News: Suppliers
12 September 2022
KISAB raises €7.5m to expand production of defect-free SiC wafers
Silicon carbide (SiC) material development and production company Kiselkarbid i Stockholm AB (KISAB) of Kista, Sweden has raised €7.5m in an investment round led by Fairpoint Capital, with participation from existing investors including Industrifonden, Ingka GreenTech and LPE, as the firm enters its commercialization phase.
KISAB says that its growth technology, which emanates from Linköping Technical University, enables the growth of virtually defect-free SiC wafers, free of basal plane dislocations (BPDs).
“KISAB’s ability to cost-effectively grow defect-free SiC wafers will be providing power component manufacturers with a drastically improved way to increase yield and build larger components at higher voltages,” comments Fairpoint Capital’s investment director Hadar Cars.
“We have recently started to sample our wafers to customers and will now be able to ramp up production to help our customers produce higher-quality products at higher yields,” notes KISAB’s CEO & founder Johan Ekman.
Driven by the electric vehicle (EV) market, the global SiC device market is reckoned to be rising at a compound annual growth rate of 34%, but SiC applications are still limited by poor quality of the underlying wafer materials. Market analysis firm Yole Développement forecasts that the SiC device market will grow to $6.3bn in 2027, and has identified KISAB as “innovative SiC growth technology”.
“KISAB will also soon be able to ship defect-free 8’’ SiC wafers, which will further increase its competitiveness,” says Cars.
“We invested in KISAB in 2018 because of the stellar research behind the technology,” comments Industrifonden’s senior investment director Per Anell. “We are looking forward to continuing supporting KISAB in the next phase and welcome Fairpoint on that journey,” he adds.
KISAB is presenting its latest developments at the 19th International Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials (ICSCRM 2022) in Davos, Switzerland (11-16 September).
