News

30 August 2006

 

Norstel's new SiC plant inaugurated

Norstel AB has held the Grand Opening of its new 2000m2 silicon carbide wafer manufacturing plant, located on a green field site 4km from the center of Norrköping, Sweden. Construction began in February 2005, when Norstel was
spun off from silicon wafer manufacturer Okmetic Oyj, with venture capital companies Eqvitec, Northzone and Creandum as major shareholders. The plant is now equipped with process tools and characterization equipment, focused purely on producing single-crystal SiC materials.

The opening was attended by Thomas Östros, the Swedish Minister for Industry and Trade, and Mattias Ottosson, chairman of the Municipal Executive Board in Norrköping. "The establishment of Norstel is of great importance to
Norrköping and the Twin Cities of Sweden, Norrköping-Linköping," said Ottosson. "Norstel is a result of a long period of intensive R&D at Linköping University, partially funded by Swedish government agencies," said Östros. "It is my pleasure to welcome the industrial phase of advanced
silicon carbide materials manufacturing to strengthen the Swedish infrastructure of the advanced electronic industry".

"We are now taking a major step towards establishing Norstel as a significant supplier of silicon carbide materials" said Norstel¹s CEO, Dr Asko Vehanen. "Our technology is based on the patented high-temperature chemical vapor deposition (HTCVD) technique [developed between 1995-2000 after a collaborative SiC project was initiated in 1993 between Okmetic, ABB and Linköping University]. Making this method truly industrial will enable Norstel to produce high-quality, large-diameter SiC crystals and wafers
cost-efficiently, thereby opening new markets and applications."

Until now, Norstel's operations have been located at Linköping University, where it has focused on the development of SiC ingots, wafers and epitaxy. Now, as a manufacturer of such materials, Norstel expects demand for power and high-frequency electronic devices for hybrid cars, cell-phone base-stations, microwave power systems such as radar, and high-voltage power transmission and distribution.

Visit: http://www.norstel.com