Renesas signing a 10-year provide settlement with Wolfspeed for silicon carbide (SiC) naked and epitaxial wafers is one other stark reminder of an industry-wide transition from silicon to SiC semiconductor energy gadgets throughout a number of high-volume purposes spanning electrical automobiles (EVs), renewable vitality and storage, charging infrastructure, industrial energy provides, and traction and variable velocity drives.
What’s additionally value noting is that Renesas will make a deposit of $2 billion to safe the availability on this multi-decade settlement beginning in 2025. This $2 billion deposit will assist Wolfspeed’s ongoing capacity-building tasks, together with John Palmour Manufacturing Middle for Silicon Carbide or the JP, the world’s largest SiC supplies plant in Chatham County, North Carolina. The JP is focused to generate a greater than 10-fold enhance from Wolfspeed’s present SiC manufacturing capability in its Durham, North Carolina facility.
That additionally signifies that whereas Wolfspeed will begin offering Renesas with 150-mm SiC naked and epitaxial wafers in 2025, the association will ultimately increase to 200-mm wafers when the JP is totally operational. And it’s not the one multi-year, multi-country association increasing from 150-mm to 200-mm SiC wafers.
A few months in the past, Infineon signed a pact with Chinese language SiC supplies provider TanKeBlue to safe further SiC wafers. Whereas the settlement will give attention to 150-mm SiC materials within the first section, TanKeBlue may also present 200-mm SiC materials to assist Infineon’s transition to 200-mm wafers. Likewise, Qorvo has not too long ago finalized a multi-year provide settlement for SiC naked and epitaxial wafers with SK Siltron CSS, a semiconductor wafer producer primarily based in South Korea.
The multi-year side of those offers underscores that SiC semiconductor suppliers are assured of SiC adoption in automotive, industrial, and vitality markets. In consequence, they’re eager to make sure a secure, long-term provide base of high-quality SiC wafers. The second revelation from these bulletins is the keenly awaited transition from 150-mm to 200-mm SiC wafers, as it’ll translate into extra chips per wafer and thus decrease system prices.
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