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ACME Advanced makes SiC Wafers in Space

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New grade of  'microgravityy' SiC wafer is electrically defect free of the mid-gap states

Last month ACME Advanced Materials, based in Alburquerque, New Mexico, announced the successful commercialisation of a process to produce large quantities of low loss, electrically defect free SiC wafers in a microgravity environment. 

According to the Albuquerque Journal, since last spring, the company has been sending batches of low-grade wafers for conversion to high-grade on contract flights in Texas, although details of the suborbital launches remain confidential.

The company has apparently signed a three-year agreement with a flight partner, and flown monthly since April.

This development creates a new grade of SiC wafer, S Grade, that are electrically defect free of the mid-gap states known to cause power loss and reliability issues in SiC devices by impeding current flow through these electrical scattering centers.

According to the company,improved electrical wafer characteristics means that device makers can expect superior performance from their Schottky diodes, MOSFETs, and other high power switching technology enabled by these S Grade wafers. This technology is also expected to lead the way towards fabrication of very large scale devices such as microprocessors and ASICs on SiC.

"We're very excited about these results on the most recent batch of 100 SiC wafers," said ACME's president Rich Glover. "It validates that our process works and more importantly, it demonstrates that we can produce these wafers consistently in commercially viable quantities." He added, "We're looking forward to working closely with industry over the next few months to build and test devices using our S Grade substrates.

He continued: "Right now the emphasis and push for commercial space is focused on launch vehicles, that's where the money is. While it is important that access to space continues to evolve and improve, the real bonanza will come from the materials and products that are manufacturable in microgravity with superior performance characteristics."

"It's hard to overstate the significance of this technology. Not only is ACME using a very unique approach to produce these wafers but the technology easily scales to larger diameter wafers - 6 and 8 inch wafers are just around the corner," said David Blivin, managing partner of Cottonwood Technology Funds. "More importantly, their technology works with all wide bandgap materials, with or without epi."

ACME Advanced Materials, Inc. (A2M) was formed to exploit breakthrough technology that was developed and demonstrated by Masterson Industries, LLC. The Masterson merger with A2M was completed on January 27, 2014 and A2M is the sole surviving entity. A2M is the parent company to a family of wholly owned subsidiaries with each subsidiary established to further develop and commercialise A2M technologies.
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