News: Suppliers
1 July 2021
Soitec creates VP role for Silicon Carbide Program
Engineered substrate manufacturer Soitec of Bernin, near Grenoble, France has appointed Emmanuel Sabonnadière as new vice president of its Silicon Carbide (SiC) Program. The newly created position reports to Bernard Aspar, chief operating officer and head of global business units at Soitec.
Soitec reckons that its SmartCut SiC substrates will enable new levels of device performance and accelerate the adoption of SiC in automotive and other markets.
Before joining Soitec, Sabonnadière was CEO of Grenoble-based micro/nanotechnology R&D center CEA-Leti, a technology research institute belonging to the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). Before that, he served in executive positions at Philips Lighting (now Signify), European investment firm Gimv, and General Cable Europe. He started his career at Schneider Electric, Alstom/ Areva, and the manufacturing group NKM/Noell.
“With his profound experience in industry, business and technology, with his impressive global profile and his leadership skills, Emmanuel is a perfect fit for Soitec to drive our promising SmartCut SiC technology and conquer new markets,” reckons Aspar. “Emmanuel has the intimacy with our local ecosystem and our customers worldwide to lead this development, launch manufacturing and drive the industrialization of our SiC program,” he adds.
“Soitec’s technology is a powerful motor to fuel new businesses and launch innovative and disruptive applications in the automotive and industrial markets,” believes Sabonnadière. “Soitec is well placed to capture the growing demand for smart semiconductor substrate solutions,” he adds. “I am looking forward to bringing Soitec’s SiC solutions to market fruition quickly and thank CEA-Leti for its reliable and long-standing support.”
In November 2019, Soitec announced a SiC substrate joint development program leveraging its proprietary Smart Cut technology – used in the manufacture of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) products – with the process technology and equipment expertise of Applied Materials Inc of Santa Clara, CA, USA. The firms were due to install a SiC engineered substrate pilot line at the Substrate Innovation Center at CEA-Leti, entering operation in first-half 2020 and producing wafer samples using Smart Cut in second-half 2020.
Leti and Soitec launch Substrate Innovation Center as part of latest five-year partnership
