STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, has selected technology from Soitec - Euronext Paris, a leader in the design and manufacture of innovative semiconductor materials, for the production of 200mm silicon carbide (SiC) substrates.

ST announced on the 5th that it will collaborate with Soitec to produce SiC substrates.

ST announced that it will conduct a qualification evaluation of Soitec’s substrate technology over the next 18 months and that ST will adopt Soitec’s SmartSiC™ technology for the future 200mm SiC substrate manufacturing, supplying the substrates to its device and module manufacturing business.

“The transition to 200mm SiC wafers will deliver significant benefits to automotive and industrial customers as they accelerate the electrification of their systems and products. This transition is important to drive economies of scale as products reach high-volume production,” said Marco Monti, President, Automotive and Discrete Group, STMicroelectronics. “ST has adopted a vertically integrated model to maximize expertise across the entire manufacturing process, from high-quality substrates to high-volume front-end and back-end production. Our goal for this technical collaboration with Soitec is to continuously improve manufacturing yields and quality.”

“The automotive industry is undergoing a major disruption with the advent of electric vehicles,” said Bernard Aspar, Soitec’s Chief Operating Officer. “Soitec’s cutting-edge SmartSiC technology with its unique SmartCut process will play a key role in accelerating the adoption of SiC semiconductors,” he said. “The combination of Soitec’s SmartSiC substrates with ST’s industry-leading SiC technology and expertise will redefine the face of automotive chip manufacturing and set a new standard.”

Meanwhile, silicon carbide (SiC) is an innovative composite semiconductor material whose intrinsic properties offer superior performance and efficiency over silicon in key high-growth power applications in electric mobility and industrial processing.

This enables more efficient power conversion, lighter and more compact designs, and reduced overall system design costs – all of which are key parameters and factors that determine the success of automotive and industrial systems.

Moving from 150 mm to 200 mm wafers would significantly increase capacity by nearly doubling the area available for integrated circuit fabrication and increasing the number of operational chips by 1.8 to 1.9 times.

SmartSiC is made possible by Soitec’s proprietary SmartCut technology, which allows thin layers of a high-quality SiC ‘donor’ wafer to be split and bonded onto a low-resistivity ‘handle’ polySiC wafer.

Substrates manufactured in this way improve device performance and manufacturing yields. The high-quality SiC 'donor' wafers can be reused multiple times, significantly reducing the overall energy consumption of production.