Led by Tesla, EVs Drive Chip Industry's Shift Beyond Silicon (nikkei.com) 67
Abundant, easily processed silicon has been the material of choice for decades in the semiconductor industry, but electric vehicles are helping chip away at its dominance in the pursuit of energy efficiency. From a report: Tesla has been a catalyst for this change. The U.S. automaker became the first of its peers to use silicon carbide chips in a mass-produced car, incorporating them into some of its Model 3s. This move gave the power-saving material a boost of momentum in the EV supply chain, with ramifications for the chip industry. "Thus far, chipmakers have worked together to build up the silicon carbide market, but we've reached the stage of competing with each other," said Kazuhide Ino, chief strategy officer at Japanese chipmaker Rohm. Silicon carbide, abbreviated SiC, contains silicon and carbon. With chemical bonds stronger than those in silicon, it is the world's third-hardest substance. Processing it requires advanced technology, but the material's stability and other properties let chipmakers cut energy loss by more than half compared with standard silicon wafers.
SiC chips also dissipate heat well, allowing for smaller inverters -- a crucial EV component that regulates the flow of power to the motor. "The Model 3 has an air resistance factor as low as a sports car's," said Masayoshi Yamamoto, a professor at Nagoya University in Japan. "Scaling down inverters enabled its streamlined design." Tesla's move jolted the chip industry. In June, German chipmaker Infineon Technologies introduced an SiC module for electric vehicle inverters. "The timing of the expansion of SiC has clearly moved closer than what we had expected," said Takemi Kouzu, manager at Infineon's Japan unit. Hyundai Motor will use Infineon-made SiC chips in its next-generation EV. These chips are said to enable a more than 5% increase in vehicle range compared with silicon. French automaker Renault signed a deal in June with Switzerland-based STMicroelectronics for a supply of SiC chips beginning in 2026. The agreement also covers chips made with gallium nitride, another alternative material for semiconductor wafers.
SiC chips also dissipate heat well, allowing for smaller inverters -- a crucial EV component that regulates the flow of power to the motor. "The Model 3 has an air resistance factor as low as a sports car's," said Masayoshi Yamamoto, a professor at Nagoya University in Japan. "Scaling down inverters enabled its streamlined design." Tesla's move jolted the chip industry. In June, German chipmaker Infineon Technologies introduced an SiC module for electric vehicle inverters. "The timing of the expansion of SiC has clearly moved closer than what we had expected," said Takemi Kouzu, manager at Infineon's Japan unit. Hyundai Motor will use Infineon-made SiC chips in its next-generation EV. These chips are said to enable a more than 5% increase in vehicle range compared with silicon. French automaker Renault signed a deal in June with Switzerland-based STMicroelectronics for a supply of SiC chips beginning in 2026. The agreement also covers chips made with gallium nitride, another alternative material for semiconductor wafers.
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One small flaw in your plan: how many Marines hate conservatives? There's that guy in Lakeland, FL who slaughtered a family he picked out at random, but he is in custody and no longer available for a mission.
Shift beyond silicon (Score:1)
So, let's see, according to this, silicon carbide does not use silicon?
Re:Shift beyond silicon (Score:4, Informative)
It means a shift beyond "doping effectively elemental silicon in order to produce semiconductors", not a shift to being silicon-free. I hope you can appreciate why they went with the briefer version.
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You mean, appreciate why they went with a briefer version which is fundamentally incorrect?
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It is only "fundamentally incorrect" if you are dead-set on misreading the headline in an attempt to be a pedantic jerk. If you try to order "silicon" from a materials supplier, you will absolutely not get silicon carbide.
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You can try to rehash your silly argument as much as you want, but it's basically like saying an apple pie maker has moved "beyond apples" when they changed from Macintosh to Granny Smith.
Re:Shift beyond silicon (Score:4, Informative)
Macintosh and Granny Smith are both varieties of apple. In contrast, silicon is not a category that contains silicon carbide -- or silicone, for that matter. When people say "silicon" without qualification, they are talking about (approximately) elemental silicon, rather than some compound that contains silicon.
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Look, just concede the loss to the GP, promise to buy them a 100-carat sapphire to make up for your insolence, and then send them 20g of unrefined alumina. ;)
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As someone that works in semiconductors, NOTHING that was stated was incorrect.
Perhaps you should actually work in the field before talking nonsense.
Re: Shift beyond silicon (Score:2)
Re: Shift beyond silicon (Score:5, Informative)
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Salute!
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So, let's see, according to this, silicon carbide does not use silicon?
Not the only nonsensical part in that article. Whoever wrote that seems to be really clueless.
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Wait, you're saying that staff writers at a news agency might not have taken the time to become experts at the nuances of semiconductor materials before publishing a breathless Musk-hype article basically designed to be soft on details, but high on clicks?
