Post Buying Request

Monolith & X-FAB Partner on SiC Power Diode & MOSFET Production

Silicon carbide diode and MOSFET supplier Monolith Semiconductor Inc of Ithaca, NY, USA has formed a strategic partnership with silicon-based analogfoundry X-FAB TX, USA to manufacture 150mm SiC wafers in a high‐volume production line.

From: www.semiconductor-today.comDate: 2014-06-16 01:31:34Views: 433

Silicon carbide (SiC) diode and MOSFET supplier Monolith Semiconductor Inc of Ithaca, NY, USA has formed a strategic partnership with silicon-based analog/mixed-signal foundry X-FAB Texas Inc of Lubbock, TX, USA to manufacture 150mm SiC wafers in a high‐volume production line.

Currently, the high cost of SiC devices has limited the widespread adoption of SiC power diodes and MOSFETs, says Monolith. The partnership aims to dramatically lower the cost, improve reliability and expand availability of SiC diodes and MOSFETs, enabling their widespread adoption in high-performance and high‐efficiency power electronics systems.

"Monolith's revolutionary SiC MOSFET design and silicon-compatible processes enable manufacturing of high‐performance and highly reliable SiC MOSFETs in a cost‐effective CMOS fab," says the firm's CEO Sujit Banerjee. "X-FAB Texas has a long history of delivering high-quality semiconductor products to automotive and industrial customers," he comments. "We have already transitioned Monolith's SiC technology into X-FAB's CMOS fab and have demonstrated 1200V SiC devices manufactured on 150mm SiC wafers."

"The SWITCHES program is designed to develop new wide-bandgap semiconductor devices promising increased switching frequency, enhanced high-temperature operation, and reduced power losses at substantially lower cost relative to today's solutions," comments SWITCHES program director Tim Heidel. "With SWITCHES just over six months under way, we are excited to see our project teams already beginning to show positive signs toward reaching their technical and market goals."

In addition to the SiC device developments under the ARPA‐E SWITCHES program, Monolith and X-FAB are anchor partners of the newly formed PowerAmerica manufacturing nstitute centred at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and funded by US Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office.

"We are excited to be part of the institute which will further improve the manufacturability and cost of SiC power devices," comments Andy Wilson, X-FAB's director of strategic marketing.

"With X-FAB's high-quality TS-16949 manufacturing capability, we are poised to support SiC power device manufacturing for Monolith Semiconductor," he adds. "We are fabricating SiC power devices using our existing 150mm silicon production facility, and this will break the primary cost barriers and allow proliferation of SiC power devices."

Monolith aims to offer 900-1700V SiC diodes and MOSFETs and is preparing for SiC power device sampling in early 2015.--iAbrasive report

share:

Top News

Sponsored links