Taming Defects and Improving Quality
Advance manufacturing techniques enable SiC wafers with state-of-the-art characteristics. Low defect densities and exceptional crystal qualities result in robust contacts for reliable performance.
Manufacturing SiC devices in volume fabs alongside silicon can take advantage of economies of scale to cut fabrication costs, with savings passed on directly to end customers.
High-Voltage Power Supplies
Power supplies are essential components of many industrial, manufacturing, scientific, medical and analytical applications. They supply electricity to lights, appliances and specialized hospital X-ray machines or semiconductor fabrication machinery as well as driving piezoelectric elements found in MRI scanners or precision devices that need action from electric fields or electrons generated at high voltages.
SiC offers many advantages to users of high-voltage power supplies, including cost savings and increased equipment life. SiC’s thin material reduces power losses caused by conduction and switching, and its high thermal conductivity lessens cooling component requirements – all making it perfect for energy-efficient designs that meet internal requirements, industry quality standards and regulatory mandates.
High-voltage power supplies can be divided into AC or DC input types depending on what kind of energy they accept from the grid, offering either single outputs with fixed positive polarity or reversible polarity options and single or dual positive outputs with positive or reversible polarity options. Many rack-mount and benchtop high-voltage supplies can even be controlled remotely using digital or analog signals, making them suitable for automated test equipment or manufacturing process automation automation.
High-voltage power supplies can be customized for various applications based on voltage, current, and ripple control needs. For instance, an X-ray machine typically needs higher output voltage while electron beam welding equipment may need lower voltage levels. Wattage depends on which power level is necessary.
Industrial Applications
Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductors offer unparalleled benefits for industrial applications. Their efficiency, smaller size, lighter weight, faster switching frequency, greater reliability and reduced system costs all combine to drive lower system costs while improving system costs overall. Unfortunately, however, due to their high current densities and switching frequencies they require special processing technologies unavailable today’s foundries; that is why X-FAB became the first pure-play SiC foundry investing in capabilities to support all stages of both these exotic materials processes – making X-FAB an industry pioneer in both these advanced materials.
SiC devices remain an expensive business to produce due to wafer production costs and complexity; however, technological innovations in epitaxial growth and device design can help overcome such hurdles.
SiC’s high breakdown electric field and low intrinsic carrier concentration make it ideal for power electronics in electric vehicles and renewable energy systems, with higher voltages at elevated temperatures being handled effectively while its excellent thermal conductivity efficiently dissipating heat – ideal in rugged environments where heat dissipation is important.
Manufacturers wishing to maximize the potential of SiC devices require high-quality wafers with diverse properties. High-resolution etching is critical in precise fabrication, structure definition, and performance optimization; due to SiC’s hardness it has low photoresist selectivity which necessitates using specialty masks and etch steps. At NREL they are currently researching a room temperature aluminum implantation process which could eliminate basal plane dislocations thus simplifying SiC MOSFET fabrication and improving performance.
Renewable Energy
SiC semiconductors can withstand higher voltage fluctuations and temperatures than silicon-based devices, making them suitable for use in electric vehicle power electronics as well as renewable energy systems. Unfortunately, their higher upfront cost often prevents adoption in price-sensitive markets and the technology is often disregarded altogether.
To combat this, fabs such as Kulim’s work closely with local universities and polytechnics to provide students with real-world experience before graduation. While it takes about eight months before they can contribute directly to production processes, by then they’ve acquired valuable skills that can only come from working directly in an industrial environment.
Fab’s contribution to keeping talent flowing by working with local schools and colleges to provide equipment they need for final year projects is also invaluable, giving students an idea of what it would be like working as an engineer at cutting-edge fabs, helping them decide if this path is truly for them.
The US National Multi-User Silicon Carbide Research Fab provides access to low-volume SiC fabrication capabilities for the development and prototyping of novel ideas that will advance American research in semiconductor technology. Veliadis points out that existing 150mm silicon manufacturing lines can be transformed into SiC manufacturing lines by adapting processes and purchasing key tools like high temperature implanters for approximately $20 Million.
Data Center Power Supplies
Data centers are complex engineering facilities that require sophisticated power management systems. These include electrical and power distribution equipment which distributes energy throughout their equipment racks; cooling systems to maintain optimal temperatures within the data center; backup generators; and uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs).
Data center power solutions offer stable and regulated electricity for facility equipment, often including software to manage energy use. Furthermore, these systems can optimize resource use such as tracking power consumption or load balancing strategies to maximize resource use. Such systems are integral in maintaining reliability for data centers during emergencies or power fluctuations and must continue functioning smoothly in such circumstances.
Kulim is home to an expansive program that brings engineers from local universities and polytechnics together in order to work on power semiconductors and gallium nitride (GaN) epitaxy processes, with engineers learning about and gaining experience from these processes before graduation from these programs. By then, these engineers have already made meaningful contributions that have kept data centers running smoothly.
At our fab, utility power enters via a main electrical service entrance, where it is transformed by transformers to lower voltage levels before entering electrical switchgear or an automatic transfer switch (ATS), which transfers it between utility power and backup as needed. Furthermore, an ATS distributes energy stored in batteries to our UPS system to ensure continued operations in case of outages or other disruptions.
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