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2023

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What are new energy ceramics?


After BYD announced that it would stop the production of fuel vehicles and focus on the business of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, on November 24, Dongfeng Fengxing also announced the comprehensive layout of the new energy track at the new energy strategy conference with the theme of "popular and leading the way". It will realize 100% electrification within three years and stop production of fuel vehicles within five years. Nowadays, the electric transformation of car companies has become a big stream. While many domestic car companies have successively stated that they will stop production of fuel vehicles, overseas are also actively embracing the electric wave.

 

The shift in the production of fuel vehicles to new energy electric vehicles will inevitably lead to the replacement and adjustment of the various assembly parts behind them, what role can advanced ceramics play in them? According to the available information, we can look at the following aspects:

 

1. Ceramic relay products for new energy vehicles
Electronic control technology is an important symbol to measure the development level of new energy energy-saving electric vehicles. High-voltage DC ceramic relays can also become the core components of electronic control systems.

 

Traditional relays are limited by their own manufacturing technology (especially small contact gaps). When high-voltage DC and low-power inductive loads are connected, the relay contacts are extremely prone to bonding failure or connection arc fire contact system failure.

 

In response to this phenomenon, some researchers have developed a new type of high-voltage DC vacuum relay. In the vacuum chamber sealed by metal and ceramic, the ceramic insulator is slidably connected between the moving contact assembly and the push rod, so that the moving contact The static contact can maintain good electrical insulation with the magnetic circuit system composed of the magnetic yoke iron plate, iron core and other parts of the relay in any state of conduction or disconnection, this ensures the arc breaking capability of the relay when switching DC high voltage loads.

 

Arcing is the main cause of auto-ignition. Only the use of "arc-free" on-off relay products is the best way to fundamentally solve the problem of "spontaneous combustion" of automobiles. The insulation characteristics of ceramics can play a role here. The high-voltage DC ceramic relay is mainly divided into two parts: ceramic shell and metal moving contact, of which the most important ceramic shell material is 95 alumina ceramic.

 

2. High-reliability silicon nitride ceramic copper-clad substrate products for a new generation of IGBT templates for electric vehicles
The electronic control system is a key component of electric vehicles. Its main components include system integration and software, chips and special devices, IGBT modules, vehicle sensors, electronic control modules and connectors. Among them, the ICBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor) module is the "central nervous system" of the entire electronic control system, and is the core plate of electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles and charging pile drive systems, accounting for 40% to 50% of the total cost of the controller.

 

Ceramic copper clad substrate is one of the key packaging materials of IGBT module. As a composite material of copper-ceramic-copper "sandwich" structure, it has the characteristics of good heat dissipation, high insulation, high mechanical strength, thermal expansion and chip matching, and has the characteristics of strong current carrying capacity of oxygen-free copper, good welding and bonding performance and high thermal conductivity.

 

At present, ceramic copper clad substrates are divided into alumina ceramic copper clad laminate, aluminum nitride ceramic copper clad laminate and silicon nitride ceramic copper clad laminate according to different ceramic materials. Compared with silicon nitride copper clad substrates, their performance is better. Its biggest feature is that it has incomparable reliability with other ceramic substrates, I .e. it has the characteristics of high strength and high thermal conductivity of silicon nitride ceramics, and has high reliability after combining with active metal welding process, it becomes the most promising material in the packaging of high-voltage and high-power IGBT modules. Especially in the field of electric vehicles, which require higher reliability and miniaturization.

 

Japan's Kyocera using active metal welding process to prepare a silicon nitride ceramic copper clad substrate, its temperature cycle resistance (-40~125 ℃) up to 5000 times, can carry more than 300A current, has been used in electric vehicles, aerospace and other fields.

 

3. Ceramic high voltage contactor for new energy electric vehicle
Ceramic high-voltage contactors are widely used in new energy electric vehicles, charging piles, battery power supply, inverter capacitor pre-charging, DC power control, circuit protection and other electric vehicles (electric forklifts) power switch control, but also for uninterruptible power supply And other electronic control systems.