$200m for 200mm GaN and SiC in Hamburg
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Nexperia is to invest €184m ($200m) into its site in Hamburg, Germany to boost R&D and process development for gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) power technologies using 200mm wafers.
At the same time, Nexperia plans to increase 200mm silicon wafer fab capacity for diodes and discrete power transistors at Hamburg will be increased.
All three technologies (SiC, GaN, and Si) will be developed and produced in Germany starting in June 2024 for data centre power. First production lines for high-voltage GaN D-Mode transistors and SiC diodes started in June 2024.
Nexperia announced a significant investment in GaN reactors for Hamburg back in 2021 as part of a $700m programme.
The next milestone will be modern and cost-efficient 200 mm production lines for SiC MOSFETs and GaN HEMTs which will be established at the Hamburg factory over the next two years. ST, Infineon Wolfspeed, Mitsubishi and onsemi are all focussing on the production of both 200mm SiC wafers and power devices
At the same time, the investment by Nexperia, which is headquartered in the Netherlands but owned by Wingtech in China, will help to further automate the existing infrastructure at the Hamburg site and expand silicon production capacity by systematically converting to 200 mm wafers. Following the expansion of the clean room areas, new R&D laboratories are being built to continue to ensure a seamless transition from research to production in the future.
“This investment strengthens our position as a leading supplier of energy-efficient semiconductors and enables us to utilize available electrical energy more responsibly,” said Achim Kempe, COO and managing director at Nexperia Germany.
“In the future, our Hamburg fab will cover the complete range of WBG semiconductors while still being the largest factory for small signal diodes and transistors. We remain committed to our strategy of producing high-quality, cost-efficient semiconductors for standard applications and power-intensive applications, while addressing one of the greatest challenges of our generation: meeting the growing demand for energy and while reducing the environmental footprint.”
Nexperia works closely with universities and research institutes to benefit from each other’s expertise and promote highly qualified employee training and relies on a robust research and development ecosystem in Hamburg and with the Industrial Affiliation Program (IIAP) of the imec nanoelectronics research centre in Belgium
“The planned investment enables us to bring WBG chip design and production to Hamburg. However, SiC and GaN are by no means new territory for Nexperia. GaN FETs have been part of our portfolio since 2019, and in 2023 we expanded our range of products to include SiC diodes and SiC MOSFETs, the latter in collaboration with Mitsubishi Electric. Nexperia is one of the few suppliers to offer a comprehensive range of semiconductor technologies, including Si, SiC, and GaN in both e-mode and d-mode. This means, we offer our customers a one-stop shop for all their semiconductor needs,” saidStefan Tilger, CFO and managing director at Nexperia Germany.
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