Could a new Raleigh semiconductor hub – one of eight splitting a $238 million Department of Defense funding tranche – help North Carolina score the next Micron, Intel or Nvidia?
Yes, said John Muth, the professor charged as primary investigator for the initiative led by N.C. State University.
N.C. State was awarded $39.4 million this month to lead one of the hubs, called “Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors,” or CLAWS.
Initial partners include N.C. A&T State University and industry partners such as Wolfspeed, Coherent Corp., General Electric, Bluglass Adroit Materials and Kyma Technologies. They will be developing new technologies – as well as training future workers to ensure companies have the talent pipeline to meet the demand.
CLAWS may seem familiar.
It deals in wide bandgap semiconductors, the next-generation semiconductors at the center of another N.C. State hub – PowerAmerica.
That $140 million innovation hub (which recently received a new tranche of funding from the Department of Energy) brought President Barack Obama to Raleigh in 2014.
Muth, who was also involved in PowerAmerica, said the latest designation builds on what the Department of Energy effort started. Together, they create an even more enticing proposition for semiconductors considering expansions and relocations in North Carolina.
The newest initiative is different from PowerAmerica in that it dives deeper into the supply chain, he said.
“This is really focused on making the chips that would go into the power electronics,” he said, adding that it’s making next-generation chips that could be utilized by PowerAmerican cohort companies. And unlike PowerAmerica, its reach will also extend into radiofrequency applications.
And it’s looking past the core materials currently trending in the market.
“We’re looking at more futuristic materials than PowerAmerica,” he said.
Right now, Wolfspeed, a partner in both efforts, is putting its energy into the advancement of silicon carbide.
Silicon carbide is a wide bandgap semiconductor, capable of higher voltages than traditional semiconductors, which is why the electric vehicle industry is circling. And Wolfspeed is all in, manufacturing its largest materials factory yet in Chatham County.
But its partnership with the new initiative shows it’s looking ahead.
Muth said some of the futuristic materials the initiative could explore include aluminum nitride, gallium oxide and diamond.
Wolfspeed did not have anyone available for this story. But CEO Gregg Lowe has said previously that the key for the company is looking ahead. He credits that foresight with its success in silicon carbide.
