Sameer Pendharkar

TI Senior Fellow and Vice President

Texas Instruments

July 29, 2021

Power electronics technologyfor tomorrow’s solutions

Agenda

• Trends driving electronics

• Importance of power

• Silicon scaling trends and future device requirements

• Recent technology innovations fueling growth

• Requirements to accelerate technology adoption

• Summary

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An increasing appetite for data and electrification

• As electrification and data connectivity needs continue to grow across the globe,

semiconductors will play a key role in creating a better world by making electronics more

efficient and more affordable.

• However, the expectations of consumers will also continue to grow in that electronics and

the resulting semiconductors must also become more robust.

More semiconductors in our lives

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1

4

7

10

1990 2019

Semiconductor Units

CA

GR

4.8% ($88T ’19)

1.2% (7.7B in ‘19)

Gross World Product

World Population

Sources: IC Insights, International Monetary Fund, U.S. Census Bureau

In 2019, on average, each person on the

planet purchased 126 chips!!

7.2% (970Bu ’19)

Automotive electrification challenges

Source: Indra Nooyi, President & CFO, Pepsico, April 09, 2005

“EnerFuture World Energy Scenarios”,

Enerdata Report, March 2018

Automotive

electrification critical

but ….

Industry Problem

Automotive Power is growing at 100W per year

Today: Electrical power is about 3.5kW

Source: Arthur D Little

• Every 10W adds about $5 in manufacturing cost.

• Cars can consume ½ gallon of gas per hour to power the electrical load.

1960 1980 2000 20200

1000

2000

3000

4000

Year

Po

wer

( W

)

1.8B

Stable CO2 Reduced CO2

Source: Indra Nooyi, President & CFO, Pepsico, April 09, 2005

Internet explosion

8 – 10% of all electricity energy

for powering data centers in

2030 (3,200-8,000 TWh)

2017 data center energy

consumption 40% more than all

energy consumed by UK

Mechanization, water power,

steam power

Mass production,

assembly line, electricityComputer and automation Cyber physical systems

Late 1700s Early 1900s Circa 1970 Now!

Industry 4.0

IoT Connected devices TSN

Security Functional Safety

7TI Information – Selective Disclosure

There are more powered smart devices than ever

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Datacenter needs are growing exponentially

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50,000 sq. ft. (>10 football fields), sized for >50

MW with more than 100,000 servers

Dedicated power plants with growing carbon

footprint (>200-250m tons CO2)

30 TWh just for wireless data infrastructure, 1

W saving equates to ~$2 annual utility savings

Just 1% improved utilization =

~$9B annual savings by 2030

Global energy scenario

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Increased Renewables

Increased Electrification (~30% energy consumed = electrical)

Increased Efficiency

“EnerFuture World Energy Scenarios”,

Enerdata Report, March 2018

Ener-Brown:

Increased CO2 emissions

~5C increase

Ener-Blue:

Stable CO2 emissions

~3-4C increase

Ener-Green:

2X lower CO2 emissions

~2C increase

Semiconductor impact on power consumption

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In 2005, only

30 percent of

electricity in the

U.S. flowed

through power

converters of a

smart grid; but by

2030, 80 percent

will flow through

power converters

“Semiconductor Technologies: The Potential to Revolutionize U.S. Energy Productivity”,

Report E094 of the American Council for an energy-efficient economy

IHS Energy

calculates that the

increase in energy

efficiency spending

in the US over the

last 10 years has

contributed to a

cumulative 7.4%

decline in energy

use.

Average US home has

40 gadgets wasting

energy in standby

mode!

This amounts to about

64B KWh waste which

can power 6 million

homes and save $19B

annually

The Internet of data and power

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Generation Storage Distribution Flow

Central

Ubiquitous generation

of information

Central large-scale

power plants

Decentralized

production – prosumers

Highly efficient PV,

wind turbine

Central

Ubiquitous storage

devices

Balancing

Distributed

storage

Electrochemical

storage

Central

Extreme

Interconnectivity

One-directional flow

through transmission

and distribution grid

Bi-directional

flow of energy

Efficient

convertors

Data flow known

And controllable

Strongly

fluctuating

Stable base load

Highly fluctuating

resources (solar, wind)

Energy yield

prediction

Internet of Data

Internet of Power

Innovations

Smart grid

Source: Indra Nooyi, President & CFO, Pepsico, April 09, 2005

“Energy Storage and Power Electronics

Technologies”, Molina Sept 2019

Power Electronic System

– needs power electronics

Power electronics converters

Multi-dimensional optimization needed

– Key Performance Indices drive innovation

– Cost, environmental impact and time-to-market important but safety is

paramount

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Performance Indices

Power density (W/in3)

Power weight density (kW/kg)

Efficiency (%)

Cost ($/kW)

Failure rate (hr-1)

Performance trends

Losses (Inefficiency)

PV Inverters

– ~2X every 5 years

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Source: ETH

Performance trends

Power Density

For Telecom Power Supply

Modules

– ~2X every 10 years

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Conventional Si power device scaling

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Silicon is still

workhorse

semiconductor for

power electronics.

