Media reports state that Nippon Steel Corp. is preparing to launch an SiC wafer business. Nippon Steel will start selling SiC wafers with a diameter of 2 to 4 inches (50-100mm) from its subsidiary, Nippon Steel Materials Co Ltd. beginning in April.
Until now, the company has provided sample wafers for use in prototyping devices. However, the company will start supplying wafers that can be used for mass-production of devices. It intends to expand the business, targeting annual sales of 10 billion yen by around 2015. The company thinks that it can be the second largest manufacturer after Cree Inc..
Nippon will start selling n-type 4H-SiC wafers with diameters of 2 inches (50mm), 3 inches (76mm) and 4 inches (100mm). For each of the three types, the company reduced the existence density of micropipes to 1 piece/cm² or less.
"In order to improve the crystal quality of SiC wafers, we leveraged ultrahigh temperature control techniques that have been developed through experiences with our blast furnaces for iron making," said Wataru Ohashi, General Manager of the Advanced Technology Research Laboratories of Nippon Steel.
Nippon claims that it will be the first Japanese manufacturer to commercialize 100mm SiC wafers. Because it is the smallest size for device mass production, the commercialization of the SiC wafer "will accelerate volume production of devices based on SiC wafers," said Kohei Tatsumi, Director for the Technology Management and Business Development of Nippon Steel Materials. The new 50-100mm wafers are all bulk wafers without epitaxial films. Regarding epitaxial wafers (with predeposited epitaxial films), the company "owns production equipment and is now considering a scheme to commercialize them by the time the demand picks up," Tatsumi said.
At first Nippon plans to sell the SiC wafers mainly to Japanese manufacturers. The production base will be a plant in Yorii (Saitama Prefecture, Japan), which is owned by Nippon Micrometal Corp., a subsidiary of Nippon Steel Materials. For the initial phase, the plant will produce 200 to 400 wafers per month with expected annual sales of several hundred million yen.
