Accelerating silicon carbide (SiC) manufacturing with large information platforms

May 31, 2025

4

Accelerating silicon carbide (SiC) manufacturing with large information platforms

For many years, we heard silicon was the one reply. Nevertheless, whereas the world’s largest fabs have been busy taping out silicon, the communities of engineers and scientists engaged on non-silicon applied sciences continued pushing ahead. Compound semiconductors—semiconductors comprised of two or extra periodic desk components—embody indium phosphide (InP), silicon nitride (SiN), gallium arsenide (GaAs), germanium (Ge), indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs), cadmium telluride (CdTe), gallium nitride (GaN), and silicon carbide (SiC).

As soon as Tesla launched SiC MOSFETs in its EVs in 2018, SiC would now not go unnoticed. The market has grown to greater than $2.5 billion in 2024, and regardless of the momentary slowdown in 2025, is predicted to proceed rising at a staggering tempo in accordance with Yole and TrendForce.

Most EV electronics suppliers now supply SiC energy ICs, creating a brand new ecosystem of fabric suppliers, capital tools, fabless firms, foundries, and outsourced semiconductor meeting and check (OSAT) service suppliers.

Some built-in gadget producers (IDMs)—together with Bosch, Denso, Infineon, onsemi, Rohm, SanAn, STMicroelectronics, and Wolfspeed—went totally vertical beginning with the SiC powder and ending with multi-die energy modules.

Determine 1 SiC’s bubble measurement signifies its manufacturing quantity and annual development. Supply: Writer

Many newcomers obtained into the substrate enterprise due to the excessive value of the uncooked materials. They invested closely in mergers and acquisitions and natural development and at the moment are confronted with the problem of returning funding to shareholders. On this extremely aggressive setting, producers are pushed to new ranges in yield, high quality, effectivity, and capability.

Advantages are pricey

SiC affords advantages to designers and shoppers. Because of the fabric properties, SiC transistors will be operated at a lot increased voltages with decrease resistance, exhibiting much less efficiency degradation with temperature, making SiC electronics interesting for energy conversion and charging functions in automobiles and energy grid functions.

Nevertheless, the uncooked materials is considerably dearer than silicon. Crystal development is orders of magnitude slower than silicon—its hardness, second solely to diamond, makes it onerous to slice, polish, and cube. Excessive working voltages require thick epitaxial layers that exhibit excessive defectivity. Subsequent, vertical transistor structure requires substantial wafer bottom processing. All this interprets to increased defectivity and decrease yield with frequent yield excursions.

To the buyer, it’s increased product value and decrease reliability within the area.

Years behind silicon

“SiC is a long time behind silicon,” is the widespread cliché amongst producers. Right here, the dominant wafer measurement is an efficient indication of fabric platform maturity. Traditionally, as silicon manufacturing matured, the {industry} transitioned to a bigger wafer measurement, going by way of 100-, 150-, 200- and 300-millimeter (mm) wafers over the 4 a long time, as proven within the determine under.

Determine 2 A lot of the high-volume manufacturing capability for SiCs is predicted to stay on 150-mm wafers. Supply: Writer

Presently, SiC is made predominantly on 150-mm substrates. In the meantime, a number of firms introduced a transition to 200-mm substrates. Whereas Chinese language substrate provider SICC demonstrated 300-mm substrate in 2024, use of such a big substrate is past the horizon. Within the subsequent a number of years, a lot of the capability is predicted to stay on 150-mm wafers.

Sure, SiC is 30 years behind silicon, judging by the substrate sizes in quantity manufacturing.

Complexity of SiC circuits resembles silicon chips within the Nineteen Eighties—integration into advanced circuits as we speak is on the bundle degree reasonably than on a monolithic IC as seen in silicon. Whereas essentially the most advanced silicon ICs depend billions of transistors, SiC ICs are nowhere close to such complexity. The reason being easy—die yield scales exponentially with the die space. At excessive defectivity ranges, this turns into detrimental, and the one reply goes with a smaller die, integrating recognized good die on the bundle degree right into a extra advanced circuit.

Nevertheless, whereas SiC appears a long time behind silicon, it doesn’t want a long time to catch up.

The massive information platform

Methodologies developed over the a long time in silicon IC manufacturing at the moment are obtainable. One instance is an answer that deploys information analytics for silicon utilized to streamline innovation. The advantages are quite a few:

Breaking the silos: The know-how cycle from IC design to high-volume manufacturing is lengthy with many gamers and information silos throughout operations. That’s the place end-to-end large information platforms can join all information end-to-end and make it obtainable to a broad vary of features.
Good manufacturing facility: Entrance-end factories are completely different from their predecessors. As we speak’s manufacturing ecosystem affords quite a lot of software program capabilities from dozens of suppliers with well-established interoperability.
Standardization: Because of a number of organizations—together with SEMI, International Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), and Semiconductor Business Affiliation (SIA)—there’s a broad panorama of {industry} requirements protecting all the pieces from tools connectivity to information codecs and specs. Requirements allow higher interoperability between instruments and suppliers, streamlining tools and software program deployments to assist yield ramps.
Materials traceability: Whether or not the necessity is for tracing wafers in a fab or die in an meeting line, the duty is advanced and ranges from a number of substrate IDs and rework at completely different steps to substrate grading to cherry-picking. In an meeting line, it’s a problem solved with traceability requirements.
Information fashions: A knowledge mannequin particulars materials information, inline information from the fabs, and meeting and check information from OSATs. It describes bodily entities equivalent to tools, wafers, dies and modules, processes together with fab, meeting and check, and their relationships within the context of producing movement.
Synthetic intelligence/machine studying (AI/ML): A long time in the past, scientists needed to develop analytical relationships between causes and results, whereas software program builders got here up with software program specs. A myriad of data-centric frameworks and the ubiquity of AI/ML now shorten this cycle, eliminating quite a few bottlenecks.
An excessive amount of information: Huge quantities of information are generated per wafer all through the manufacturing operations, although most of that information isn’t used. On the similar time, engineers within the automotive section are placing extra stringent necessities on their chip and module suppliers concerning information assortment and retention. The information platform should allow a superb mixture of storage choices permitting tradeoffs between efficiency and price and supply the knobs for information caching and growing old.

Adopting an industry-standard resolution permits producers to enhance effectivity and ramp yields quicker than the competitors.

What’s subsequent

In line with Yole, TrendForce, McKinsey and SEMI, development is forecasted for many compound semiconductor units, with silicon carbide on the prime of that checklist. Following Gartner’s terminology of the “hype cycle,” it’s previous disillusionment. Each silicon and GaN have been carving out extra space within the energy IC market. This variation will push SiC for efficiency and price.

On the similar time, extra suppliers are moving into the market in every section—materials suppliers, foundries, fabless and IDMs. Competitors will intensify, pushing producers for increased yields, quicker improvement cycles, and better ranges of integration.

Beneath strain for value and efficiency, designers and producers should begin adopting large information platforms.

Steve Zamek, director of product administration at PDF Options Inc., is accountable for manufacturing information analytics options for foundries and IDMs. Previous to this, he was with KLA (former KLA-Tencor), the place he led superior applied sciences in imaging methods, picture sensors, and superior packaging.