EU approves €353m for Element 3-5 SiC facility
The European Commission has approved €659m in direct grants through German state aid to develop four first-of-a-kind semiconductor facilities.
€353m of this will go to the compound semiconductor company Element 3-5 GmbH for a facility in Baesweiler, North Rhine-Westphalia to manufacture SiC epi-wafers;
Element 3-5's SiCnature epi-wafers have a very thin, high-quality layer added on top to improve their performance compared to standard SiC-wafers.
The new type of wafers are expected to be used in end applications across various sectors including automotive, industrial, telecommunications and energy.
The project involves major improvements, notably in the manufacturing process. It will improve energy efficiency, yield and manufacturing efficiency compared to conventional hot-wall chemical vapour deposition.
The other recipients of grants are: Vishay (€214m) to establish more manufacturing capacity in Itzehoe, Schleswig-Holstein, for making next gen power MOSFETs; KLA (€74.4m) for a facility in Weilburg, Hesse, for manufacturing optical overlay and film metrology equipment; and KETEK (€17.9m) to construct two production lines for specialised silicon chips: SDD chips and GREW chips, which are key components of the SDD detectors KETEK already builds.
