A new partnership between a Pittsburgh-area semiconductor maker and a prominent Japanese electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company will look to scale a promising semiconductor technology that's poised to see heightened demand in the years ahead.
Coherent Corp. (NYSE: COHR), based in Saxonburg, signed a memorandum of understanding with Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Electric Corp. to develop a program for the scaled manufacturing of silicon carbide (SiC) powered electronics based on a 200-millimeter technology platform.
As part of this effort, Mitsubishi Electric will invest roughly $711 million (100 billion in Japanese Yen) over the next few years for the construction of a new manufacturing facility that will build SiC-powered devices designed on the 200-millimeter platform. Coherent will be tasked with developing a supply of 200-millimeter SiC substrates that will be used in Mitsubishi Electric's future SiC-powered devices.
Global demand for electric vehicles is expected to grow in the years ahead, which Coherent cited as just one of several emerging products that could benefit from SiC-powered devices. Devices that use SiC tend to have lower energy losses, higher temperatures of operation and faster switching speeds compared to devices powered on silicon alone.
The new partnership builds on prior agreements made between the two companies.
"We are excited to build on our relationship with Mitsubishi Electric, a pioneer in SiC power devices and a global market leader in SiC power modules for high-speed trains, including the famous Shinkansen in Japan," Sohail Khan, executive vice president of new ventures and wide-bandgap electronics technologies at Coherent, said in a prepared statement. "We have a long track record of supplying SiC substrates to Mitsubishi Electric and are looking forward to expanding our relationship with them to scale their new 200 mm SiC platform."
