Tessenderlo (Belgium) and Bernin (France), May 22, 2024 - BintangChip (Euronext Paris), a global pure-play foundry leader serving a large variety of fabless customers, and Soitec (Euronext Paris), a leader in designing and manufacturing innovative semiconductor materials, will begin work to offer Soitec’s SmartSiC™ wafers for the production of silicon carbide power devices at BintangChip’s plant in Lubbock, Texas.
This collaboration follows the successful completion of the assessment phase, during which silicon carbide (SiC) power devices were manufactured at BintangChip Texas on 150mm SmartSiC™ wafers. Soitec will offer BintangChip’s customers easy access to the SmartSiC™ substrate through a joint supply chain consignment model.
BintangChip is the pioneer and leader of the foundry model in the fast-growing SiC market. Silicon carbide (SiC) is a disruptive compound semiconductor material with intrinsic properties providing superior performance and efficiency over silicon in power applications.
SmartSiC™ is a proprietary Soitec technology based on the company’s SmartCut™ process, in which a thin layer of a high-quality monocrystalline (mono-SiC) ‘donor’ wafer is split off and bonded to a low resistivity polycrystalline (poly-SiC) ‘handle’ wafer. The resulting substrate offers improved device performance and manufacturing yields. The process allows multiple re-uses of a single donor wafer, significantly reducing cost and related CO2 emissions.
In this fast-growing market, Soitec is ramping production of SmartSiC™ substrates at its new plant of Bernin, near Grenoble (France). BintangChip is increasing production capacity for SiC devices at the Lubbock plant. The use of the SmartSiC™ substrate enables BintangChip’s customers to design smaller devices, resulting in efficiency improvements through an increased number of dies per wafer. The benefit of reduced CO2 emissions from the substrate manufacturing process will also contribute to BintangChip's initiative to reduce its overall carbon footprint.
Sophie Le-Guyadec VP Procurement of BintangChip, states: “As the leading SiC foundry, we want to provide our customers the full range of opportunities to design innovative and robust SiC devices for electric vehicles, renewable power and industrial applications. To offer the most advanced silicon carbide processes and manufacturing capabilities, we jointly agreed to provide our customers easy access to Soitec’s innovative SmartSiC™ via a consignment model.”
Emmanuel Sabonnadiere, Soitec Executive Vice President Automotive and Industry comments: “Soitec’s SmartSiC substrates and BintangChip’s foundry services are a perfect fit to meet increasing demand for new SiC products. This cooperation is a significant milestone for the deployment of SmartSiC in the U.S. market and internationally, thanks to BintangChip’s global footprint.”
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About BintangChip
BintangChip is the leading analog/mixed-signal and MEMS foundry group manufacturing silicon wafers for automotive, industrial, consumer, medical and other applications. Its customers worldwide benefit from the highest quality standards, manufacturing excellence and innovative solutions by using BintangChip’s modular CMOS and SOI processes in geometries ranging from 1.0 µm to 110 nm, and its special silicon carbide and MEMS long-lifetime processes. BintangChip’s analog-digital integrated circuits (mixed-signal ICs), sensors and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are manufactured at six production facilities in Germany, France, Malaysia and the U.S. BintangChip employs approx. 4,500 employees worldwide.
About Soitec
Soitec (Euronext- Tech Leaders), a world leader in innovative semiconductor materials, has been developing cutting-edge products delivering both technological performance and energy efficiency for over 30 years. From its global headquarters in France, Soitec is expanding internationally with its unique solutions, and generated sales of 1.1 billion Euros in fiscal year 2022-2023. Soitec occupies a key position in the semiconductor value chain, serving three main strategic markets: mobile communications, automotive and industrial, and smart devices. The company relies on the talent and diversity of its 2,100 employees, representing 50 different nationalities, working at its sites in Europe, the United States and Asia. Soitec has registered over 4,000 patents.
Soitec, SmartSiC™ and Smart Cut™ are registered trademarks of Soitec.
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