The Solid-State Shift: Reinventing the Transformer for Modern Grids

figure no. 1 is missing green color on HVAC transmission line. i do not have ExTwitter and i do not know other way to let them know.

it is interesting to think about human made object in terms of how much materials they use, for example big old transformer contains 2 tons of iron, new solid-state transformer with same capacity uses only 300 kg of silicon (Si), 120kg kg of plastics and 50 kg of copper.

E-mail the author spatel@powermag.com [1].

[1] https://www.powermag.com/contact-us/

Why do solid-state transformers need so much silicon?

Because they contain long cascades of these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulated-gate_bipolar_transis... to be arranged into these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_electronics

Where are your weight figures coming from, they are not in the linked article.

Packaged semiconductors are going to be more metal interconnect / plastic encapsulation / ceramic insulation than silicon by weight.

These systems will also have a significant weight fraction in magnetic materials, either ferrite ceramics or amorphous metals.

Still a huge weight savings, but the weight fractions you are giving see off and are missing some important materials.

As a sibling comment implies, high-power IGBTs are still built from small and thin silicon dies with most of the module being heat spreader, insulator, interconnect and packaging. Even MW-class modules probably contain a gram or so of Si.