National Grid "China Core": IGBT is

According to an observer's report, the development and application of integrated circuits (commonly known as "chips") have a large gap between China and developed countries. In the field of power, imported chips have always been in a monopolistic and strong position. For a long time, the core chip imported products in China's power transmission and distribution equipment and power distribution equipment accounted for 95% and 80%, respectively, and the chips have become a constraint on China's power industry equipment technology. The bottleneck of the promotion level. However, this situation is expected to change. According to the report of Science and Technology Daily on the 13th, the national smart grid project has for the first time adopted domestic high-voltage high-power IGBT chips, which has accelerated the pace of localization of the state-owned power grid “China Core”.

The 3300V IGBT device used by the national smart grid was developed by CNR Yongji Electric. The full name of the IGBT is an insulated gate bipolar transistor, which is a voltage-controlled device. IGBTs have the advantages of large capacity, low loss, and easy control, which can make the converter topology simpler and less loss, thus becoming the core device of high-voltage flexible DC transmission. In recent years, the long-distance high-voltage flexible direct current transmission field in China has developed rapidly, and IGBT devices have a very broad application prospect.

For a long time, the core technologies and industries of IGBTs are mostly monopolized by European, American, and semiconductor manufacturers. The research and development of domestic products by these companies is mostly in the initial stage. Previously, the IGBT modules needed for the national smart grid project were all made by companies such as Infineon of Germany and ABB of Switzerland. In this bidding, CNR Yongji Motor Company and foreign companies competed on the same technology platform, displayed the “speech right” with brand, and pressed internationally renowned semiconductor manufacturers to successfully win the bid for the project. The key step.

In just four years, the company has adopted a strategic layout to attract internationally advanced R&D resources and technologically independent research. The 17 products have been at the leading international level and have filled many domestic gaps. At present, the company has the capacity to produce 100,000 IGBT devices of 6 grades per year, which can meet the extensive demand for IGBT devices in applications such as smart grid, railway locomotives, wind power generation, photovoltaic power generation, and electric vehicles.

What is IGBT

In simple terms, IGBT is a power electronic device that realizes power conversion and control. To be more complicated, the terminals of the electrical equipment all need different voltage levels and different current levels, ie different power levels of power equipment. This requires a large number of power devices such as IGBTs to be used for power conversion and control. For example, in the familiar high-speed trains, the conversion of electric energy is firstly to convert 25,000 volts of high-voltage AC power to a three-phase AC that can be modulated by voltage, voltage, rectification, and inverter, and finally to AC motors. This process is called "changing flow," and the last three-phase alternating current output is supplied to the AC motor, so as to obtain the traction force for pulling the entire high-speed train group forward.

IGBTs are in the basic area of ​​our lives - power generation is also an important presence. In the field of power generation, electricity generated by wind, water, solar energy and other energy sources is a kind of rough, uncontrollable and unstable electric energy. It is what we call “coarse electricity” and it is necessary to convert it into fine and controllable electricity. The stable “fine electricity” that can be integrated into the grid, and thus suitable for different power electrical equipment, requires the use of IGBTs and other power electronic devices to achieve the transformation of the quality of electrical energy. Taking wind power as an example, the blades of the wind turbine drive the generator to rotate and the generator emits electricity. The frequency is often less than half of the grid frequency, so it needs to use high-voltage and high-current IGBT modules to regenerate the frequency stabilized AC.

Wide range of applications Many ministries focus on IGBT R&D

As a new generation of power semiconductor devices, IGBT devices have the advantages of easy drive, simple control, high switching frequency, low on-state voltage, large on-state current, and low loss. They are key components of automatic control and power conversion and are widely used in Rail transit equipment industry, power system, industrial frequency conversion, wind power and other industries. In the field of rail transportation, the traction drive system is the core component of the EMUs and locomotives, and the IGBT is the core component of the traction drive system. The use of IGBTs for power conversion can improve power efficiency, improve power quality, and save more than 30% power. The IGBT device industry is divided into three parts: IGBT chip design, chip manufacturing, and IGBT device packaging. Among them, chip design and manufacturing are the most cutting-edge links. The cost of high-end IGBT chips accounts for about 50% of the IGBT modules.

As early as 1996, the then State Development Planning Commission took the development of IGBT chips and module industrialization as a key project. In recent years, it has more frequently introduced policies to support IGBT localization projects, national “863” projects, national major scientific and technological special projects, and a number of “states”. "Science No." scientific research projects have listed IGBT technology development and industrialization as major issues.

However, due to the late start and difficulty in research and development, the domestic IGBT chip design was mainly concentrated on civilian-grade 1200V IGBTs. Most of them were private enterprises, and the gross margin was low. Industrial-grade and traction-grade high-voltage high-power IGBT chips have higher gross profit margins, and there are currently no major products in the country. Therefore, the high-end IGBT chips that are widely used in China are basically dependent on imports, and they are completely subject to foreign companies such as ABB, Infineon, and Mitsubishi, and a few companies in Europe and Japan in terms of delivery cycle and purchase price.

After China CNR successfully developed its own IGBT chip, it can customize the chip characteristics based on the actual requirements of various applications such as track traction, smart grid, wind power generation, and electric vehicles.