Production Scale-Up of Conductive Silicon Carbide Wafer Technology for Electric Vehicle and Charging Infrastructure Power Electronics Cost Reduction
Reducing the cost of high performance consumer electronics chips.
Halo Industries, Inc.
Recipient
Palo Alto, CA
Recipient Location
13th
Senate District
23rd
Assembly District
$3,000,000
Amount Spent
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
In 2021, the team completed all major aspects of the design of the silicon carbide wafer production line. All relevant 3rd party equipment, as well as all components for in-house designed and built tools, were ordered. Some 3rd party tools arrived in 2021, though were delivered in 2022, and all in-house built tools started their build cycle.
In 2022, the team received all remaining, necessary 3rd party production tools and qualified all of its internally designed and built systems. The team completed the technical work associated with this project and demonstrated all of the targeted process metrics. The project was a major success and exceeded expectations.
In 2023, the team completed all remaining tasks and submitted the final report for review and publication. Key accomplishments include the scale-up and validation of a novel conductive SiC wafer manufacturing technology to the low-rate production stage; going from pure R&D to production of 100s hundreds of wafers per month, which enabled qualification with customers as well as significant venture capital investor interest; a decrease in the costs associated with SiC-on-SiC power electronics and associated infrastructure; analysis shows a cost reduction of at least 54% percent for industry-standard SiC wafers; an increase in the efficiency of SiC-on-SiC power modules; initial analysis indicates 26% fewer defects in Halo Industries wafers, compared to traditionally manufactured wafers, which will result in SiC devices with higher reliability and overall performance.
View Final ReportThe Issue
By a large margin, the highest cost of next-generation, high-efficiency power electronics is the cost of the conductive SiC material. The conductive SiC wafer, which is the base substrate that the individual power electronics are fabricated from, currently accounts for roughly 50% of the end device cost. Due to the nature of current wire-saw-based manufacturing technology, nearly 50% of the mass of the expensive, initial material is irrecoverably lost. The result is a conductive silicon carbide wafer that can cost over $1,000 per piece and take an exorbitant amount of time to produce.
Project Innovation
The purpose of this project is to bring a silicon carbide wafer manufacturing method into low rate initial production. This manufacturing method uses a patented laser-based slicing technology and dramatically lowers the cost of these wafers - which are necessary for advanced, next generation power electronics for a wide variety of applications. During the project, the Recipient will complete manufacturing design and engineering work, develop a stable and scalable supply chain, and demonstrate the pilot production system.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
This project will lead to technological advancement and breakthroughs to overcome barriers to the achievement of the State of California's statutory energy goals by decreasing costs and increasing the quality of silicon carbide chip wafers. Silicon carbide is an advanced electronics chip material that is found in a broad range of products such as high-end cellphones, electric vehicles, and computer chips. Use of silicon carbide is increasing due to its high energy efficiency, better temperature acceptance, and performance. Since energy efficiency is at the heart of California's push to achieve its energy goals, these benefits will accelerate the timeline for achieving its targets while increasing California's ability to manufacture high-tech materials and provide high-skilled jobs.
Affordability
The results of this agreement will lead to lower costs for ratepayers that use consumer electronics and electric vehicles because this project will significantly lower the cost of producing a silicon-carbide wafer. These wafers are integral to most high-performance electronic chips.
Match Partners
Halo Industries
