As part of our plan to broaden our coverage of power electronics outside of silicon carbide (SiC), our power electronics team have recently completed a project investigating the feasibility for high-voltage gallium nitride (GaN) power electronics in automotive applications from the perspectives of cost, technology and supply. This most notably included an analysis of the use of multilevel inverters as a way to deploy and fully take advantage of the benefits of GaN (such as higher switching frequency to achieve lower conductive losses) in high-voltage applications (600V+).

Exawatt concluded that, although GaN is very much a competitor to SiC in lower-voltage automotive applications such as in the on-board charger (OBC) and DC-DC converter, and may be feasible for use in automotive inverters within the right system, by the time GaN is able to scale up to production similar to that of SiC, the latter technology will already be incumbent in EV inverters. Additionally, though Exawatt has previously proposed that GaN could be a solution to the current supply/demand imbalance pervading the SiC market should it continue to the end of the decade, we now believe that this gap may begin to close over the coming years, thereby making it less likely that GaN will have enough time to ramp and make up for the shortage and lessening the use case for GaN in EV inverters.

The graphic above, which offers a breakdown of the manufacturing costs associated with GaN power device manufacturing, is an example of some of the cost analysis produced by the power electronics team as part of the project.

To find out more about how we can help you with power electronics cost modelling and forecasting please contact our power electronics analysts, Adam Dawson and Bex Stone, or EV analyst Elijah Santos.