Toyota's Challenge of applying SiC Power Semiconductors to Environmentally friendly Vehicles

摘要

The automotive industry is developing a range of electrically powered environmentally friendlyrnvehicles such as hybrid (HV), plug-in hybrid (PHV), full electric (EV), and fuel cell (FCV)rnvehicles to help reduce tailpipe CO2 emissions and achieve energy diversification. HVs arernregarded as one of the most practical types of environmentally friendly vehicle and havernalready been widely accepted by the market. Toyota Motor Corporation has positioned HVrnsystems as a core technology that can be applied to all next-generation electrically poweredrnenvironmentally friendly vehicles and is currently working to enhance the performance of HVrnsystem components. Due to its low loss operation properties, silicon carbide (SiC) powerrndevices are regarded as highly promising next generation power semiconductor devices tornhelp improve fuel efficiency and reduce the size and weight of the power control unit (PCU),rnone of the key components of a HV system. This presentation shows the development ofrnpractical automotive technologies using SiC by three members of the Toyota group: ToyotarnMotor Corporation itself, DENSO Corporation, and Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc. In morerndetail, this paper covers topics such as SiC power semiconductor device developments andrnthe trial on-board application of SiC devices to Prius, Camry and FC bus which features bothrnfuel cell technology and hybrid technology.