Infineon runs 300 mm silicon carbide wafers into working power devices

Infineon ran 300 mm silicon carbide wafers through its Villach, Austria fab and came out with functional power devices — using the silicon manufacturing gear already sitting on the floor. The company says it's the first to clear that bar inside a full-scale semiconductor fab. The math on the bigger wafer is simple: 2.3 times as many chips as a 200 mm slice.

The devices fall under Infineon's CoolSiC lineup, which targets traction inverters, on-board chargers, EV chargers, large-scale energy storage, industrial drives and uninterruptible power supplies. The portfolio also reaches into solid-state transformers, circuit breakers and power supply units for AI data centers.

In Dresden, Germany, Infineon also showed its Cold Split technology works on 300 mm SiC. The process slices wafers off a SiC boule with less material loss and far less processing time than conventional wire sawing, meaning more wafers out of the same crystal and less capital spending.

CEO Jochen Hanebeck didn't hold back: “This technological milestone further strengthens our leadership in power systems,” he said, crediting the team for dragging 300-millimeter SiC “out of the lab into a manufacturing environment.” He framed the silicon-gallium nitride-silicon carbide trio as the base for scaling production and driving profitable growth.

Next up, Infineon will work out the 300 mm SiC technology plan and ramp timing alongside customers and partners, while keeping its 200 mm SiC roadmap on track. The milestone lands weeks after an October 27 announcement of roughly €1.1 billion for a high-volume gallium nitride power semiconductor plant on 300 mm wafers, also in Villach.