GE and SUNY partnership could process 30,000 wafers annuallly, says GE
New York Power consortium has potential to capture 10 percent of SiC market
If General Electric Co. and SUNY Polytechnic Institute's New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium takes off, their manufacturing line could process 30,000 wafers a year, GE's Danielle Merfeld told the Northeast Semi Supply Conference this week at SUNY Poly campus.
Merfeld, who is leading GE's SiC program, said the facility would capture about 10 percent of the market for SiC power chips, which is about $150 million annually. Moreover, if needed, the consortium could double its capacity, she said. Any factory, however, would be built nearby to be close to the research done at GE Global Research in Niskayuna and at SUNY Poly.
GE and SUNY Poly announced the creation of the Albany consortium in July 2014 to commercialise GE's SiC technology for use in power electronics chips.The venture will invest over $500 million in the next five years. It is building a manufacturing line at SUNY Poly's Albany campus that is expected to be ready by 2017 and would serve a variety of industrial customers, including GE.
