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Bridgestone to begin SiC wafer production

Bridgestone is aiming to make SiC wafers a major element of its business, adding to its successful rubber products portfolio.
Bridgestone, the Japanese company best known for its range of tires and other rubber products, is joining the growing number of businesses to offer SiC substrates. The company says that it has been developing SiC bulk growth technology and can now produce high-quality SiC wafers, which it plans to begin sampling to customers in 2004.

The company is using a powder sublimation growth method and is now producing wafers with fewer than 10 micropipe defects per cm2. Currently Bridgestone’s pilot line can produce up to 1000 2-inch wafers per month, but it expects to be able to expand this to 10,000 per month by 2010 as demand for SiC substrates takes off. It is also developing 3- and 4-inch wafers, which are required by SiC device manufacturers to lower their production costs to compete better with Si-based high-power devices.

Presently, the market for high-power devices is dominated by silicon, but as SiC devices mature and become more readily available at lower prices SiC will begin to grab market share from silicon.

Bridgestone says that SiC devices will account for 20% of the total market for high power electronics by 2010, at which point it expects its SiC substrate sales will be Y10 billion ($91 million) per year.

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