Hybrid power: IGBTs drive highlights cost, technology to be improved

At present, hybrid vehicles are the entry point for large-scale application of new energy vehicles. Power semiconductor devices and modules play an irreplaceable role in hybrid vehicles. In addition to reducing costs, hybrid vehicles also need to be improved in battery, electric, transmission and electrical systems.

The dual demands of energy conservation and environmental protection have made new energy vehicles increasingly attract the attention of the industry worldwide. At the recent International Auto Show, several auto companies introduced electric and hybrid vehicles, which indicates that new energy vehicles will soon enter the real world. Commercial stage. Today, China has also entered a crucial period for the promotion of new energy vehicles. In February this year, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Science and Technology issued the “Notice on Launching Pilot Projects for the Promotion of Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicles” to promote energy-saving and new energy vehicles. Measures will promote the development of new energy vehicles. The hybrid vehicle is the new energy vehicle that is closest to the application. Its development has brought new changes and opportunities to the automotive industry.

Hybrid cars are favored

From traditional fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles, people also face many options. “In the future direction of the automotive industry, electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles are becoming a clear trend,” said Li Xin, director of electronic/electrical architecture engineering in the Asia-Pacific region of Delphi Packard Electronics/Electrical Systems. “The current technically feasible solution seems to be hybrid power. The next step is pure electric vehicles. The next step may be fuel cell vehicles. Fuel cells may be the ultimate solution. However, it seems that the application of hydrogen fuel is still It is far away, so it is difficult to get a wide range of promotion in the near future."

Although the prospects of electric vehicles are generally optimistic, current battery technology problems hinder the application of pure electric vehicles. This is because the energy density of batteries is far inferior to gasoline, and hybrid vehicles are a compromise. "It should be said that hybrid vehicles are only a transitional product, because hybrid vehicles still need fuel and they are still not zero emissions," Liu Yixiang, application manager of Semikron Commercial Trade (Zhuhai) Co., Ltd., told reporters. The so-called hybrid device is the combination of the electric motor and the auxiliary power unit in a car as a driving force. The auxiliary power unit is actually a small fuel engine or a power generating unit; the image is to say that the traditional engine should be made as small as possible. A portion of the power is borne by the battery-motor system.

Because the hybrid vehicle is equipped with two sets of engine and motor systems at the same time, the two systems need to output power at the same time when starting and accelerating, etc.; the engine can charge the battery when decelerating; the engine works best when running smoothly. Drives the car or the electric motor separately to drive; The engine shuts off while idling. Due to the ability to recover some of the braking energy, a specially designed small internal combustion engine can operate with a higher combustion efficiency. With the optimization of the control system, the energy utilization rate can be increased from the original 60%-70% to 95% or more. Because braking energy recovery is an important reason for reducing fuel consumption and exhaust emissions, hybrid vehicles are very fuel-efficient in urban traffic conditions where congestion, acceleration, and deceleration are frequent.

IGBTs become driving highlights

The promotion of new energy vehicles has also opened up new markets for semiconductor devices. In particular, power devices and power modules represented by IGBTs (insulated gate bipolar transistors) are the core components of the drive system. Liu Yixiang, application manager of Semikron Commerce & Trade (Zhuhai) Co., Ltd., told reporters that traditional cars rely on engines to provide power, hybrid cars need motors in addition to engines, and pure electric vehicles and fuel cell cars have only electric motors, and the battery provides direct current. It needs to be converted into AC power through the inverter before it can be used to drive the motor. Therefore, whether the hybrid vehicle, the pure electric vehicle or the fuel cell vehicle requires the driver of the power module. Semiconductor manufacturers have introduced corresponding power devices and power modules for the needs of these new energy vehicles. At present, the power devices of hybrid vehicles are mostly IGBTs to meet the needs of high voltage and high power.

For the brake system, it is necessary to consider converting the braking energy into electric energy to recharge the battery. Sen Min, a managing director of Mitsubishi Electric (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., told this reporter that in addition to the motor drive, power semiconductor devices and modules can also be used for energy recovery.

Storage technology will also find its place in the field of electric vehicles. In an interview with this newspaper, Ramson Inter-national Market Strategy Manager Li Hongyin said that compared to traditional fuel vehicles, electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles need to increase electronic equipment to achieve better control, intelligence and safety/quality assurance data Collectively, this means that low-power non-volatile memory is needed, fast writes for deterministic responses are required, security-critical applications need to be started in real-time, and virtually unlimited durability is required to achieve continuous accident recording. To meet these requirements, F-RAM (non-volatile ferroelectric memory) is the best choice.

Cost and technology all need to be improved

At present, excessively high costs are still the bottleneck restricting the popularity of new energy vehicles. In order to reduce system costs, power semiconductor device and module suppliers have also adopted various strategies. According to Mitsubishi Mitsubishi Electric Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Managing Director Sen Min, Mitsubishi Electric had already started providing power semiconductor modules for hybrid vehicles as early as 10 years ago. Mitsubishi Electric will provide different solutions for customers at different stages of R&D and production. The product. For example, when customers have just introduced electric vehicle products, they can provide IGBTs for general industrial use to customers as guilds; when customers' products are mass-produced, they can provide customized IGBTs for specific systems. Effectively reduce costs.

In addition to cost bottlenecks, hybrid vehicles also face some technical obstacles. In an interview with reporters, Li Wei, director of electronic/electrical architecture engineering of Delphi Packard Electronics/Electrical Systems Asia Pacific, said that the energy density of battery systems, the volume and response speed of motor systems, and the efficiency of transmission systems are the current problems faced by hybrid vehicles. The three major difficulties that break through these difficulties require the coordination of enterprises in all aspects of the industry chain. Li Wei also said that in addition to the above difficulties, another technically impeded area is high voltage and electrical systems. Because the traditional car is usually a 12V power system, the maximum is only 24V, and now all parts of the vehicle electrical system are basically developed in accordance with this specification; but now the hybrid electric vehicle requires a large voltage level and current capacity Increased in magnitude. For example, if the hybrid power is at the level of medium-mix, the voltage requirement will generally be between 120V-144V. With the increase of the motor power, the voltage will be as high as 288V, 360V or even more than 500V. It may be even higher in the future. Applications such as these systems, high voltages, and high currents are not available on previous fuel vehicles, so hybrid electric vehicles require suppliers of electrical systems to develop new components.

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