European group to work on developing power semiconductor using 300mm wafer
Date: 26/04/2013
A total of 32 European partners from European industry and research including Infineon Technologies AG are collaborating in developing advanced production technologies for power semiconductors. The research project named “Enhanced Power Pilot Line” (EPPL) is aimed at further strengthening Europe as a high-technology industrial production site. Infineon said in its release "Europe is home to the first power semiconductor production sites manufacturing devices using 300-millimeter thin-wafer technology, i.e. on silicon wafers with a 300mm diameter which in addition are extremely thin: hardly thicker than a sheet of paper. With EPPL, Europe intends to further expand this production advantage."
The partner organizations cover the entire industry and research value chain of 300 millimeter power semiconductor production, comprising material research with a focus on silicon, semiconductor development that includes 3D integration and packaging, and related developments in logistics and automation technologies. The project will run until mid 2016, with Infineon as the project lead, stated in the release.
"A project volume of Euro 74 million and the commitment of 32 partner organizations strongly underline the importance of EPPL for the semiconductor industry in Europe,” says Sabine Herlitschka, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of Infineon Technologies Austria. “Infineon currently is the only company worldwide to produce power semiconductors on 300-millimeter thin-wafers. We are proud and honored to contribute our experience in this area to the EPPL project and thus to Europe’s technology advancement.”
The EPPL to use the 300mm thin-wafer production technology to make power semiconductor discrete devices such as CoolMOS, IGBT, and SFET, The EPPL to further refine the production technology and to setup of a pilot production-line as well as application demonstrators.
The EPPL partners from industry and research are from the six European countries Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal.
The partners are Adixen Vacuum Products, Air Liquide electronics Systems, ams AG, CEST Kompetenzzentrum für elektrochemische Oberflächentechnologie GmbH, Commissariat a l‘Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives, CTR Carinthian Tech Research, E-MOSS, Entegris Cleaning Process, EV Group E. Thallner GmbH, Fachhochschule Stralsund, Fraunhofer E.V. IISB, Fronius International GmbH, Heliox BV, Infineon Technologies (with Austria, Germany and Italy), International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Ion Beam Services, KAI, Lear Corporation GmbH, Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Montanuniversität Leoben, NANIUM S.A., Nmb-Minebea GmbH, Philips Healthcare (with Germany and the Netherlands), Plansee SE, SPTS Technologies SAS, and the Technical Universities of Dresden (Germany), Eindhoven (the Netherlands) and Graz (Austria).
