The traditional manufacturing is challenged by a transformation that is digital and sustainable.
The traditional way of SiC manufacturing has come to a change. The development in wafer manufacturing and crystal growth equipment and process has matured. Wafer prices are decreasing to a level where it is not possible to make profit on wafer sales only. The full crystal growth process from source to final wafer is available for anyone who pays. The PVT tools are available at substantially lower cost than previously.
At the same time there is new manufacturing being developed using wafer scale SiC. A range of applications are emerging using the large area wafers to fabricate epitaxial layers for novel technology approaches. An example is given by close space PVT that is used for photonics, 3C-SiC, graphene etc in as well as surface enginering approaches. That offers to explore novel research areas as well as commercialization opportunities to reach new markets which create added value to the one that is today in power electronics.
Essential for the transformation are digitalization and sustainability which will be pillars for progress. The digitalization will mainly focus on AI to start with but in next steps there will be tokenization to create added values in business and sustainability.
At this meetup we introduce the thematic area and create next steps from the interested participants and ideas.
In more detail:
AI and sustainability for smart manufacturing in silicon carbide
The silicon carbide manufacturing is in a transition. The PVT growth to fabricate boules from which wafers are produced has matured so much that the price of wafers has decreased substantially. It is no longer possible to be profitable just by selling wafers.
That offers an opportunity for new application that apply films on the wafers. One such new application is silicon carbide as converter material in high power laser transmission as explored in EU Pathfinder project rePowerSiC. The base material is fabricated by close space PVT (CS-PVT). That method is using the same equipment as the bulk PVT. The only difference is in the hot-zone design. Very simplified, the CS-PVT is using a confinement instead of large distance between source and seed. The CS-PVT is then suitable to produce films on wafers (epiwafers) which can act as substrate template for thin films, surface engineering, and device processing. Other application areas using CS-PVT are in 3C-SiC growth, epitaxial graphene on SiC wafers, doped concepts for light emission or absorption, etc. In various ways, the CS-PVT concept can manufacture epiwafers which are used to develop new concepts and applications. It offers to explore new markets and further build ther commercialization of silicon carbide. Positioning for the new requires consideration of smart manufacturing and business models which are using modern aspects and efficient optimization, such as AI and sustainability.
Today there are furnaces with nice design from technical and service point of view. The maturity of SiC PVT tools is also increasing, and furnaces become mreadily available at low cost. For the digitalized future, some may have machine learning developments to tailor the process, but the implementation of AI is the next step if manufacturing should be competitive. It is not only for optimizing the manufacturing. It is also relevant for skill development to train individuals and build a competence pool.
At the end, the manufacturing has to be sustainable to be competitive. Evidencing energy use and CO2 will be based on data. The value chain optimization will include sharing of data and digitalization. Digitalization and shared data offers to introduce new business models by creating digital assets of physical products, by so called tokenization which now is introduced in industries which aims to be competitive for the future and in long-term.
The long-term aspect includes to facilitate transfer of knowledge. In the EU FET Open project SiComb (for frequency comb in SiC), Alminica AB developed an online platform for transfer of knowledge. The “Online platform to facilitate Transfer of Knowledge and Innovation Capacity in Silicon Carbide” is recognized as excellent science innovation as assessed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) Market Creation Potential indicator framework as having a “High” level of Market Creation Potential. Only innovations that are showing multiple signals of market creation potential are assigned a value under this indicator system.
In that platform we have introduced themes to facilitate transfer of knowledge. One theme is photonics. Now we introduce the second one: “AI and Sustainability in SiC manufacturing”.
The themes will develop based on those who are active to have exchange. Make people meet is the key function. From that there will be ideas, collaborations and projects.
As heads up and initial start, there is a meetup July 29 (online via Zoom). At that Dr. Mikael Syväjärvi will introduce the theme, and give example from CS-PVT how the digitalization and sustainability can be considered in SiC manufacturing.