At present, the application of silicon carbide in electric vehicles is booming. Since the beginning of this year, it can be seen that motor controller modules supported by silicon carbide devices have been adopted, including NIO ET7, BYD E3.0 platform, Xiaopeng G9, etc. The penetration rate of silicon carbide devices in new energy vehicles is constantly increasing.

Gallium nitride, which is also a third-generation semiconductor, is not limited to chargers and RF fields. In fact, in the field of electric vehicles, gallium nitride has gradually accelerated its pace, hoping to catch up with the dividend of new energy. Recently, it was announced that Ansei Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Thai Technology, has reached a cooperation agreement with Kyocera AVX Components, a subsidiary of Kyocera in Austria. The main direction of cooperation is gallium nitride automotive power modules.

So far, how has the application of gallium nitride in automobiles progressed? In fact, gallium nitride has been widely used in chargers in recent years. In terms of automotive applications, it is still too early to achieve large-scale application of gallium nitride. A significant turning point for the launch of gallium nitride was the signing of a comprehensive production capacity agreement with GaN Systems in 2021 for the high-performance automotive standard gallium nitride power semiconductor, with a cooperation amount of $100 million.

In 2020, GaN Systems also demonstrated a fully gallium nitride vehicle using solar batteries, demonstrating the feasibility of gallium nitride in power conversion and demonstrating its great potential for application in automobiles.

Specifically for applications in automobiles, gallium nitride can play a role in traction inverters, on-board chargers, and DC/DC converters in electric vehicles. At the same time, gallium nitride devices can be used in power modules on LiDAR and wireless fast charging in car cabins.

For example, the in car charger (OBC) for electric vehicles, using GaN devices, can reduce the size to one-fifth of its original size, achieve a charging efficiency of 98%, and also reduce the heat dissipation structure.

A significant improvement in using GaN devices on DC/DC is a significant increase in power density, which can be increased from 1kW/L to 2kW/L.

On the other hand, high-end electric vehicle models are gradually moving towards high-voltage platforms above 800V, but with the existing platforms below 800V, gallium nitride can continue to bring efficiency improvements. And this will have great development space in the future mid to low end automotive market.

It is predicted that the potential market opportunity for gallium nitride components in an electric vehicle will exceed $250, and by 2025, the total market opportunity for gallium nitride power chips in electric vehicles is expected to exceed $2.5 billion annually.

In addition, the main problem with the current application of silicon carbide is that the growth of silicon carbide substrates is difficult, and the low yield leads to higher costs. And gallium nitride power devices can grow on silicon substrates, which is silicon-based gallium nitride devices, and most of them use standard CMOS processes. Therefore, gallium nitride has certain advantages in cost, production capacity, and supply compared to silicon carbide.

In addition to GaN Systems, Ansei Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Wentai, also launched automotive grade gallium nitride power devices last year, with a voltage level of 650V and a conducting resistance of 50m Ω. It is understood that Anshi Semiconductor has developed gallium nitride devices with a voltage level of 900V, and there are also plans for 1200V products in the future, committed to breaking the situation where gallium nitride products can only be used in medium and low voltage applications.

Indeed, in the past, people believed that gallium nitride was only suitable for medium and low voltage applications below 650V, but in reality, the potential of gallium nitride in power devices goes far beyond that. Previously, Jingzhan collaborated with the Power Electronics System Center of Virginia Tech University in the United States to successfully prepare a gallium nitride SBD, achieving an ultra-high breakdown voltage of over 10kV, with some indicators even higher than SiC SBD of the same specification.

It is unknown whether gallium nitride will have a significant impact on the market share of silicon carbide in future electric vehicles, but it is certain that gallium nitride will have a larger stage.