晶圆“冷切割”技术SILTECTRA Prepares to Ramp Up Wafering Services Business

德国德累斯顿的Siltectra GmbH公司报告称其已在其全球知识产权组合中增加了三项新专利。第一项专利涉及公司COLD SPLIT激光工艺的新技术能力，并将该方法扩展到非聚合物应用。第二项专利保护了该公司的所有基板材料的冷分裂技术。

第三项专利延伸了该公司的碳化硅（SiC）工艺能力，以便分裂材料，使材料损失低于100微米。该公司声称，无论供应商特定的碳化硅晶体生长工艺如何，都可以实现。

Siltectra COLD SPLIT技术使薄片小于100微米

Siltectra宣称其知识产权组合现在由70个专利族组成，总共拥有200项专利。这些专利的组合涵盖了与该公司基于激光的晶圆薄化工艺相关的每项创新。据Siltectra称，其冷分裂技术在几分钟内就可以以极高的精度将晶圆薄到100微米及以下，并且几乎没有材料损失。

该公司称，集成设备制造商（IDM）以前依靠研磨来削薄晶圆，可以使用Silectra的冷分割技术。除了速度较慢和精度较低外，Siltectra还指出，磨削过程会产生材料损失，从而降低总产量。

相比之下，该公司认为COLD SPLIT提供了更快的基于激光的稀化方法，具有更高的收益和强大的拥有成本优势。

Cold Split proven as a high-performance thinning solution for GaAs as well as SiC, GaN, sapphire and silicon

德国Siltectra GmbH的晶圆分离专利技术项目，将半导体材料如晶体硅、锗、氨化镓、碳化硅、等分离成薄片晶圆时，几乎可以完全消除损耗，应用范围相当广泛。

Company set to make COLD SPLIT wafering technology available to semiconductor and materials manufacturers, and speed adoption of complex substrate materials, like silicon carbide

SILTECTRA GmbH, a leader in advanced wafering technology solutions and services, today announced that it will begin offering “outsourced wafering” services to customers, starting in January 2019. The new business aims to provide affordable access to the company’s breakthrough COLD SPLIT wafering solution to global semiconductor manufacturers and materials providers, and help speed the adoption of new substrate materials by the industry at large. The manufacturing initiative will be located at SILTECTRA’s headquarters in Dresden.

The first phase of the new business will concentrate on 6-inch silicon carbide (SiC) wafers. This focus responds to early requests for the new wafering service from manufacturers of SiC-substrates for applications like electric vehicles and 5G technology. The SiC market is expected to grow steadily between now and 2022, with demand from customers in the US, Europe and China, and strong momentum in Japan. SILTECTRA will begin by producing 500 wafers per week, with plans to increase the volume to 2000 wafers per week by the end of 2019.

COLD SPLIT is a high-output, low-cost wafering and thinning technology for substrates like SiC and gallium arsenide, as well as gallium nitride, sapphire and silicon. The laser-based technique employs a chemical-physical process that uses thermal stress to generate a force that splits the material with exquisite precision along the desired plane, and produces virtually no kerf loss. The “no kerf loss” capability is unique to COLD SPLIT and delivers breakthrough advantages. First, it extracts more wafers per boule than conventional wafering technologies. This drives up output. Second, it dramatically reduces consumables costs.

In addition to semiconductor customers, SILTECTRA will also make the service available to materials manufacturers who stand to gain from COLD SPLIT’s technical and economic advantages. The economic benefits are derived from higher output (up to 2X from the same amount of material), as well as lower capex burdens (furnaces, for instance). The technology benefits are derived from COLD SPLIT’s inherent capabilities, which includes better depth-of-focus stability for the lithography process which is enabled by edge flatness parameters that are superior to the standard lapping process. In addition, the geometrical profile for COLD SPLIT wafers is better suited for lateral processes, especially epitaxy.

The new “outsourced wafering” business is a central component of SILTECTRA’s growth strategy. The company began preparing earlier this year when it expanded its Dresden facility and created a dedicated manufacturing space. In addition, SILTECTRA invested in new process equipment, pioneered new automation techniques, hired additional technologists, and launched a pilot production line. During this time, SILTECTRA also continued to boost COLD SPLIT’s capabilities by adding enabling hardware, software and process innovations. The new innovations further enriched the company’s global IP portfolio which today consists of 70 patent families containing 200 patents in total.

