Coherent recently unveiled its 200 mm wafer production to meet rising demand for SiC power semiconductors used in applications such as electric vehicles and energy infrastructure. The larger size provides an increased usable area that ensures better yields and cost efficiencies for device manufacturers.
Cr4+ defect spins in wide bandgap semiconductors have long been recognized as potential quantum information sources, thanks to their long ground state spin T1 time.1,2 This characteristic makes Cr4+ defect spins an attractive candidate qubit for long distance quantum communication and entanglement.
High-quality semi-insulating substrates
Coherent, a maker of high-tech equipment with its headquarters located in Palmer Township, recently sold stakes in its silicon carbide business to two Japanese electric vehicle market suppliers who will each invest $500 million into Coherent to help expand its 200mm n-type 4H-SiC substrate production capacity.
SiC substrates market is growing with demand for power semiconductors and thermal management solutions in various industries. This growth can be attributed to electric vehicles, smart grid infrastructure, renewable energy technologies as well as their use in electronic devices with their high temperature operation capability.
Companies investing in power electronics production capacity and technology improvements to keep up with rising demands have invested heavily to meet rising power electronics demand, increasing production capacities and improving technology. To remain competitive in the global silicon carbide substrates market, leading players have employed various strategies to strengthen their position – product launches, partnerships, agreements, collaborations contracts acquisitions cooperations expansions.
Wolfspeed, Inc. of the US, SICC Co. Ltd of China, SOITEC of France and GlobalWafers Co. Ltd of Taiwan are the key players in the silicon carbide substrates market today. Each has implemented various strategies including product launches, partnerships agreements collaborations contracts acquisitions expansions to increase their market shares within this lucrative field.
High-efficiency power electronics
Silicon carbide has long been recognized for its efficiency and reliability in power electronics applications. For example, its use in hybrid vehicle DC-DC converters and bidirectional inverters helps them charge faster while improving overall vehicle performance. Furthermore, silicon carbide’s dense power density and reduced size passive components allows for a more compact system – especially as governments around the world impose tougher emissions standards and offer incentives to promote green energy technologies.
Conductive SiC substrates can also help increase the operating speed of power semiconductors used in high-voltage applications, offering significant advantages in systems subject to transient conditions. Furthermore, this technology reduces waste heat generated by power transistors thereby increasing efficiency.
Recent advancements in power electronics include the production of 200-mm SiC epi-wafers. This advancement allows for larger devices with improved performance to meet demand in electric cars and renewable energy, and may help lower costs overall.
Coherent, Mitsubishi Electric and DENSO have come together to collaborate in creating large-wafer substrates through a collaboration agreement. Under its terms, each of the Japanese companies will invest $500 million in Coherent’s silicon carbide business (“Business”) in exchange for 12.5% non-controlling ownership interests in Coherent; additionally, long-term supply arrangements will be entered into with them to meet demand for 150 mm and 200 mm SiC substrates and epitaxial wafers from Coherent’s silicon carbide Business (“Business”).
High-speed switching
Coherent silicon carbide allows higher switching speeds in power semiconductor devices, leading to reduced losses and power conversion costs, but also creating new challenges such as precision test and measurement tools, circuit parasitics generating excessive voltage spikes, noncompliance with EMI regulations and switching losses.
Coherent has developed several best practices that have become industry standards for dealing with these challenges, such as reducing parasitics and choosing high quality materials. Furthermore, they’ve set their sights on lowering manufacturing costs through improved process parameters and adopting cutting edge technologies.
Coherent has recently made investments to drive up demand for SiC chips, used in applications requiring large power conversion such as boosting motors and inverters for electric vehicles. Their II-VI heritage will allow them to capitalize on this market growth by expanding production at their Saxonburg facility.
Coherent recently unveiled an expansion of their 200 mm wafer production line to produce substrates and epi-wafers with thicknesses ranging between 350 micron and 500 micron, providing increased production efficiency and enhanced quality control for customers. Larger wafers provide an 1.8x increase in usable area for improved productivity while decreasing costs among power electronics manufacturers.
High-temperature operation
As electric vehicles (EVs) become mainstream products, manufacturers need to find ways to lower initial purchase price, operating costs, charging time and increase driving range and battery storage capacity. Coherence properties found within SiC defect spin states hold great promise in helping achieve all these objectives.
Coherent is helping electric vehicle (EV) producers take full advantage of these benefits by creating a new subsidiary focused on silicon carbide semiconductors. Their vertically integrated production processes produce substrates and epiwafers as well as devices and modules using proprietary technologies for coherent point defect control requiring superior material quality.
Substitutional impurities tend to align with their relative radius compared to that of Si or C atoms in crystal lattices; however, certain substitutional impurities defy this expectation; for instance, in 6H-SiC, chrome incorporates into an alternate site rather than that of carbon atoms.
At ambient conditions, PDMR allows for accurate reading out of the defect spin ensemble in a 4H-SiC device. This method employs an oscillating magnetic field to measure vibrational frequencies associated with electrons in both ground and excited states of a defect defect; this allows measuring their relative populations while using vibrational frequencies to determine quantum spin polarization and state.
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