Fri, Oct 27, 2023 page12

• GlobalWafers to roll out 8-inch wafer process

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  Silicon wafer supplier GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) has independently developed the technology to produce high-quality 8-inch silicon carbide (SiC) wafers and expects to begin small-scale production by the fourth quarter next year, GlobalWafers chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said yesterday.

  Hsu made the comments at the company’s booth at the 31st International Optoelectronics Exposition (OPTO Taiwan), a three-day event that began on Wednesday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s Hall 1.

  SiC crystal growth to make the wafers presents challenges due to the need for growth in extremely high-temperature sealed environments, GlobalWafers said.

  

  GlobalWafers Co chairwoman Doris Hsu poses for a photograph at the company’s booth at the International Optoelectronics Exposition at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s Hall 1 yesterday.

  Photo: CNA

  Faced with the difficulty, the company independently designed and developed a technology, called the 8-inch SiC-specific physical vapor transport (PVT) method, to reduce costs while achieving better quality control.

  Although it has long been considered a potential semiconductor material, silicon carbide has only recently become viable with the development of new technologies to overcome production challenges.

  SiC has several characteristics that make it a promising compound and alternative to silicon.

  It is a “wide bandgap” semiconductor — meaning it has a greater energy range in which no charged states exist — and it is more tolerant of high temperatures, making it a better choice for high-power, high-temperature and high-frequency applications.

  While 6-inch SiC wafers are mainstream technology, the development of 8-inch wafers has been “faster than she expected two years ago,” Hsu said.

  Production is expected to ramp up in the fourth quarter of next year and accelerate in 2025, with the production of 8-inch substrates surpassing 6-inch substrates in 2026, she said.

  Customers looking forward to the development are mainly in the automobile industry, and manufacturers of high-voltage and power devices, she added.

  Asked whether production of SiC wafers would be mainly undertaken in Taiwan, Hsu said that the front-end production (crystal growth and processing) is done in Taiwan, while back-end production (epitaxy processing) in done in the US.

  However, in the long run, production would be further segregated, with multiple countries having processing sites, including Japan and European nations, she said.

  “When production increases, customers will take contingencies into consideration, meaning they will not want over-concentration,” Hsu said.

  However, GlobalWafers’ research and development would remain exclusively in Taiwan, she added.

  On Wednesday, Hsu told the EY Entrepreneur of the Year forum that it is harder for Taiwanese corporations to acquire foreign companies.

  Rising geopolitical tensions and Taiwan’s difficult international status mean many are afraid that Taiwanese companies will one day become Chinese firms, she said in response to a question about GlobalWafers’ failed attempt to take over German chip supplier Siltronic AG last year.

  Over the past 20 years, about 80 percent of GlobalWafers’ growth has been from mergers and acquisitions, with only 20 percent from organic growth, she said.

  Of the company’s 18 factories in nine countries, only three were self-built, Hsu said.

  Mergers and acquisitions was once considered a better strategy than organic growth, but it is getting more difficult, she said.

  Hsu in June won EY Entrepreneur of the Year, becoming the first Taiwanese entrepreneur and third female recipient since the award was established in 2001.
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