News: Microelectronics
2 September 2021
SK Siltron CSS announces $300m Michigan expansion, adding second facility and up to 150 jobs
SK Siltron CSS, which manufactures silicon carbide (SiC) wafers, plans to invest $300m and create up to 150 jobs in Bay County, MI, over the next three years to provide manufacturing and R&D capabilities for materials for electric vehicles (EVs). The expansion will more than double the firm’s Michigan employee base and add a new site in Bay City, to join its existing site in nearby Auburn.
Silicon wafer supplier SK Siltron of Gumi, South Korea is an affiliate company of Seoul-based SK Group (South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate), whose companies have been expanding their presence in the USA with multi-billion-dollar investments in their own businesses and partnerships in renewable energy and sustainable technologies.
SK Siltron acquired the SiC Wafer unit of Delaware-based DuPont Electronics & Imaging (E&I) in early 2020 and established SK Siltron CSS as a US subsidiary. Since then, SK Siltron CSS has doubled its employee base in Michigan, to about 130 skilled workers and professional engineers.
The firm says that CSS’s silicon carbide wafer technology has benefited from its close collaboration and direct access to SK Siltron’s high-volume manufacturing (HVM) expertise in scaling up production of semiconductor wafers. The silicon carbide wafers can be used in EV system components including power converters, chargers and inverters. In addition to helping to increase driving ranges for EVs, the electrical and thermal properties of silicon carbide can help to reduce charging times, relax system cooling requirements and shrink the power module size and weight.
“The rise in popularity of electric vehicles has the auto industry searching for new innovative technologies to meet customer demand,” says CEO Jianwei Dong. “Our Michigan expansion will allow us to manufacture advanced materials that can enhance the performance of an EV and support the growth of a more sustainable automotive future.”
Pending state and local approvals, the SK Siltron CSS expansion is part of a new domestic supply chain forming to provide the components required to support new environmentally friendly vehicles.
“As we build toward a more sustainable future, it is important that we create new, robust supply chains in the US to support our corporations and the end consumer,” states US Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo. “The automotive industry has a tremendous opportunity with the rise of the electric vehicle, and we’re excited to see companies like SK Siltron CSS expanding to help support the transition to a green future.”
The company says that it will work closely with state and local partners to recruit and train potential employees (70% of which will be skilled workers, while 30% will be professional engineers).
SK Siltron completes acquisition of DuPont’s SiC wafer division
