日本半导体企业成立功率组件促进协会

随着市场对混合动力/电动车的需求不断增加，芯片产业对功率电子组件市场的期望也越来越高；市场研究机构 IHS 指出，来自电源供应器、太阳光电逆变器(PV)以及工业马达驱动器等的需求，预期可在接下来十年让新兴的碳化硅(SiC)、氮化镓(GaN)功率半导体市场以每年两位数字的成长率，达到目前的十八倍。 日本半导体自动测试设备供货商爱德万测试(Advantest) 董事会成员吉田(Yoshiaki Yoshida)在接受EETimes美国版编辑电话采访时表示，许多半导体公司：“都将未来寄望于功率组件。”他指出，在今日的手机等小型消费性电子装置内的电源芯片，制作精良且已经标准化，但在大型系统中的功率组件则仍面临一些问题。 吉田解释，所谓的大型系统指的是混合动力/电动车、电网、智能家庭、智能城市以及地铁的动力系统等等，需求较高电压、电流：“目前我们对于这类功率组件的技术发展以及标准化脚步稍嫌落后。”而这也是最近日本半导体产业成立功率组件促进协会(Power Device Enabling Association，PDEA)的动机之一。 在 4月分成立的PDEA成员包括丰田汽车(Toyota Motor)、爱德万测试、大日本印刷(Dai Nippon Printing)等，旨在推动“功率半导体技术的标准化”；该组织的成立也意味着，日本希望能在这个尚未开发的高电压、高电流功率组件市场扮演领导者角 色。目前PDEA的官方网站仍只有日文版本，但吉田表示，该组织并不排除外国成员加入。 功率组件的国际标准是由 IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) 旗下的SC 47E所掌管；该组织的任务是订定对环境无害的离散半导体组件设计、制造、使用与重复使用方法，包括相关术语与定义、符号、基本额定值与特性、量测方法与 规格。而PDEA并没有打算计要与IEC的工作重叠。 不过担任PDEA总监的吉田强调：“我们相信IEC的功率组件标准化行动──由半导体厂商所参与的──将对功率组件使用者(例如汽车制造商)、材料供货商与测试设备业者等带来很大的帮助。”他指出：“我们打算在PDEA的开放式论坛，从更广泛(超越芯片供货商)的产业界成员处收集更多相关信息。” 吉田表示，为了配合PDEA强调“功率组件使用者”的成立宗旨，该组织的首任主席邀请来自丰田汽车旗下Toyota Technical Development (TTDC)的高层主管来担任；TTDC成立于2006年，是丰田汽车的工程研发智库，负责车辆设计与开发，包括车身、底盘、引擎、传动系统、混合动力车、燃料电池、电子组件、仪表系统、IT系统、通讯系统与IP设计服务。 在PDEA，吉田表示：“我们希望像TTDC这样的 领导级功率组件使用者能发声并分享他们的愿望清单，包括在材料、品质、供应链需求等等。”而他也指出，目前针对高电压/电流需求所开发的功率组件与模块都 未建立测试规格；举例来说：“我们希望落实测试程序，建立评估功率组件的标准与规格，因此使用者不必面临可能因依赖测试设备而大不相同的测试结果。” 消费性电子设备所应用的组件测试程序都已经完善建置，但汽车与其它基础设施所应用的高电压、高电流应用功率组件测试程序却尚未达到相同水准；吉田警告：“这可能会导致与人身安全有关的风险。”PDEA的宗旨说明了日本产业希望让该国生产之功率组件领先全球市场的野心，而该组织将扮演第三方催化剂的角色，填补 目前功率组件产业生态系统的空缺。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Judith Cheng 参考英文原文：Japan to Form Power Device Initiative，by Junko Yoshida

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{pagination} Japan to Form Power Device Initiative Junko Yoshida MADISON, Wis. -- As the demand for both hybrid and electric vehicles is growing, the chip industry's expectation for the power electronic market is also ballooning. Energized by demand from power supplies, photovoltaic (PV) inverters and industrial motor drives, “the emerging market for Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) power semiconductors is expected to grow a remarkable factor of 18 during the next 10 years,” reported market research company IHS earlier this year. The firm's forecast on the annual double digit growth in the power device market revenue has escaped hardly anyone's notice. Many semiconductor companies are "pinning their hopes on the future of power devices," said Yoshiaki Yoshida, board member of Tokyo-based Advantest Corp., in a recent phone interview with EE Times. Advantest is a leading manufacture of automatic test equipment for the semiconductor industry. Power chips today in small devices such as mobile phones and other CE devices are well established and well standardized, he noted. At issue are the big systems -- such as HEV/EV, electrical grids, smart homes, smart cities, and powertrains for subway cars -- which demand high voltage and current requirements, Yoshida explained. "Lagging is our efforts in technology development and standardization of those power devices." This has become the basis for the recent formation of the Power Device Enabling Association, noted the Advantest executive. [Editor's note: This story was previously reported as a mysterious collaboration among Toyota Motor Corp., Advantest Corp., Dai Nippon Printing Co., and possibly others to "standardize power semiconductor technology."] PDEA's mission The PDEA's intention is clear: Japan hopes to take a lead in this largely untapped high-voltage, high-current power device market. The Tokyo-based industry association, formally launched in April, is open to any paying subscriber interested in the subject. Although its website is currently available only in Japanese, "we have no intention to exclude membership from abroad," said Yoshida. To be clear, when it comes to international standards for power devices, IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission)'s SC 47E is taking charge. The group's objective is to prepare international standards for environmentally sound practices in design, manufacture, use and reuse of discrete semiconductor devices -- including terms and