For 30 years, Soitec has been designing and manufacturing semiconductor engineered substrates. Soitec is addressing markets set to grow around 20% annually over the next years, powered by three key megatrends such as 5G/6G, Electrical Vehicles (EVs) and Artificial Intelligence. We foresee EVs to become a significant new growth driver by capturing the two main trends in this market: the Digitalization of the car, and the Electrification of mobility.
By 2030, more than 45 million of cars sold will be EVs. Thanks to its performances, by 2025 it is expected that more than 50% of EVs will use Silicon Carbide (SiC) in their power electronics systems. SmartSiC™ engineered substrates designed by Soitec are a new and unrivaled generation of SiC wafers which leverage the combination of a thin layer of single crystal SiC bonded onto an ultra high conductivity polycrystalline SiC handler, enabling unrivaled levels of current density, thus boosting electrical performance and efficiency of power devices such as MOSFETs and diodes. SmartSiC™ is a greener, faster and better solution by targeting CO2 footprint equivalent to silicon wafers, by speeding 200mm SiC wafers introduction by two years, and by lowering device specific on-resistance by up to 30%. These performances had been demonstrated at manufacturing and triggered the decision for a new fab in Soitec with first production in September 2023.
Soitec and STMicroelectronics announced last December 2022 the next stage of their collaboration, with the qualification of SmartSiC™ substrate technology in 200mm planned over the next 18 months. The goal is the qualification by STMicroelectronics of Soitec’s SmartSiC™ technology, for its future internal 200mm substrate manufacturing fabrication in high volume production.
The presentation at SemiCon West 2023 session will describe the SmartSiC process and latest results on wafers and devices and how SmartSiC™ is enabling major impacts on SiC business.
