Automotive chips have eased? Sources say IGBT is limiting electric car production

I found that, according to the distributor information statistics, the current price is still at a high level of the chip, mainly in the field of electrification, intelligent chip, of which, the power IC is a high degree of shortage of chip types, followed by intelligent cockpit, car networking and other incremental chips.

Compared with fuel vehicles, the demand for chips in new energy vehicles is greater. According to the data of the China Automobile Association, the demand for chips in electric vehicles is three times that of traditional fuel vehicles, and the higher the degree of electrification, the greater the demand for chips. It should be noted that there will be no significant increase in the demand for traditional chips for electric vehicles, but there will be a significant surge in the field of incremental chips such as power devices, sensing chips, large arithmetic chips and storage chips.

China is currently the world's largest market for new energy vehicle production and sales, the demand for chips is significantly higher than other countries and regions. According to the CCA data, China's new energy vehicle production and sales in the first half of this year were 2.661 million units and 2.6 million units, a year-on-year increase of 1.2 times, the sales market penetration rate has increased from 17.03% in January to 26.82% in June. Among them, in April, due to the impact of the epidemic, the sales of new energy vehicles fell significantly, but in the context of a greater reduction in the production of fuel vehicles, China's new energy vehicle penetration rate exceeded 20% for the first time. At the same time, after the epidemic was well controlled, China's new energy vehicle sales hit a record high of 596,000 units in June.

The incremental chips required for new energy vehicles, most of the current production capacity is still under construction, a large factory insider said, "Our current chips can only meet the current demand for orders, more orders, need to wait for the second half of the year after the factory is put into operation to receive." The source also said of the recent rumors that automotive chips are easing and some chips will see big price cuts, "I believe more in the feedback from car companies."

Another IGBT company insider said, "Although not very clear about the demand for other chips, but in terms of IGBT, this time is still very tight, Infineon's IGBT has been short, the very practical problem is that I contacted the B car companies, they told me that how many cars can be produced, depending on the supply of IGBT, and the delivery cycle is also very long."

I learned from the supply chain that a number of domestic new energy vehicle brands are trying to boost production, and in the past two months a number of new factories have been put into operation.

Not only electric cars, but also fuel cars are also speeding up, the continued increase in demand for this part, and along with L2, L3 level cars continue to release, the second half of the incremental chip demand will expand, such as Qualcomm 8155, or there will be increasingly tight supply situation.

Even the traditional chips, such as a certain NXP automotive MCU, spot prices in July than in May fell slightly, but still up to 8000 yuan / piece, to return to the normal price of $ 35 / piece, need to go through a longer relief process. Mercedes-Benz Automotive Executive OlaKaellenius recently still insists on the view that there is a shortage of chips, it said that the semiconductor situation is still very serious, and it is expected that the global semiconductor shortage will cover the entire year 2022 and last until 2023.

Encyclopedic knowledge

IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) is a composite of (Bipolar Junction Transistor, BJT) bipolar transistor and insulated gate field effect tube (Metal Oxide Semiconductor, MOS). The fully controlled voltage-driven power semiconductor device has the advantages of both high input impedance of the Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET) and low on-state voltage drop of the Giant Transistor (GTR). GTR saturation voltage reduction, high current-carrying density, but the drive current is larger; MOSFET drive power is very small, fast switching speed, but the on-state voltage drop is large, the current-carrying density is small. IGBT combines the advantages of the above two devices, the drive power is small and the saturation voltage reduction. IGBTs are ideal for variable current systems with DC voltages of 600V and above, such as AC motors, inverters, switching power supplies, lighting circuits, traction drives, etc.

IGBT is the core device for energy conversion and transmission, commonly known as the "CPU" of power electronics devices. As a national strategic emerging industry, it is widely used in the fields of rail transportation, smart grid, aerospace, electric vehicles and new energy equipment.

IGBT module is a modular semiconductor product consisting of IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor chip) and FWD (continuity diode chip) packaged through a specific electrical circuit bridge; the packaged IGBT module is directly applied to inverter, UPS uninterruptible power supply and other equipment.

IGBT modules have the characteristics of energy saving, easy installation and maintenance, and stable heat dissipation; currently, most of the products sold in the market are such modular products, and the general term IGBT also refers to IGBT modules; with the promotion of the concept of energy saving and environmental protection, such products will become more and more common in the market.