“Outsourced wafering services is a natural next step for SILTECTRA and we’re excited by the enthusiasm we’re hearing from semiconductor manufacturers, as well as materials providers,” said the company’s Head of Business Development, David Schneider. “It’s a compelling service offering for substrate manufacturers seeking an affordable portal to an ultra-high-output wafering solution. Early feedback confirms that customers value the access to COLD SPLIT’s unique innovations and SILTECTRA’s process expertise, and appreciate our knowledge and experience with diverse substrate materials. We intend to meet their wafering needs with a scalable business plan, starting with one shift and adding additional shifts as demand grows.”

About SILTECTRA GmbH

SILTECTRA provides advanced wafering technology solutions and services to global semiconductor manufacturers. The company’s proprietary COLD SPLIT solution thins wafer substrates to 50 microns and below in minutes, with virtually no material loss. With a specialized focus on advanced substrate materials like silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN) and sapphire, SILTECTRA’s laser-based technology equipment and process solution is enabling manufacturers of power electronics, RF and other IC devices with dramatic new performance and cost advantages. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Dresden, Germany, SILTECTRA is privately held and supported by a leading venture capital firm. www.SILTECTRA.com.

At SEMICON West, Siltectra, a Germany-based wafering technology firm, has revealed new enabling and cost-of-ownership (CoO) advantages for its Cold Split technology. Collectively, the benefits aim to further enable manufacturers of power semiconductors.

In the latest demonstration of Cold Split's capabilities, Siltectra said that when applied to GaAs, Cold Split achieved the same breakthrough thinness and near-zero material loss as previously shown for SiC, GaN, sapphire and silicon.

The data comes from a recent study funded by the State Government of Saxony. The study aimed to establish if Cold Split could achieve full crack propagation across the laser plane when applied to GaAs. Participants included a leading materials supplier and a renowned laser institute, as well as Siltectra. The results validated Cold Split as a high-performance thinning solution for GaAs and demonstrated that the technique can successfully thin a range of diverse materials with complex properties.

The data builds on feedback from Cold Split customers who found that the novel thinning technique is demonstrating strong CoO advantages when compared to traditional grinding. Not only can Cold Split thin wafers to 50 microns and below in minutes, it produces virtually no material loss. Grinding is a slower process and can incur material waste of up to 90 percent. And now, thanks to an adaptation known as 'twinning', Cold Split users can reclaim substrate material generated (and previously wasted) during backside grinding and create a fully optimizable bonus wafer. Siltectra believes that these benefits can cut consumables costs by 50 percent and reduce overall wafering costs by as much as 30 percent.

"Significantly lower consumables costs are a key driver of Cold Split's compelling CoO, especially for SiC-based devices," said Siltectra's CTO, Jan Richter. "While the industry is starting to adopt SiC for power semiconductors, it is an extraordinarily hard substance. Every single micron must be ground and polished, micron-by-micron. Grinding involves expensive diamond-based consumables, and when coupled with the technique's inherent material waste, costs can be high. In contrast, Cold Split produces almost no waste which vastly reduces consumables costs. And because the technique can save virtually every micron of SiC and turn surplus material into a bonus wafer, CoO is further boosted."

Siltectra's CEO, Harald Binder remarked that the new data may also have exciting performance implications for end-user devices. "Take low-voltage SiC-based SCHOOTKY diodes, for example," he said. "With these diodes, low resistance is essential to reducing electrical losses in end-user applications. The thickness of the final device influences resistance. The thinner the device, the lower the resistance. Reducing thickness, therefore, can decrease resistance and reduce electrical losses. This means that in addition to low-cost/high-speed wafer thinning, Cold Split can potentially also improve the electrical performance of low-voltage devices."

Binder concluded: "Much of our new data is occurring in real time as the industry shifts fast to new materials. That said, the innovation has been happening at Siltectra for many years and is protected by 70 patent families covering technology, manufacturing equipment, materials and expertise. It is gratifying to see our discoveries exceeding even their original promise as we collaborate with manufacturers to help them achieve aggressive roadmap goals."