Abstract
Keywords:
Hybrid electrical vehicle, fuel cell, power semiconductor, isolated gate bipolar transistor, freewheeling diode, super junction MOS transistor, SiC Schottky diode.
Abstract:
A review as well as an outlook on power semiconductor technology and devices with respect to the specific needs in automotive applications like hybrid electric vehicle and fuel cell car is given. The features of isolated gate bipolar transistors, freewheeling diodes, high and low voltage MOS transistors as the key components in DC/DC converters and DC/AC inverters are described and the evolutionary and revolutionary steps in the development of these devices. Comparisons between the today’s state of the art semiconductor material silicon compared to its very promising competitor silicon carbide are discussed.