Coherent secures $15M CHIPS funding through CLAWS Hub
Investment will accelerate commercialisation of next-generation wide- and ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors
Coherent, a US maker of wide- and ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors, has secured $15 million in funding from the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.
One of the key objectives of the CHIPS program is to nurture ecosystems that reduce risk, encouraging large-scale private investment in production, breakthrough technologies, and workers. To that end, the DoD, through the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division and the National Security Technology Accelerator, established eight Microelectronics Commons regional innovation hubs in September. These include the Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors (CLAWS) Hub based in North Carolina and led by NC State University.
As a member of the CLAWS Hub, Coherent will receive $15 million to accelerate the commercialisation of next-generation wide- and ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors, namely, SiC and single-crystal diamond, respectively.
“We are excited to be recipients of funding from the CHIPS Act, delighted to be part of the CLAWS Hub, and proud to help the U.S. establish a strategic, long-term leadership position in these critical next-generation semiconductor technologies,” said Sohail Khan, executive VP Wide-Bandgap Electronics.
“Wide- and ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors enable the electrification of transportation, including road vehicles, high-speed trains, and mobile industrial machinery. They also enable smart power grids to efficiently respond to fluctuations in energy demands by regulating the delivery of electricity from conventional and renewable sources to distribution networks, as well as to and from utility-scale power storage and microgrids.”
In addition to DoD requirements for high-voltage, high-power applications and systems including hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), more electric aircraft (MEA) components, directed energy, Navy vessel power systems, and all-electric ships, SiC power electronics are increasingly recognised for their potential to greatly improve the energy efficiency of AI data centres and traditional hyperscale data centres, where power consumption is growing rapidly due to the exploding demand for data- and compute-intensive workloads from AI, cryptocurrency mining, and blockchain applications.
Single-crystal diamond promises to exceed the performance of silicon carbide and greatly expand the applications universe with quantum computing, quantum encryption, and quantum sensing.
