At the invitation of Prof. Yiping Zeng and Associate Prof. Feng Zhang, Dr. Lin Cheng of Cree Co. Ltd.came to the Key Laboratory of Semiconductor Materials Science for academic visiting on May 23th, and gave a report titled “Silicon Carbide Power Devices” on the Huang Kun Semiconductor Science and Technology Forum. With the rapid improvement of SiC material quality, SiC power electronics is attracting tremendous interest due to its superior material properties such as 3x wider bandgap, 3x higher thermal conductivity, and 10x higher critical breakdown field strength than Si. These advancements have enabled 1200 V and 1700 V, 20 A and 50 A SiC Schottky diodes and MOSFETs to meet the market demands in moderate to high power sectors for a variety of solar inverter, Electric Vehicle (EV), Fast Chargers for EV, and motor drive applications. SiC power modules rated at 1200 V, 100 A have been introduced, and 1200 V, 880 A modules have successfully passed simulated testing of 11,783 miles on a road course. The improved SiC material has also led to advancements in high voltage bipolar devices such as IGBTs and GTOs in the 10 kV to 20 kV class for advanced grid and pulse power applications. However, there still remain many technical problems to be solved, such as improving the lifetime & its uniformity at high-current injection levels and reducing basal plane dislocations in thick SiC epilayers.

The forum was emceed by Prof. Yiping Zeng, and many related researchers and postgraduate students have participated in this forum. After the report, Dr. Lin Cheng and the audiences discussed academic questions widely and fervently. Through this lecture, we got the information of the current status of SiC power devices and the direction of its future development. The visit of Dr. Lin Cheng will play a positive role in the R&D collaboration of SiC power devices between our institute and oversea companies.