Encouraged by silicon carbide’s superior material properties, major automotive manufacturers involved in developing hybrid and electric vehicles are currently testing SiC-based MOSFETs and other transistors as a viable alternative to silicon-based transistors, particularly for under-the-hood applications where the operating conditions are challenging.
The wide-bandgap material silicon carbide has a better thermal resistance than silicon-based insulated-gate bipolar transistors. Adopting SiC devices would therefore reduce the overall system cost in electric cars by eliminating the use of heat sinks and other cooling devices.
