Infineon and Epigress begin SiC epi collaboration
Infineon is utilizing the production-qualified multiwafer VP2000HW SiC Hot-Wall Planetary Reactor technology from Epigress for its in-house epitaxial capacity needs. The companies are collaborating on further development of SiC epitaxial processes to meet Infineon’s cost reduction roadmap for SiC devices.
System performance data obtained from high-volume processing will be used to further optimize the cost of ownership of SiC epitaxial processing technology. The growing demand for SiC Schottky diodes is currently driving the capacity needs for SiC epitaxial wafers.
Roland Rupp, project leader for SiC device development within the Automotive & Industrial business group at Infineon Technologies explained that it is a strategic goal of Infineon to further penetrate the high-power device market with SiC devices having an excellent cost/performance ratio.
"In addition to low-cost high-quality SiC wafers, an excellent cost efficiency in all processing steps is key," said Rupp. "Being the technology leader in SiC power device technology, it is a logical step to team up with the leading company in SiC epitaxial equipment manufacturing to address the very important point of SiC epi cost reduction. After SiC wafer costs this is the second most important cost factor influencing SiC device manufacturing expenses."
Reducing epitaxial costs will become even more important when Infineon enlarges its SiC product spectrum to include products with higher blocking voltages in the near future. Rupp says that the combination of Infineon s process know-how and the equipment-related skills of Epigress will lead to significantly reduced processing costs and will result in another milestone on Infineon s cost reduction roadmap for SiC power devices.
Frank Wischmeyer, director of Epigress AB, said that his company is delighted to co-operate with Infineon. "Teaming up with Infineon will further sustain the market development of a SiC electronic enabled by Epigress’ state-of-the-art production technology," he said.
"Using feedback from the high-volume production of SiC device products, optimization of system capacity and utilization will lead to further enhancement of cost efficiency of epitaxial processing for the benefit of our customers," continued Wischmeyer. "With our multiwafer Hot-Wall system, Epigress has already set new standards in terms of multiple 3- and 4-inch capacity systems with unique uniformity and quality of epitaxial SiC wafers.
Epigress AB of Lund, Sweden, is a member of the Aixtron Group. The company is the leading supplier of SiC CVD equipment with numerous renowned universities and industrial customers worldwide such as Linköping University, IKZ Berlin, CEA LETI Grenoble, ACREO Kista, Purdue University, Northrop Grumman, Dow Corning Compound Semiconductors, SiCED, Fraunhofer Institute, Okmetic and numerous Japanese universities and corporations.
