Showa Denko Qualifies AIXTRON’s Next Generation 8x150 mm Silicon Carbide Production System

AIXTRON SE (FSE: AIX; NASDAQ: AIXG), a worldwide leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, announced today that Japanese manufacturer Showa Denko has successfully qualified the company’s most recent system for manufacturing silicon carbide (SiC) epitaxial wafers. The new AIX G5 WW (Warm-Wall) system is configured to handle 8x150 mm and 12x100 mm SiC substrates. Currently, it is the largest production system available on the market, enabling highest throughput and lowest running cost per wafer.

Showa Denko’s SiC epitaxy operation exhibits one of the largest manufacturing capacities on the market. The company began the transition from 4-inch (100 mm) to 6-inch (150 mm) production in 2013 and is now expanding their 150 mm SiC capacity with AIXTRON equipment. The 150 mm SiC technology provides opportunities for significant reduction of production costs.

The AIX G5 WW system was qualified by AIXTRON’s Japanese service and process team by meeting the tight time schedule of the customer: After installation in the first quarter of 2014, the equipment was released for production in the first half of April 2014.

The SiC growth process demands on-wafer temperatures of up to 1600 °C. Due to the Planetary design concept where each individual wafer rotates under a horizontal laminar flow of precursors during the processing, the AIX G5 WW delivers superior uniformity. As a result, the system provides very precise process control of layer thickness and dopant uniformity with a very low SiC defect density and thereby, meets high production requirements.

Silicon carbide high power devices are enabling energy efficient power electronic systems. Ranging from 600 to 3.3 kV (Kilovolt) SiC transistor and diode devices are used in power supplies and designed into DC-DC converters, inverters for the solar industry and power converters for traction applications.

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