SDK expands High-Grade SiC wafer capacity
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Company to expand wafer capacity from 3,000 to 5,000 wafers per month next year
Showa Denko (SDK) has announced that it will increase manufacturing capacity for its high-quality-grade SiC epitaxial wafer for power devices from the current 3,000 to 5,000 wafers per month. Presently on the market under the trade-name High-Grade Epi (HGE), the expanded facility will become operational in April 2018.
Power modules for high-voltage, high-current applications mainly contain devices with the structure of SBD (Schottky Barrier Diode) and transistors with the structure of MOSFET. While manufacturers go into mass production of SiC-SBD, practical application of SiC-MOSFET required further reduction in various types of surface and crystal defects.
In HGE by SDK, the number of basal plane dislocation (BPD), a typical crystal defect, is controlled within 0.1/cm2. Since its release in October 2015, HGE has been used as a key component in SiC-SBD, and is increasingly used by device manufacturers in SiC-MOSFET. SDK is expanding its HGE production capacity as facilities are fully operational at present and we expect a stronger market for SiC-MOSFET in 2018 and beyond.