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

[mppm]

Why do solid-state transformers need so much silicon?

[LargoLasskhyfv → mppm]

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

[mppm → LargoLasskhyfv]

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.