Page 32 - PEN eBook July 2022

Semiconductors SMART ENERGY

silicon manufacturing economies of scale. Through repurposing older, fully depreciated 150-mm
(and soon 200-mm) Si fabs, SiC power devices can be manufactured with the relatively small
investments necessary to support the unique SiC processing steps. Minimizing fabrication cost

by exploiting the mature Si
volume production assumes
the fab is loaded close to
capacity with standard Si
and SiC processes running
on the same lines.

In addition, aggregating the
demand for SiC substrates

and epilayers in volume fabs
contributes to lower material
costs. Lower fabrication
costs in a fully depreciated
Si + SiC “capacity loaded”
Figure 2: The U.S. SiC fab infrastructure mirrors that of Si. It consists of fab, coupled with decreased
integrated device manufacturers, foundries, fabless companies, and design
houses material costs, can lead to
significant price reductions Sustainable Energy for
for SiC devices. This
approach offers a new opportunity for outdated Si fabs, which have not kept up with the channel- a Better Future
length reductions of the last two decades, to continue manufacturing legacy Si parts while ramping
up SiC fabrication that requires relatively modest ~0.3-µ design rules.
By Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio, editor-in-chief of Power Electronics News

SUMMARY
The compelling efficiency and system benefits of SiC are leading to wide adoption that enables Consider how many man-made disasters we’ve had to cope with in the last 50 years — Chernobyl
manufacturing economies of scale and lower system costs. The wafer represents a disproportionately is one of them. Now we’re dealing with a potentially more serious issue: climate change. The

high percentage of the overall SiC device cost compared with that of Si. SiC manufacturing is mature, pace with which climate change is unfolding makes it more hazardous and devious than any
including non-CMOS-compatible processes. previous disaster. Its consequences have been felt for decades, despite many academics having
used predictive models to anticipate them. Its consequences are intensifying, speeding up, and
eroding the foundation of our ecology. Now is the moment to act: If we do nothing, extreme weather
will become the norm, wreaking havoc on our ecosystem and resulting in the extinction of entire
species. Not only that, but a rise in sea levels will lead to population displacement, resulting in
political instability.
Reference

Hassane El-Khoury, president and CEO of onsemi, noted in his opening during the PowerUP Expo the
scientific aspects that demonstrate with data how evolution is increasingly worrying and important
▶ PowerUP Virtual Conference (June 28–30, 2022) decisions that need to be made.

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