18 September 2014

Dow Corning expands Prime Grade SiC wafer portfolio from 100mm to 150mm diameter

Dow Corning Corp of Midland, MI, USA, which provides silicon and wide-bandgap semiconductor technology, is now offering 150mm-diameter silicon carbide (SiC) wafers as part of its Prime Grade portfolio.

Launched in May with 100mm SiC wafers, the Prime Grade portfolio now also includes three tiers of manufacturing-quality 150mm SiC substrates – labeled Prime Standard, Prime Select and Prime Ultra. Each tier offers increasingly tighter tolerances on critical defect types that adversely impact device performance, such as micropipe density (MPD), threading screw dislocations (TSD) and basal plane dislocations (BPD).

“SiC wide-bandgap power semiconductors have rapidly evolved from a cutting-edge niche into an established technology sector that is increasingly focused on the manufacturing economies afforded by SiC crystal quality, wafer size and other critical factors,” says Tang Yong Ang, vice president, Compound Semiconductor Solutions, at Dow Corning. “Dow Corning's decision to expand its Prime Grade portfolio to include 150mm-diameter SiC wafers aims to meet this very competitive demand,” he adds. “As we rapidly scale production of these high-quality wafers, our customers will be able to more confidently pinpoint the SiC substrate that optimizes the performance and cost of their next-generation device design while leveraging the improved economies of scale offered by larger wafer diameters.”

While many SiC wafer manufacturers promise low micropipe densities for their 150mm substrates, Dow Corning claims to be among the first to specify low tolerances of other defect types, such as TSD and BPD. Such defects reduce device yields and inhibit the cost-efficient manufacturing of large-area, next-generation power electronic devices with higher current ratings.

All Prime Grade SiC wafers offer consistent mechanical characteristics to ensure compatibility with existing and developing device fabrication processes, the firm says. The newly expanded Prime Grade portfolio of 150mm SiC substrates includes:

• Prime Standard SiC wafers that guarantee MPD of ≤1cm-2, offering an option for balancing performance and cost when designing simpler SiC power electronic components, such as Schottky or junction barrier Schottky diodes, with low to medium current ratings.

• Prime Select SiC wafers that deliver more stringent tolerances for MPD (≤1cm-2) and TSD (≤300cm-2), making them suitable for more demanding SiC devices such as pin diodes or switches.

• Prime Ultra SiC wafers enable the design of high-power devices that require the highest crystal quality. SiC substrates in this tier deliver extremely low MPD (≤1cm-2), TSD (≤200cm-2), BPD (≤3000cm-2) and a tightened wafer resistivity distribution for the design of the most advanced SiC power electronic devices, including next-generation switching devices such as metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), junction gate field-effect transistors (JFETs), insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) or pin diodes. The substrate quality in this tier can also benefit high-voltage (3.3kV and higher) and high-current device designs.

“Dow Corning’s close customer collaboration in both silicon and wide-bandgap semiconductor technologies has given us a clear understanding of the competitive demands and opportunities in these markets,” says chief technology officer Gregg Zank. “Combined with our unique expertise and market position, our growing reputation for outstanding SiC crystal quality, expanding epitaxy services and competitive pricing structures, Dow Corning is enabling our customers worldwide to compete and succeed in the fast-growing power electronics industry,” he adds.

Prime Standard, Prime Select and Prime Ultra grades of both 100 and 150mm SiC wafers are available globally from Dow Corning for development and sampling in standard production.

Dow Corning at ECSCRM 2014

Dow Corning is highlighting its Prime Grade portfolio of 100mm and 150mm SiC wafers in booth 23 at the European Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials (ECSCRM 2014) in Grenoble, France (21-25 September).

Also, on 23 September, in Session ‘TU1 – Bulk’, the firm is giving an industrial talk on ‘New 100mm and 150mm SiC wafer prime grade scheme for optimized device designs’.

In addition, in the poster sessions, Dow Corning is presenting three posters:

• 22 September – (MO-P-02) ‘Advanced Large Area 4H SiC Wafer Technology for Power Device Production’ by Jeff Quast;

• 23 September – (TU-P-15) ‘Progress of SiC epitaxy on 150mm substrates’ by Jie Zhang; and

• 24 September – (WE-P-07) ‘Effect of Surface Damage on SiC Wafer Shape’ by Kevin Moeggenborg.

See related items:

Dow Corning launches SiC wafer grading structure for power electronics applications

Tags: Dow Corning SiC substrates

Visit: www.dowcorning.com

Visit: http://ecscrm2014.org