Dive Brief:
- The Department of Energy is offering a $544 million loan to chipmaker SK Siltron CSS to expand silicon carbide wafer manufacturing capacity at its site in Bay City, Michigan, the company announced Feb. 22.
- The wafers produced at the Bay City plant will be used to power electronics in electric vehicles, such as inverters and electrical distribution systems like onboard chargers and DC-to-DC converters.
- If finalized, the money will help create 200 more jobs and add to the $300 million investment for a new site first announced by SK Siltron CSS in July 2021.
Dive Insight:
The loan commitment is part of President Joe Biden’s push for half of new vehicles sold in 2030 in the U.S. to be carbon neutral.
“Completion of our facility with support from [Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing] funding not only strengthens our nation’s manufacturing technology, but also fuels job creation, laying the foundation for innovation and economic growth in Michigan and the broader United States,” SK Siltron CSS CEO Jianwei Dong said in a statement.
SK Siltron CSS, a subsidiary of South Korea-based SK Group, entered the SiC wafer business almost four years ago. In March 2020, the company acquired DuPont de Nemour’s SiC wafer unit for $450 million. The company said at the time that it would continue investing in the unit to increase SiC wafer production as well as create jobs in the U.S.
Over two years later, the company announced in September 2022 that it was investing $686 million to expand global production of 300 millimeter wafers. SK Siltron CSS also opened the Bay City site that same month.
SK Siltron CSS is growing its SiC wafer production capacity across the global market. Last month, the company entered a SiC wafer supplier agreement with Germany-based chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG. SK Siltron CSS will provide Infineon with 150-millimeter SiC wafers to support its SiC semiconductor production.
