X-Fab, Soitec team for SmartSiC in Texas
Belgian foundry X-fab is to offer Soitec’s SmartSiC wafers for the production of silicon carbide (SiC) power devices at its plant in Lubbock, Texas.
The successful completion of the assessment phase saw SiC power devices manufactured at X-Fab Texas on 150mm SmartSiC wafers. Soitec will offer X-Fab customers easy access to the SmartSiC substrate through a joint supply chain consignment model for automotive and power applications.
SmartSiC is a proprietary Soitec technology based on the company’s SmartCut process, where a thin layer of a high-quality monocrystalline (mono-SiC) ‘donor’ wafer is split off and bonded to a low resistivity polycrystalline (poly-SiC) ‘handler’ wafer.
The resulting substrate offers improved device performance and manufacturing yields. The process allows multiple re-uses of a single donor wafer, significantly reducing cost which are a major issue for SiC power devices.
The SmartSiC substrate enables X-Fab customers to design smaller devices, resulting in efficiency improvements through an increased number of dies per wafer and lower costs.
The benefit of reduced CO2 emissions from the substrate manufacturing process will also contribute to X-Fab’s initiative to reduce its overall carbon footprint.
Soitec is ramping production of SmartSiC substrates at its new plant of Bernin, near Grenoble, France.
- Soitec expands wafer production in France
- Soitec teams for SiC manufacturing
- Soitec, Applied team to ‘smart-cut’ silicon carbide
“As the leading SiC foundry, we want to provide our customers the full range of opportunities to design innovative and robust SiC devices for electric vehicles, renewable power and industrial applications. To offer the most advanced silicon carbide processes and manufacturing capabilities, we jointly agreed to provide our customers easy access to Soitec’s innovative SmartSiC via a consignment model,” said Sophie Le-Guyadec VP of Procurement of X-Fab.
“Soitec’s SmartSiC substrates and X-FAB’s foundry services are a perfect fit to meet increasing demand for new SiC products. This cooperation is a significant milestone for the deployment of SmartSiC in the U.S. market and internationally, thanks to X-FAB’s global footprint,” said Emmanuel Sabonnadiere, Soitec Executive Vice President Automotive and Industry.
www.soitec.com/en/; www.xfab.com
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