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16 Jul 2024
Stanford spin-out says it can halve the cost of semiconductor wafers on which high-efficiency power electronics are made.
Halo Industries, a California-based startup company with a novel, laser-based, method for producing silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductor wafer substrates, says it has raised $80 million in a series B round of venture funding.
The Santa Clara firm, spun out of Stanford University a decade ago, believes that its multi-step process could dramatically reduce the cost of wafers that provide the material base for SiC power electronics devices now critical in electric vehicle (EV) and renewable energy applications.
Halo also claims massive improvements in terms of wafer defects when using the laser method instead of traditional saw technology, alongside dramatic reductions to energy costs and water consumption.
Efficient electronics
While silicon wafers are the workhorse of the semiconductor industry, the wider electronic bandgap inherent to SiC material makes it a superior option for high-efficiency power electronics.
"SiC wafers represent the foundational building block for the fabrication of the world's most efficient high-voltage power electronics, making them a critical element in the global drive toward sustainable electrification," explains Halo.
The crystal lattice structure of SiC makes it suitable for depositing both SiC and gallium nitride (GaN) layers, but the material system is both less industrially developed than silicon and much more difficult to process from crystal boules into individual, ultra-thin substrates.
“SiC is a hard, brittle material that is challenging to cut without losing meaningful amounts, and Halo Industries’ proprietary laser-based slicing tools significantly increase yield and quality of SiC while minimizing waste and production cost,” claims Halo, with CEO and co-founder Andrei Iancu adding:
“Amid the explosive growth in demand for next-generation power electronics with improved energy efficiency, our laser-based manufacturing tools and SiC production are critical components for maintaining momentum in cleantech development.
“We are incredibly grateful to have savvy partners who recognize the differentiated value of our innovative laser technologies and support our rapid growth. This financing will serve as the foundation for our future strategic engagements where our innovations can reshape market economics as well as enable entirely new device architectures and functionalities.”
‘Overwhelming success’
According to a recently published report detailing the results of a project carried out for the California Energy Commission, Halo is already producing 1000 wafers per month, but aiming to increase that figure to 24,000 by the end of this year.
For context, Halo quotes analyst reports suggesting that around 100 million SiC wafers were produced in 2019 - indicating the enormous potential for further growth.
The firm’s series B round was led by the US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT), with participation from 8VC and SAIC, and is aimed squarely at scaling the commercialization and reach of the technology to establish what Halo hopes will become the new “gold standard” for SiC substrate production.
Halo’s web site does not reveal much detail about the laser process, other than claims for industry-leading wafer-per-ingot yields, and the elimination of wafer bowing and warping effects that can result from traditional wafering methods.
The California Energy Commission project report details the use of wafer polishing and metrology tools provided by Axus Technologies and KLA Corporation respectively, but, again, no details of the laser wafering process.
“Due to the overwhelming success of this project, Halo Industries is currently in high volume production and aggressively working to further scale its production capacity,” stated Halo in the report.
“This project has demonstrated that the technology has the potential for zero material loss and throughput on the order of minutes, per wafer.
“This would result in dramatic cost reductions for conductive SiC substrates that would enable the proven beneficial properties of this material system to make their way into advanced, next-generation power electronics for a wide variety of applications.”
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