Volkswagen plans to use silicon carbide (SiC) chips in its EVs for the first time in 2023, according to German media outlet The Pioneer.

The report suggested that the chips will initially only be used in the premium segment and that a new model incorporating the new SiC-based semiconductors will be unveiled later this year.

SiC (silicon carbide) is a compound semiconductor composed of silicon and carbide. SiC has various advantages over silicon, including having ten times the breakdown electric field strength of silicon, making it possible to configure higher voltage (600V to thousands of V) power devices through a thinner drift layer and higher impurity concentration. Since most of the resistance component of high-voltage devices is located in the drift layer resistance, SiC makes it possible to achieve greater withstand voltages with extremely low ON-resistance per unit area.

Theoretically, the drift layer resistance per area can be reduced by 300x compared with silicon at the same withstand voltage, according to Rohm Semiconductor. The result is a breakthrough in performance, not yet possible with silicon, making it the most viable successor for next-generation power devices. A variety of polytypes (polymorphs) of SiC exists, each with different physical properties. Of these polytypes, 4H-SiC is the most ideal for power devices.

The demand for silicon in semiconductors has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 6.2% since 2000, underpinning the early growth of the polysilicon supply chain. Polysilicon is used in the production of silicon wafers, consumed either indirectly in mono-crystalline silicon wafers for use in semiconductors, or directly in the production of poly-crystalline silicon wafers for use in photovoltaic solar cells.

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