12 December 2015

Raytheon UK’s SiC foundry receives mass-production order for Schottky barrier diodes

Raytheon UK’s foundry in Glenrothes, Scotlandhas received an order from a major fabless semiconductor manufacturer to mass produce silicon carbide (SiC) Schottky barrier diodes that will be used in a wide variety of power conversion applications.

“This order not only demonstrates the increasing demand for silicon carbide semiconductors but is another example of Raytheon UK providing a customer with a fast-track, cost-effective and low-risk route to market,” says John Kennedy, head of Raytheon UK’s Integrated Power Solutions. “We have the process know-how and we are adept at minimizing the engineering costs,” he claims. “As an independent foundry, we have greater scope to find more innovative solutions for our customers.”

SiC properties include: a breakdown electric field of 2000kV/cm (compared with silicon’s 300kV/cm) – allowing for higher voltages; a bandgap energy of 3.26eV (compared with silicon’s 1.12eV) – enabling higher-temperature operation; and thermal conductivity of 4.9W/cm.K (compared with silicon’s 1.5W/cm.K).

Hence, when fabricated from SiC, a Schottky barrier diode can handle higher voltages than its silicon-only counterpart, whilst also reducing power losses. Complexities around thermal management systems are simplified too, enabling the creation of smaller, lighter and more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly electronic circuits, systems and end-products, notes Raytheon UK.

As part of the contract to fabricate the Schottky barrier diodes, Raytheon UK will produce more than 1000 wafers in the first year. The customer will package the devices, which will have voltage ratings ranging from 600V to 1.7kV and current ratings ranging from 1 to 50A.

Raytheon UK’s Glenrothes foundry is claimed to be the longest-established independent full-scale production-qualified facility in Europe - if not the world - capable of SiC wafer processing. It has, for example, already fabricated Schottky and PiN diodes, as well as JFETs and MOSFETs, for other customers.

See related items:

Scotland's Raytheon Glenrothes opens SiC foundry

Tags: Raytheon SiC Schottky barrier diodes SiC power devices

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