A New Class of SiC Power MOSFETs with Record-Low Resistance
- Sonrisa Research, Inc., Santa Fe, NM (United States); Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States); Sonrisa Research, Inc.
Silicon carbide (SiC) power transistors are used in the main traction inverter of electric vehicles (EVs). Tesla began installing SiC power MOSFETs in 2017, and has now produced 4.8 million EVs containing over 169 million SiC power MOSFETs. Looking ahead, the worldwide EV market is projected to exceed 50 million vehicles per year by 2030 (Reuters, Oct. 25, 2022). This will create a demand for over two billion SiC power MOSFETs per year. Our program aims to double the efficiency of today's commercial power MOSFETs. This will cut the number of MOSFETs per EV in half, reducing cost, simplifying assembly, decreasing weight, and increasing vehicle reliability through reduced parts count. Our approach is to apply innovative design and advanced processing to increase the density of current-controlling channels in SiC power MOSFET. We have developed two new MOSFET devices, each of which increases the channel density by a factor of six over today's best commercial MOSFETs. This required implementing new fabrication processes, creating new device designs, and integrating the processing steps and device designs into a manufacturable technology. In this project we have developed two innovative devices: (i) a novel three-dimensional structure, the "tri-gate MOSFET," and (ii) a deeply-scaled, fully self-aligned trench MOSFET, the "IMOSFET". Both products were experimentally demonstrated during this project and meet the program goals of increased efficiency relative to the current state-of-the art commercial products. In the process we have generated significant IP, with two US patents issued and three applications pending. We have also published three journal articles and given reports on this technology at seven international conferences. The success of this program has led to significant follow-on funding from industry. In May 2023 Purdue University signed a five-year R&D contract with GlobalFoundries to transfer our novel technology to commercial production. With headquarters in Malta, NY, Global Foundries is one of the largest pure-play silicon foundries in the world, with annual revenue of $$\$$$$8.1B. Their SiC foundry will be built around the next-generation 200-mm diameter SiC wafers, which will double the number of die per wafer and reduce per-die production cost.
- Research Organization:
- Sonrisa Research, Inc., Santa Fe, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AR0001009
- OSTI ID:
- 2324924
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-Sonrisa--0001009
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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