News: Suppliers
8 December 2021
Aixtron partnering in EU project TRANSFORM
Deposition equipment maker Aixtron SE of Herzogenrath, near Aachen, Germany is partnering in the project ‘TRANSFORM - Trusted European SiC Value Chain for a greener Economy’.
Funded by the European Union (EU) and national funding authorities, the R&D project aims to create a competitive European supply chain for power electronics based on silicon carbide (SiC) technology within the next three years. To this end, the 34 most important European experts in silicon carbide technology from seven EU countries are collaborating.
The supply chain is expected to reliably provide Europe with silicon carbide components and -systems. The European value chain ranges from substrates to energy converters such as transistors or modules and, last but not least, the necessary industrial semiconductor production technology such as production-proven chemical vapor deposition (CVD) systems with high yields.
As a supplier of CVD production technology for the deposition of SiC layers for power electronics, Aixtron is taking on tasks such as the further improvement of CVD deposition technology for silicon carbide. This comprises the development of technology for the simultaneous CVD coating of multiple 200mm SiC substrates in a batch reactor as well as CVD technology for SiC substrates made using the Smart Cut process (which enables the transfer of very fine and thin layers of crystalline silicon carbide material onto a carrier substrate).
Aixtron says that high-performance industrial CVD deposition technology for silicon carbide is at the pivotal point for next-generation silicon carbide technology being jointly developed by the project partners. The number of potential applications and the demand for SiC technology are very large and range from industrial drives and energy conversion to renewable energies and electro-mobility, the firm adds.
“With such a powerful and at the same time energy-saving silicon carbide supply chain, we can finally holistically optimize power electronics systems and thus achieve the energy efficiency we urgently need,” says professor Michael Heuken, VP Advanced Technologies at Aixtron. “TRANSFORM can make this important contribution not only to European competitiveness but also to a more sustainable and greener economy in Europe by significantly increasing energy efficiency with SiC technology.”
