Applied Materials Announces New SiC200mm Wafer Cutting Technology
🟩 Applied Materials Develops Equipment for SiC Large-Diameter
Applied Materials (AMAT), a leading semiconductor manufacturing equipment company, has announced a new product for the compound semiconductor SiC (silicon carbide). SiC power semiconductors have superior energy conversion efficiency compared to ordinary silicon power semiconductors, and demand is expanding in applications such as electric vehicles and solar power generation.
AMAT has developed a CMP device, a device that sharpens and flattens wafer surfaces in the semiconductor manufacturing process. Defective surface quality of SiC wafers can degrade chip electrical performance, power efficiency, reliability, and yield. SiC is harder than ordinary silicon, and 200mm wafer CMP equipment for SiC is more difficult to develop than silicon.
🟩Development of large-diameter SiC is progressing
Power semiconductor companies are investing in the SiC supply chain to increase the diameter of SiC, which is currently manufactured on 150mm wafers, to 200mm. The number of dies that can be taken from a single 200 mm wafer is about twice as large as that of a 150 mm, thereby increasing production capacity.
We are collaborating on the development of equipment. Cree is a manufacturer with a 60% global share of SiC substrates, and sells SiC power semiconductors as well as SiC devices under its own brand Wolfspeed.
🟩 Trends of Power Semiconductor Companies
Power semiconductor companies other than Cree are also developing larger diameter SiCs. Infineon, the foremost, plans to develop mass production of 200 mm wafers in 2025.
Onsemi announced that it will accelerate development by acquiring SiC board manufacturer GTAT.
STMicroelectronics is developing wafers to 200mm at Norstel, a SiC substrate manufacturer it acquired in 2019.
🟩Summary
Applied Materials Anticipates Growing Demand for SiC Power Semiconductors and Develops Equipment for Larger Wafer Diameters
AMAT is currently the leading CMP equipment company. There are CMP equipment companies like Ebara Manufacturing in Japan, and there is still a Japan strong presence in power semiconductors, so I would like to launch Japan technology to the world.
