U.S. power chip maker Wolfspeed’s silicon carbide 200mm wafer is seen on display at Wolfspeed’s Mohawk Valley Fab in Marcy, New York, U.S., April 2022. Silicon carbide power chips have been gaining traction with electric car makers as they can handle high voltages and are more power efficient. Courtesy of Wolfspeed/Handout via REUTERS
Sept 9 (Reuters) – U.S. power chip maker Wolfspeed Inc (WOLF.N) on Friday said it will build a new multi-billion dollar factory in Chatham County, North Carolina to make the raw materials used for chips that power things like electric vehicles as demand surges.
While traditional power management chips have been made with silicon, which is also used for microchips that run computers and phones, Wolfspeed uses a relatively newer material called silicon carbide to make chips. Wolfspeed is considered a leader in this technology and says it produces more than 60% of the world's silicon carbide.
Silicon carbide power chips have been gaining traction with electric car makers as they can handle high voltages and are more power efficient. Wolfspeed said industry analysts estimate these types of power chips will make up more than 20% of the power semiconductor market by 2027, up from only 5% today.
The factory, due for completion in 2030, will be the largest silicon carbide materials facility in the world, it said. The silicon carbide wafers from the plant will initially be used mainly for Wolfspeed's own chip manufacturing needs.
Earlier this year Wolfspeed opened the world's first 200 mm silicon carbide fabrication facility in Mohawk Valley, New York, and is scoping locations for another large facility, John Palmour, Wolfspeed's chief technology officer, told Reuters. Other chip makers use smaller sized wafers. Generally the larger the wafer, the more advanced the manufacturing technology is.
Palmour said the new materials factory is about a 40 minute drive from the company's existing factories in North Carolina. "It's actually going to enable eventually about a 13-times increase in our silicon carbide wafer making capacity," he said.
The first phase of the factory, slated for 2024, would have an investment of about $2 billion and the total investment could reach $5 billion, Palmour said.
Wolfspeed would apply for a federal government grant linked to the recently passed Chips and Science Act, he added.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Ford Motor Co Chief Executive Jim Farley will go to Las Vegas next week to roll the dice on a strategy to convince dealers to cut as much as $2,000 from the cost of delivering an electric vehicle to a customer.
Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.
Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology.
The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs.
The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals.
Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile.
Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts.
Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.
© 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved
COVID-19
Surviving The 2nd Wave of Corona
‘This too shall pass away’ this famous Persian adage seems to be defeating us again and again in the case of COVID-19. Despite every effort