Despite a declining demand for electric vehicles and industrial machinery, the manufacturing capacity for silicon carbide power semiconductors is still growing worldwide.
Silicon carbide wafer and discrete semiconductor manufacturers in the US, Japan, Europe, South Korea, and China are switching from 6-inch ( 150mm ) to 8-inch ( 200mm ) diameter wafers to increase productivity and protect their businesses from politically motivated supply chain disruption.
Silicon carbide ( SiC ) is rapidly replacing ordinary silicon ( Si) as the preferred substrate for power semiconductors. Its benefits include:
- opposition to higher volts,
- sensitivity for a wider variety of noise and temperatures, and
- greater system lifetimes.
By switching from AC to DC electric power and setting the correct voltages, strength semiconductors transform the electricity produced by motors, energy systems, lighting, and other appliances.
Compared with golden, SiC-based products are more energy efficient and reliable. They are essential for the performance of both battery- and battery-charged professional technology, solar and wind power, and data centers.
The US organization Wolfspeed, the first to apply SiC and is still the largest maker of SiC wafers in the world, just received$ 2.5 billion in funding to improve and increase its 8-inch chip manufacturing capabilities in North Carolina and New York.
The money includes
- a$ 750 million award under the CHIPS Act,
- $ 750 million in loans from institutional investors Apollo, the Baupost Group, Fidelity Management &, Research Company and the Capital Group, and
- US Internal Revenue Service is anticipated to provide Section 48D advanced manufacturing tax credits of$ 1.0 billion.
The US Department of Energy identified silicon carbide as one of “one of 17 important materials” with a higher chance of supply disruption, which are essential to clean energy technologies, Wolfspeed noted in announcing the financing. The information is critical to national security, according to the US Commerce Department.
The funding will allow Wolfspeed to construct the world’s first and largest 8-inch Si factory in Mohawk Valley, New York. This should improve the company’s revenue structure and support its business communicate, which, in the estimation of European market research and consulting firm Yole, dropped from close to 50 % in 2021 to about 35 % in 2023 due to the rise of Chinese SiC chip companies.
The cheap switch from 6-inch to 8-inch chips, which has caused Wolfspeed to become a red-light, is also required by the new funding.
Wolfspeed is also in direct competition with Chinese manufacturers, who are also switching to 8-inch wafers and losing money. For the first time in a few years, Rohm, the largest Asian producer of SiC chips and devices, experienced a decline in the three weeks to September.
Selling to Taiwanese electric vehicle manufacturers, including those who sold SiC power devices, were among the reasons for this. Other factors included declining factory automation and energy demand, rising labor and materials costs, rising R&, D expenses, and amortization as a result of the company’s violent expansion of its power semiconductor business.
With higher yields and the switch from 6-inch to 8-inch ( 200mm ) wafers, which will increase the number of chips per wafer by about 1.8x, Rohm anticipates higher margins. The firm anticipates that demand from electric vehicle manufacturers and industrial customers will return to the previous decade’s upward pattern.
After purchasing European SiCrystal in 2009, Rohm is then gearing up to produce 8-inch SiC chips in Kyushu’s Miyazaki Prefecture. In Miyazaki, Rohm now produces SiC products, as well as in Kyoto, in two companies in Fukuoka Prefecture, both of which are located in Kyushu. In addition to its family firm, SiCrystal supplies STMicroelectronics (ST Micro ) and other manufacturers of energy electronics.
Rohm claims to have won more than 50 style awards from global automakers, including Geely and Xpeng, both from China. And it owns 20 % of a cooperative venture with China’s Zhenghai Group that is engaged in R&, D, style, manufacturing and sales of Such energy components in Shanghai.
In Fukuoka Prefecture’s Green Asia International Strategic Comprehensive Special Zone, Mitsubishi Electric recently made an announcement to invest ten billion dollars ($ 67 million ) to build a new facility where power semiconductor modules can be assembled and tested. It will strengthen and automated production lines that have already been dispersed, increasing both capability and effectiveness.
The new Fukuoka plant’s primary goal is to serve the electric car market in particular. It is scheduled to start operating in 2026. In the nearby Kumamoto Prefecture, Mitsubishi Electric is even building an 8-inch line and upgrading its 6-inch Such power device production lines. Coherent, a US company that manufactures business materials, may supply 8-inch SiC wafers.
Japan’s NGK Insulators and Resonac ( formerly Showa Denko ), have also developed 8-inch SiC wafers and are moving toward commercial production.
And on November 29, Denso and Fuji Electric, two companies that make up the Toyota Group, announced their plans to expand their line of SiC chips, energy semiconductors, and modules. With an investment of more than ¥200 billion ( approximately$ 1.4 billion ), up to a third of it provided by METI, the project “aims to secure supply capacity on par with market-leading European and American companies” , , according to METI Minister , Yoji Muto. Manufacturing is moving to 8-inch chips, according to Denso and Fuji Electric.
Starting in 2026, STMicroelectronics will begin manufacturing SiC in Italy, which will include 8-inch wafers, distinct strength semiconductors, and energy components. The 5-billion grow complex is expected to be operational by 2033 with help from the EU Chips Act.
STMicro may also form a partnership with Chinese company Sanan Optoelectronics to create Such power products using its proprietary production process on 8-inch SiC wafers made in a separate facility that Sanan Optoelectronics did build, own, and run. Beginning in the late 2025, STMicroelectronics may start selling the products to customers in China.
According to market research firm TrendForce, STMicro holds the top position for SiC power devices ( not wafers ) on the global market, accounting for about a third of that market.
Bosch, an auto parts manufacturer, intends to begin producing energy supplies on 8-inch SiC chips in 2026, both through an update to its 6-inch service in Germany and through an acquisition of a factory in California.
Nvidia, which began production of Such energy devices at a stock in Kulim, Malaysia, in August, buys wafers from many vendors including Wolfspeed, South Korea’s Stat Siltron and Taiwanese companies TankeBlue and SICC. Infineon plans to develop its Kulim 3 plant into” the world’s largest and most competitive 200-millimeter silicon carbide ( SiC ) power semiconductor fab, “going head -to-head with Wolfspeed.
According to TrendForce, SICC has achieved stable mass production of 8-inch substrates, TankeBlue is ramping up production, and two other Chinese companies, Shanxi Semisic Crystal and Synlight Semiconductor, are also capable of making them.
On top of that, on November 13, SICC announced the world’s first 12-inch ( 300mm ) SiC wafers, perhaps getting ahead of itself, but raising the bar and reminding the world that the Chinese are not just copycats.
Silicon wafers typically produce the majority of their semiconductors using 300mm. The material handling issue has caused SiC wafer sizes to decrease. When using 12-inch wafers, which have equivalent yields, the number of chips per wafer is roughly 2.25x higher than those of 8-inch wafers.
In addition to making or planning to make power devices on 8-inch SiC substrates, at least a dozen other businesses are making or preparing to do so, Yole projects a 24 % compound annual growth in sales of almost$ 10 billion over the next six years, reaching almost$ 10 billion. Through 2026, capital spending is expected to surpass sales. After that, companies and governments will expect to profit from their investments.
The SiC wafer and device market, which have production in “many locations around the world and no government able to impose its will on the market or development of the technology, may serve as a model for future resilient supply chains.
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