SDK expands High-Grade SiC wafer capacity
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.
