Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 3


Modeling SiC defects The Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) has developed a model that reveals the nature of crystal defects in silicon carbide (SiC). Defectivity is an issue for SiC, a compound semiconductor material based on silicon and carbon. Today, SiC is used to make specialized power semiconductors for high-voltage applications, such as electric ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers In its latest move to cut costs and focus on its core business, GlobalFoundries (GF) has announced plans to jettison its U.S. photomask operations in Burlington, Vt., but the foundry vendor will maintain a stake in its joint venture mask unit. Under the plan, Toppan Photomasks will acquire certain assets of GF’s Burlington photomask facility. “GF is transferring its mask tool... » read more

Silicon Carbide’s Superpowers


As we enter a new computing era driven by the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), demand is growing for more energy-efficient chips. In this context, we usually think about Moore’s Law and reducing the size of transistors. However, advances in power semiconductors are not governed by node size reduction. Silicon power switches, such as MOSFETs and IGBTs, ar... » read more

Reliability Comparison of 28 V – 50 V GaN-on-SiC S-Band and X-Band Technologies


This paper discusses the reliability performance of Wolfspeed GaN/AlGaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) MMIC released process technologies, fabricated on 100 mm high purity semi-insulating (HPSI) 4H-SiC substrates. The intrinsic reliability performance of the 28 V and 40 V technologies, with 400 nm and 250 nm gate length, has been characterized with DC accelerated life test (DC-ALT), f... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers TSMC posted mixed results for the second quarter. It also presented a mixed outlook for the third quarter, according to various reports. TSMC and Samsung are in the midst of a foundry battle at 7nm and 5nm. “TSMC raised its 2019 capex outlook to over $11B, up from prior guidance of $10B-$11B. The increased capex is to support 5nm and 7nm ramps, with accelerated 5G investment a... » read more

200mm Cools Off, But Not For Long


After years of acute shortages, 200mm fab capacity is finally loosening up, but the supply/demand picture could soon change with several challenges on the horizon. 200mm fabs are older facilities with more mature processes, although they still churn out a multitude of today’s critical chips, such as analog, MEMS, RF and others. From 2016 to 2018, booming demand for these and other chips ca... » read more

Wide Band Gap—The Revolution In Power Semiconductors


New government regulations and industry standards are leading companies to adopt wide bandgap (WBG) power solutions, both to reduce their carbon footprint and to meet increasing demand for higher power systems aimed at electric vehicles, renewable energy, datacenters, and other markets. The automotive industry is one of the biggest markets driving demand for WBG power devices. The European U... » read more

DC Bus Switching Performance as Determined by Commutation Loop Parasitics and Switching Dynamics


In this article a 250 kW all-SiC inverter evaluation kit designed around low-inductance, high-speed power modules is used to demonstrate the DC bus switching performance resulting from the interaction among commutation loop parasitics and the switching dynamics. The interplay among the DC bus structure parasitics and near-RF switching dynamics can be quantified in both the time and frequency do... » read more

Inspection, Metrology Challenges Grow For SiC


Inspection and metrology are becoming more critical in the silicon carbide (SiC) industry amid a pressing need to find problematic defects in current and future SiC devices. Finding defects always has been a challenging task for SiC devices. But it’s becoming more imperative to find killer defects and reduce them as SiC device vendors begin to expand their production for the next wave of a... » read more

SiC Demand Growing Faster Than Supply


The silicon carbide (SiC) industry is in the midst of a major expansion campaign, but suppliers are struggling to meet potential demand for SiC power devices and wafers in the market. In just one example of the expansion efforts, Cree plans to invest up to $1 billion to increase its SiC fab and wafer capacities. As part of the plan, Cree is developing the world’s first 200mm (8-inch) SiC f... » read more

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