Silicon and the wide bandgap semiconductors, shaping the future power electronic device market

In this paper, the current state of the power electronic device market is reviewed in light of the increased challenge upon Si from the wide bandgap semiconductors SiC and GaN. It is suggested that for the next ten years Si will continue its dominance both at the low voltage, and at the high voltage, high current ends of the market. However, SiC in particular is most likely to make a robust challenge upon the 500-6.5 kV market, in application areas such as automotive and photovoltaic converters and in PFC power supplies. As materials issues such as defect densities and epitaxial layer thicknesses improve then the emergence of bipolar SiC devices could in 10-20 years see it challenge in the high voltage, high current end of the market also.