Say it isn't so...
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It isn't nonsensical to those of us that work in the industry.
Try working on our field some time. Get ready for a single mistake to kill months of work.
Next stop: Diamond semiconductors (Score:3)
For EVs and Industrial applications. Basicaly, everything that requires high heat disipation.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/... [sciencedirect.com]
It's not really chips (Score:5, Informative)
It's big-ass power transistors running at least in the high-hundreds or, more likely, thousands of volts! Wind turbines would've also been a factor in SiC adoption.
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Wind turbines would've also been a factor in SiC adoption.
Long-distance HVDC is another big market for SiC.
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How about industrial machinery?
Long time coming. (Score:4, Informative)
Power Semiconductors [premiumpsu.com] and PSUs.
Re:Long time coming. (Score:5, Insightful)
It has been researched for a long time, but it was never clear whether the significantly higher cost would pay off in the automotive market, which tends to be incredibly cost sensitive.
It turns out that the 2% efficiency gain translate into a smaller battery, easier cooling, reduced vehicle weight, improved performance etc. And yes, that is worth the price, at least in the premium segmen.t
Enabled streamlining? (Score:4, Interesting)
"The Model 3 has an air resistance factor as low as a sports car's," said Masayoshi Yamamoto, a professor at Nagoya University in Japan. "Scaling down inverters enabled its streamlined design."
Although the benefits of lower-power circuits are obvious, is it really the case that there is enough difference in size that without them the Model 3 would have a different, less efficient shape? Can someone explain this?
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Better heat tolerance also means the cooling system can be more compact; Larger temperature differentials allow for more efficient transfer of heat with smaller surface areas, so your heat exchangers can be smaller.
=Smidge=
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That would be much more significant if the inverter was the ONLY thing being cooled and the difference in efficiency were large. Without data, this observation isn't worth much.
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So what? The question is what the DIFFERENCE in size would be and how that would enable more efficient designs.
There is no evidence that this has happened, at least with Tesla who is credited as driving this technology (ignorantly of course).
Lucid's drivetrain is a lot smaller than Tesla's. Apparently Tesla needs more "SiC".
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Re:Enabled streamlining? (Score:4, Interesting)
Although the benefits of lower-power circuits are obvious, is it really the case that there is enough difference in size that without them the Model 3 would have a different, less efficient shape? Can someone explain this?
TFA is poorly written, but I think they are saying that since the inverters need less cooling, the airflow can be reduced. Lower airflow means smaller air intakes and thus a more streamlined design.
EVs are more streamlined than ICEVs because the radiator and grill in the ICEV make it less aerodynamic. These more efficient inverters are taking that advantage a bit further.
Re: Enabled streamlining? (Score:1)
Why is it then almost all he's have a giant solid flat wall on its front end
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EVs are more streamlined than ICEVs because the radiator and grill in the ICEV make it less aerodynamic.
Most of those grills are not required - they are functional but included for looks. You can even mount a rad horizontally if required, or have smaller rads mounted without a grill. Just pull air up from under the vehicle and push the hot air out over the windshield. Although such rads would be a pain to maintain.
Fitting a rad into an ICE vehicle will add to the cost of making an ICE vehicle more streamlined - but the predominant reason for being less streamlined is still going to be the ICE. Designer
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For common cars (my large data sample of two) the air conditioning cooler ("radiator") has a size similar to that of the ICE' radiator.
I'm not sure how much you could reduce the size of the A/C "radiator" and keep a good enough efficiency.
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Just for info, the AC and engine radiators on a rear/mid engine Porsche are the same size and there are two of each mounted (AC rad in front of engine rad) in front of the front wheels, and an additional small center engine rad on some cars that need a bit more cooling.
https://csfrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/gt3conv-copy-copy-1170x658.jpg
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"These more efficient inverters are taking that advantage a bit further."
A bit further than what? The comparison is not with ICE, it is with other inverter designs in BEVs. The difference would hardly be measurable in the "streamlining" of the car. The value is in the improved efficiency, not in the packaging of the car.
Re:Enabled streamlining? (Score:5, Informative)
When rest of the industry were maxing out at 8 kW charging rate, Tesla was designing its charger for 128 kW and 256 kW range. Why? For two reasons, it wanted a "no compromise" EV. The biggest sticking point is fast charging on the road. It was shooting for 64 kW urban chargers, 128 kW superchargers and may be even 256 kW superchargers (v3?). This is the first reason.
Second was regen braking. When the driver eases off the "go" pedal, the motor becomes a generator and the power coming in to the charging circuit spikes up to 100 kW or more. If the charger can not handle that rate, friction brakes have to step in and waste the kinetic energy as heat. So it was shooting for inverters that can handle 256 kW or so for short periods and 128 kW sustained for 20 minutes.
