Power Electronics for Renewable Energy Systems, Transportation and Industrial Applications

Chapter 4Recent Advances in Power Semiconductor Technology

Jacek Rąbkowski^1,2, Dimosthenis Peftitsis² and Hans-Peter Nee²

¹ Emissions Research and Measurement Division, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

² Department of Electrical Energy Conversion, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

4.1 Introduction

Rapid development in power semiconductor technology is one of the driving forces behind the dramatic growth of the power electronics field. There is no doubt that traditional silicon technology dominates all types of devices, in applications ranging from tiny transistors in mobile and smartphones to 100–200 mm sized power transistors and thyristors in grid applications such as high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission. Silicon technology has established itself in this dominant position because of a mature manufacturing process, which results in power devices with application-suited parameters at a reasonable cost. It is very hard to imagine a situation in which devices made of any wide-bandgap (WBG) material can replace silicon power devices in low-cost applications, such as standard switch-mode power supplies or general-purpose industrial motor drives. The situation may be different in applications where specific device properties become more important than the cost. However, silicon devices are still improving despite the common opinion that this technology has reached its physical limits. The never-ending development of silicon technology ...