definitions, letter symbols, essential ratings and characteristics, measuring methods, and specifications. The newly formed PDEA has no plans to overstep the IEC's activities. However, Yoshida, who also serves as PDEA's director, stressed, "We believe that the IEC's power device standardization activities -- participated in by semiconductor companies -- will greatly benefit from the input and varying perspectives from users of power electronics [i.e., carmakers]; material suppliers and testing equipment vendors." Yoshida added, "We intend to gather such information from a broader industry constituency (that goes well beyond chip suppliers) in our open forum at PDEA." True to the PDEA's founding spirit (with an emphasis on "users" of power devices), an executive from Toyota Technical Development Corp. has become the first chairman of PDEA, according to Yoshida. Toyota Technical Development Corp. (TTDC) founded in 2006 is essentially a firm that serves as the engineering brains of Toyota Motors Corp. TTDC provides vehicle design and development services to Toyota, while offering vehicle body, chassis, engine, drive train, hybrid vehicles, fuel cells, electronics, instrumentation systems, IT systems, communication systems, and intellectual property design services. At the PDEA, "We want leading power device users such as TTDC to speak up and share their wish list -- on materials, quality, and supply chain requirements," said Yoshida. Life and death issues For power devices and power modules able to meet the high-voltage, high-current requirements, there are no established "testing specifications," for example, Yoshida explained. "We need to put in place a testing procedure, and establish standards and specifications for the way we evaluate power devices, so that users don't have to face testing results that might wildly vary depending on testing equipment." While these testing procedures are well established for devices used in the consumer electronics market, there is no equivalent for power devices used in vehicles or other high-voltage, high-current infrastructure equipment. "And that could result in... life and death issues," Yoshida cautioned. The PDEA website makes clear Japanese industry's ambition to lead the global market with home-grown power devices. The PDEA's goal appears to become a third-party catalyst, to fill in the gap in the emerging power devices eco-system. Although the power module market has been traditionally dominated by Toyota, which manufactures the module internally, there is near-universal involvement among other carmakers and tier-one suppliers in this market. Semiconductor companies are also part of the eco-system and they're moving up the value chain. Infineon, for example, already holds a sizeable market share in the power device pie. In this light, the PDEA cannot afford to remain an association of Japanese members only. Yoshida agrees. He pointed out that Infineon representatives were invited as speakers in a recent power device seminar. SiC vs. GaN Another reason why the power device market is getting hot, with industry associations like PDEA playing a likely role, is that the industry stands at a crossroads -- in terms of its underlying technology for power devices. As the automotive industry strives to cut the cost of power modules for HEVs and EVs, carmakers, for example, need to weigh two different types of power semiconductors -- SiC and GaN. SiC Schottky diodes have been around for more than 10 years, with SiC metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), junction-gate field-effect transistors (JFET), and bipolar junction transistors (BJT) appearing in recent years. In contrast, GaN power semiconductors are just appearing in the market. According to HIS's April report: GaN is a wide bandgap material that offers similar performance benefits to SiC but has greater cost-reduction potential. This price/performance advantage is possible because GaN power devices can be grown on silicon substrates that are larger and lower in cost compared to SiC. Richard Eden, senior market analyst for power semiconductor discretes and modules at IHS, said in a statement: