NGK looks to Europe as it doubles power substrate production
NGK Insulators is planning a European plant for its silicon nitride ceramic substrate technology for power modules as it doubles production.
NGK, based in Nagoya, Japan, is aiming for sales of ¥20bn (€122m, $131m ) by 2030 for its AMB substrate for power modules. It aims to increase production by 2.5 times with a ¥5bn (€30m, $33m) investment to 250,000 substrates a month by 2026 for automotive applications in particular.
The AMB substrates for power modules are currently manufactured by NGK’s subsidiaries. NGK Ceramic Device in Komaki, Aichi Prefecture, handles the front end-processing such as bonding, whereas NGK Electronics Devices in Mine, Yamaguchi Prefecture and Penang, Malaysia, handle the back end-process such as etching and plating.
NGK’s investment will boost facilities at NCDK and in Malaysia to expand the capacity from the current 100,000 AMB substrates a month to approximately 250,000 in the fiscal year 2026.
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AMB substrate technology is used in power modules for motor drives and converting power in generators. By dissipating heat generated when power semiconductors are operated, the substrates for power modules play a central role in providing stable operation. 
The substrate is comprised of a ceramic plate made of nitride-based material and two copper plates. Using NGK’s proprietary bonding technology, it is possible to make the bonding layers between the ceramic and copper with an extremely thin structure of just a few microns. This greatly reduces the thermal resistance and internal strain in the bonding layer, resulting in high reliability and excellent thermal dissipation characteristics.
These are used in inverters for motor control in Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV), as well as being increasingly used in Silicon Carbide (SiC) power semiconductors, which require stability even in high power and high temperature environments. The substrate technology has been adopted by several European and Japanese power module manufacturers since 2019 and demand from automotive application is expanding in conjunction with the global growth of xEVs, and the outlook for this market is positive over the medium- to long-term.
This is part of a plan to generate at least ¥100.0bn in net sales from the new business fields by 2030.
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