Therefore, silicon carbide is used in new energy vehicles. The development direction of GaN power semiconductor is high frequency, high speed and miniaturization, and it has great advantages of monolithic integration.
In recent years, the Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Research Center of Peking University has focused on GaN on silicon, power semiconductors, filters and LED on silicon, and has made some breakthroughs, and has close cooperation with TSMC and Huawei. The thirdly generation semiconductors, represented by silicon carbide and gallium nitride, have a wide range of applications and have established a complete R&D and industrial system. However, there is still a gap of 3-5 years between them and the international top level. The industrial gap is larger than the R&D gap, and high-end chips mainly depend on imports.
Qiu Shaoyan, R&D director of HC Semitek corporation, stressed that the technological breakthrough of gallium nitride has attracted major manufacturers to accelerate market development, which will bring about a substantial increase in revenue and market scale. Although the biggest application of gallium nitride is the consumer electronics market, its proportion in the new energy market is expected to increase in 2027. Gallium nitride materials are widely used in a wide range of fields, such as LED, sensors, solar energy, power semiconductors, communication components and advanced packaging and heat dissipation materials. Especially in power semiconductors, applications include fast charging, wireless charging, solar converter and motor drive.
In the comparison between gallium nitride and silicon carbide, Qiu Shaoyan pointed out that there is no absolute advantage or disadvantage between them, and the key lies in the application scope: gallium nitride is applied below 650V, while silicon carbide is above 650V. If gallium nitride is successfully applied to 1200V, it will affect the market share of silicon carbide. According to the prediction of Cha Yingjie, vice president of Navitas Semiconductor and general manager of China, by 2030, electric vehicles in Europe will mainly use 400V voltage, because long cruising range is not the most important demand for Europe. For the Chinese market, due to the vast territory and wide distribution of charging piles, it is estimated that nearly half of the cars in China will be upgraded from 400V to 800V by 2030.
Major vehicle-level gallium nitride enterprises (Source: TrendForce)
Gong Ruijiao, compound semiconductor analyst of TrendForce, said that OEM and Tier1 are very optimistic about this market, and many manufacturers continue to work hard here, and many manufacturers continue to do research and development work in this area. In addition, some manufacturers are committed to developing gallium nitride power components for automobile main inverters. However, the automobile application of gallium nitride is still at an early stage. It is expected that it will penetrate into low-power OBC and DC-DC in small batches around 2025, and then OEM will consider moving gallium nitride into inverters.
Challenges faced by popularization of vehicle-grade gallium nitride
Although gallium nitride has great market potential, its popularization in the automotive market still faces some challenges. The main challenges include reliability, product mode, production mode and design process. At present, the main products of gallium nitride are 650V devices. If we want to meet higher voltage applications, we need to constantly improve its process and design.
However, the wide application of gallium nitride components will not be smooth sailing. Because of its high performance, the equipment using a large number of gallium nitride components will inevitably face the challenge of small size and high efficiency. With the adoption of 800V battery system, the real challenge lies in the next step. As for silicon-based GaN, although it is widely used, it faces challenges, and many defects may occur in the manufacturing process, resulting in damage or premature rupture.
The mainstream gallium nitride technology platform is silicon-based gallium nitride and sapphire gallium nitride, both of which are commercial technologies with low cost. At first, extension technology was the core competitiveness, but now many companies can license extension technology, so its importance has been reduced. At present, the technical barriers in the field of gallium nitride have shifted from epitaxial to vertical GaN, which will be the main challenge that Chinese manufacturers will face in the future. Nowadays, from device development, design to packaging, to the manufacture of the whole system, the whole industrial chain is the real key to competition.
(Source of this article: eefocus with non-network)
The Development Road of Gallium Nitride, from Mobile Phone Quick Charge to New Energy Vehicles(exportsemi.com)