However…

Power density

scaling with Si is

increasingly difficult

Rsp

(m

ohm

-cm

2 )

Timeline

~50V ldmos

~20V ldmos

~14%/year

~20%/year

In addition to lithography improvement,

scaling driven by architecture changeMV Si

LV Si

R.QG

R.Qsw

R.Qrr

R.QossPower

RSP

$.Ohm

GaN

SiC

Si SJ

Device improvement requires new technologies

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• Improvement in device requires a (new) more expensive technology

• Performance leveraged to reduce system cost required for adoption

• Different technologies needed at different power/voltage levels

10

100

1000

10000

100 1000 10000

Sp

ec

ific

On

-Re

sis

tan

ce

(m

Ω-m

m2

)

Breakdown Voltage (Impact Ionization)

Si limit

Si SJ limit

SiC limit

GaN limit

1998

2001

2005

2009

2014

650V

2011

2013

2016

2010

2014

2016

2019

2019

Technology and frequency scaling

Frequency

0 50kHz 100kHz 150kHz 200kHz

Devic

e losses

Si

GaN

Switching loss

Improved FOM allows both lower

RDS(on) and lower switching loss

High efficiency and/or higher

switching frequency

Conduction loss

Can improve system performance, but no one technology is universal! 19

Frequency1kHz 10kHz 100kHz 1MHz 10MHz

1MW

100W

1kW

10kW

100kW

10W

IGBT /GTO

GaNSi

Si SJ

SiC

Pow

er

7th Si SJ

Technology development much slower than Moore

• Significant effort between invention and first commercial release

– After that “almost at Moore’s law pace?”Slide 20

SiC Diode SiC JFET

GaN eHEMT GaN IC

1st 1st1st

SiC MOSFET

GaN HEMT

1st1st

GaN HB

2” 3” 6”4”

4” 6” 8”

Si SJ

1st

6th Si SJ

3rd SiC MOSFET

2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

‘Moore increments’

SiC

GaN

Si SJ

1st

New technology requires new environment

Ecosystem development will help new technology adoption

Needs to happen to keep up with needed power electronics growthSlide 21

Next-generation data centers powered by GaN

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Dual Boost

PFC

400VDC

LLC

36-60VDC

Intermediate

DC/DC

12VDC

CPU, FPGA,

memory

PoL

DC/DC

Current Solution (MOSFET)

LLC

High Density Approach (GaN)

85-265 VAC

85-265 VAC

36-60VDC400VDC

CPU, FPGA,

memory

Totem

Pole PFCLLC PoL

DC/DC

PoL

DC/DC>30% volume reduction

400% more power density

PoL

DC/DC

1.0V/1.8V

1.0V/1.8V

Future cars powered by wideband gap devices

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Output power: 200 kWSIC MOSFET

Up to 20 kHz

Output power: 20 kWSIC MOSFET, GaN

50 kHz – >200 kHz

Output power: 4 kWSIC MOSFET, GaN

50 kHz – 200 kHz

Output power: 50 kWSIC MOSFET, GaN

50 kHz – >200 kHz

(AC input) Fast charging

(DC)

Silicon content

Mechanical or

electro-mechanical

Batteries

EPS, ICE

cooling

inverters

DC/DC

converter

HEV

ECU

E motor/

generator

ICE

(no EV)

Traction

inverter

Auxiliary inverter

A inverter

DC/DC

converter

On-board

charger

DC/DC

converter

Cells

balancing

M

AC

leads

HV battery pack

(200 V to 800 V)

Hybrid drive

Unit (HDU)

M

Battery module

Aux LV battery

(12 V & 48 V)

TrainingReference designs

Worldwide application supportDesign Services

Providing the solutionand support

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Reliability & Quality

$

Future

“Internet of Power” will drive key

paradigm shifts in power

electronics

– Component to Systems

– Power to Energy (Cost &

Economics)

– “black box” to “Highly

Interactive”

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Today

Summary

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• Energy management is absolutely critical for a better tomorrow

• Technological advances in semiconductors fueling the growth and energy consumption

• However, innovations in the same (power) semiconductor industry and in power electronics and control crucial for improving energy efficiency

Thank you!

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