Renesas and Wolfspeed sign 10 year SiC wafer agreement
$2B deposit to Wolfspeed secures supply agreement for both 150mm and 200mm SiC wafers
Renesas Electronics and Wolfspeed have announced a wafer supply agreement and $2 billion deposit by Renesas to secure a ten year supply commitment of SiC bare and epitaxial wafers from Wolfspeed.
The supply of SiC wafers from Wolfspeed will pave the way for Renesas to scale production of SiC power semiconductors starting in 2025. The signing ceremony of the agreement (pictured above) was held at Renesas’ headquarters in Tokyo between Hidetoshi Shibata, president and CEO of Renesas, and Gregg Lowe, president and CEO of Wolfspeed.
The decade-long supply agreement calls for Wolfspeed to provide Renesas with 150mm SiC bare and epitaxial wafers scaling in CY2025, reinforcing the companies’ vision for an industry-wide transition from silicon to SiC semiconductor power devices. The agreement also anticipates supplying Renesas with 200mm SiC bare and epitaxial wafers after the recently announced John Palmour Manufacturing Center for SiC is fully operational.
Renesas is moving quickly to address the growing demand for power semiconductors by expanding its in-house manufacturing capacity. The company recently announced the restart of its Kofu Factory to produce IGBTs, and establishment of a SiC production line at its Takasaki Factory.
“The wafer supply agreement with Wolfspeed will provide Renesas with a stable, long-term supply base of high-quality SiC wafers. This empowers Renesas to scale our power semiconductor offerings to better serve customers’ vast array of applications,” said Hidetoshi Shibata, president and CEO of Renesas. “We are now poised to elevate ourselves as a key player in the accelerating SiC market.”
“With the steepening demand for SiC across the automotive, industrial and energy sectors, it’s critically important we have best-in-class power semiconductor customers like Renesas to help lead the global transition from silicon to SiC,” said Gregg Lowe, President and CEO of Wolfspeed. “For more than 35 years, Wolfspeed has focused on producing SiC wafers and high-quality power devices, and this relationship marks an important step in our mission to save the world energy.”
The Renesas $2 billion deposit will help support Wolfspeed’s ongoing capacity construction projects including the JP, the world’s largest SiC materials factory in Chatham County, North Carolina. The facility is targeted to generate a more than ten-fold increase from Wolfspeed’s current SiC production capacity on its Durham, North Carolina campus.