But it is news to me that they also shrank it down and the size reduction is significant.
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Second was regen braking. When the driver eases off the "go" pedal, the motor becomes a generator and the power coming in to the charging circuit spikes up to 100 kW or more.
Regen braking happens when you let off of the accelerator? I would have thought it would only happen when you step on the brake.
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Depending on settings, yes it can happen when you let off of the accelerator. This is called one-pedal driving.
The other option is as you say, to regenerate only when the brake pedal is touched.
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Second was regen braking. When the driver eases off the "go" pedal, the motor becomes a generator and the power coming in to the charging circuit spikes up to 100 kW or more.
Regen braking happens when you let off of the accelerator? I would have thought it would only happen when you step on the brake.
Tesla has taken the approach of doing fairly heavy regen (by default; it's a settable option) when you take your foot off of the accelerator. Unless you're stopping harder than you generally should in everyday driving, this means that you almost never touch the brake pedal but drive entirely with the accelerator. Other EV makers have taken different approaches -- my old Nissan Leaf does light regen on release of the accelerator and heavier regen on pressing the brake, then engaging the friction brakes if th
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"The Model 3 has an air resistance factor as low as a sports car's," said Masayoshi Yamamoto, a professor at Nagoya University in Japan. "Scaling down inverters enabled its streamlined design."
Although the benefits of lower-power circuits are obvious, is it really the case that there is enough difference in size that without them the Model 3 would have a different, less efficient shape? Can someone explain this?
That is just BS reporting. The advantages are that you can get better inverters (higher power, lower losses, better reliability) at the same price-point. That they get smaller is just a side effect and it is not a size-reduction that would matter in a car.
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" That they get smaller is just a side effect and it is not a size-reduction that would matter in a car."
Yes it does matter. Smaller inverters mean you can make things more compact, weigh less, lets you improve aerodynamic flow as you don't have big bulky outcrops to make room for big bulky inverters, use fewer materials, every last bit of this and more contributes to better performance/range of travel for the vehicle.
Did we suddenly forget just how vehicles work?
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"Bulky outcrops"? You seem to have absolutely no clue what already small sizes we are talking about here.
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Not exactly sure what the gentleman may be getting at, but the heat generated by lossy electronics needs to get out of the vehicle to prevent overheating and dramatically shortening the lifetime of the electronics. More heat generated means more cooling airflow required, more airflow to the electronics means forcing air to pass across heat-exchange surfaces instead of getting the air to move around the vehicle smoothly and efficiently. Reducing the amount of waste heat is a pretty important thing.
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From the article;
"SiC also has rivals as an alternative to silicon. Gallium nitride (GaN) holds the potential to cut energy loss to about one-tenth as much as with silicon chips. The use of this material in semiconductors was developed in Japan to create blue light-emitting diodes. While GaN chips are used in some areas, such as charging devices, the material has yet to show its full potential because it has mostly been used in conjunction with other materials, including silicon."
This isn't wrong. Remember
Higher power in compact form, not efficiency (Score:2)
Tesla can't be that concerned with electrical component efficiency of their vehicle when the surveillance stand-by mode consumes on the order of 300W just to run surveillance cameras. That's an order of magnitude more than most dashcams.
The real reason is buried in the article: Tesla want smaller power electronics that dissipate less heat so they can package their inverter and power controller more compactly and make a smaller, sleeker, cheaper car. That's a worthy objective, but not quite the same as shavi
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Your estimate of surveillance mode power use is off by an order of magnitude.
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Also, it wasn't designed as a security camera. That was added as an afterthought to make use of the fact that it has a bunch of cameras surrounding it (which turned out to be a quite popular feature), so it's not designed for that use case. And you usually don't care about how much energy Sentry Mode uses, because it generally means you're either at home, doing in-town driving, or at a public charger on a trip.
Teslas do tend to be the most efficient vehicles in their classes, usually about 15% or so more e
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Why did you link a thread that contradicts your claim? Were you hoping that nobody would actually click on it?
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Once again, you're clearly posting links that you hope nobody will actually read.
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And that objective is bullshit. Greater switching efficiency is desirable because it improves efficiency and reduces cooling requirements. Packaging of the inverter is not driving it. The inverter size has absolutely no impact on the "sleekness" of the car.
Why must morons do the interviews? (Score:2, Troll)
"Scaling down inverters enabled its streamlined design."
LOL. He obviously knows nothing.
And, of course, Tesla being explicitly credited for something it does not do.
That is ass-backwards (Score:2)
What is actually happening is that power-semiconductors have made massive advances in the last decade or two. EV companies are just using things that become available.