Germany to have world's largest SIC device manufacturing: Wolf speed Announces.

07 Feb 2023

Wolfspeed has announced plans to build a highly automated, cutting-edge 200 mm wafer fabrication facility in Saarland, Germany. The company’s first fab in Europe will be its most advanced, creating a breakthrough innovation in SiC device development and production facility in the European Union to support growing demand for a wide variety of automotive, industrial and energy applications.

The Wolfspeed facility is planned as part of a collaboration within the IPCEI for Microelectronics and Communication Technologies framework and is dependent upon state aid approval from the European Commission.  IPCEI funding is intended to support technology development and initial deployment within this project. ZF Friedrichshafen also intends to support the new construction by making a sizable financial investment as part of a new strategic partnership announced separately.

The European fab announcement is an important part of the company’s broader $6.5 billion capacity expansion effort, which includes opening of the company’s 200 mm Mohawk Valley device fab in April 2022, and the construction of The John Palmour Manufacturing Center for Silicon Carbide, a 445-acre (180 hectare) Silicon Carbide materials facility in North Carolina, which will expand the company’s existing materials capacity by more than 10x. The first phase of construction for the materials facility is slated to be complete by the end of FY2024.

The announcement was made at an event on the 35-acre (14-hectare) site of the planned fab, a former coal-fired power plant in Saarland, Germany. Wolfspeed also announced a strategic partnership with ZF that includes an investment in Wolfspeed as well as a joint Silicon Carbide R&D facility in Germany, which is part of the same IPCEI framework. Fab construction is anticipated to begin in the first half of 2023, subject to approval by the EU Commission.

The fab will be designed for groundbreaking manufacturing processes to produce the future generation of SiC devices. The new fab will also employ innovative sustainability measures, including high percentages of recycled water and a reduced emission footprint, which will serve as a model for more sustainable fabs in the future. The fab will employ more than 600 people when fully operational.

SiC device’s adoption is rapidly growing across multiple markets, including renewable energy and energy storage, electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, industrial power supplies, traction and variable speed drives. Silicon Carbide enables smaller, lighter, and more cost-effective designs, converting energy more efficiently to enable countless new clean energy applications.