Ideal car independently developed silicon carbide power chips, towards the electric future

Today, as the global automotive industry accelerates its transformation to electrification, China's new energy vehicle market continues to grow explosively, becoming an important force to promote the change of the global automotive industry. In this change, the autonomy and controllability of the core technology has become the key to the competition of car companies. Recently, Ideal Automobile announced the success of independent research and development of silicon carbide (SiC) power chips, and plans to officially mass-produce cars in 2024. This breakthrough not only marks an important step for Ideal Automobile in the core technology field, but also highlights the independent innovation strength of China's new energy automobile industry in the core technology of electrification.

Silicon carbide chips: The key to improving electric vehicle performance

As a third-generation semiconductor material, silicon carbide is known as the "key " to improve the performance of electric vehicles due to its excellent physical properties. Compared to traditional silicon-based materials, silicon carbide has a higher bandgap width, thermal conductivity and electron saturation mobility, which means that silicon carbide power chips are able to operate at higher voltages, higher frequencies and higher temperatures while achieving lower energy losses.

In electric vehicles, silicon carbide power chips are mainly used in motor controllers, EVM3ESX50BE4 (22K) on-board chargers, DC converters and other core components. Its advantages are mainly reflected in the following aspects:

● Improve driving range: silicon carbide chips can significantly reduce energy loss in the process of electric energy conversion, thereby improving the energy utilization efficiency of the vehicle and extending the driving range. It is estimated that electric vehicles using silicon carbide chips can increase their driving range by 5% to 10%.

● Improved charging efficiency: Silicon carbide chips can withstand higher voltages and currents, thus achieving faster charging speeds. The charging time of electric vehicles equipped with silicon carbide chips can be reduced by more than 30%.

Smaller size and weight: The high power density of the silicon carbide chip makes the electric drive system design more compact and lightweight, which improves the space utilization and handling performance of the vehicle.

● Reliability enhancement: silicon carbide chip has higher working temperature and stronger anti-radiation ability, can adapt to more stringent working environment, improve vehicle reliability and safety.

Independent research and development: break the technological monopoly and master the core competitiveness

For a long time, the silicon carbide power chip market has been monopolized by foreign enterprises, and domestic car companies rely heavily on imports, which is not only costly, but also has supply chain risks. Ideal automobile successfully independently developed silicon carbide power chips, broke foreign technology monopoly, and achieved independent control of key core technologies, which has important strategic significance.

Since its establishment, Ideal Automobile has always adhered to the independent research and development of core technologies, and has accumulated deep technical reserves in the fields of electric drive system, battery system, intelligent car and so on. The successful research and development of silicon carbide power chip is another important achievement of Ideal Automobile's long-term insistence on technological innovation, and also marks a breakthrough in the core technology field of electrification in China's new energy automobile industry.

Mass production loading: Leading the industry change and accelerating the electrification process

According to the plan, the silicon carbide power chip independently developed by Ideal Automobile will be officially mass-produced and installed in 2024. At that time, ideal automobile will become the first domestic car enterprise to realize the independent research and development of silicon carbide power chips and mass production of vehicles, which will further enhance the product competitiveness of ideal automobile and consolidate its leading position in the new energy vehicle market.

More importantly, the breakthrough of ideal automobile in the field of silicon carbide power chips will drive the upgrading of China's entire new energy automobile industry chain, and promote more car companies to accelerate the application of silicon carbide technology, thus accelerating the electrification process of China's new energy automobile industry.

Challenges and opportunities coexist, and there is a long way to go

Although the ideal car has made breakthrough progress in the field of silicon carbide power chips, we should also be soberly aware that compared with the international leading level, China still has a certain gap in silicon carbide materials, chip design, manufacturing process and other aspects. In the future, the ideal automobile needs to continue to increase investment in research and development, constantly improve the performance and reliability of silicon carbide power chips, and strengthen cooperation with upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain to jointly promote the rapid development of China's silicon carbide industry.

Ideal automobile's independent research and development of silicon carbide power chips is an important milestone in the development of China's new energy automobile industry. It not only highlights the independent innovation strength of Chinese automobile enterprises in the core technology field, but also points out the direction for the future development of China's new energy automobile industry. It is believed that in the near future, as more Chinese automobile companies make breakthroughs in core technology fields, China's new energy automobile industry will usher in a more brilliant tomorrow.