On December 3, Bosch announced that after years of research and development, Bosch is now preparing to start mass production of silicon carbide power semiconductors for supply to major car manufacturers around the world. In the future, Bosch will continue to expand the production capacity of silicon carbide power semiconductors, aiming to increase the output to the level of hundreds of millions. To this end, Bosch has begun to expand the dust-free workshop of the Reutlingen plant, and at the same time, it has begun to develop a second-generation silicon carbide chip with higher power density, which is expected to be put into mass production in 2022.

　　Bosch, Bosch Bosch silicon carbide wafer; image source: Bosch

　　It is reported that Bosch announced two years ago that it will continue to advance the research and development of silicon carbide chips and achieve mass production. To this end, Bosch independently developed an extremely complex manufacturing process and began producing samples for customer verification in early 2021. Harald Kroeger, a member of the Bosch Group’s board of directors, revealed that Bosch has received a considerable number of orders for silicon carbide semiconductors thanks to the vigorous development of the electric mobility field.

　　In order to meet related production capacity requirements, Bosch has built an additional 1,000 square meters of dust-free workshop at the Reutlingen wafer plant this year. According to the plan, by the end of 2023, Bosch will build a 3,000-square-meter dust-free workshop. The newly built dust-free workshop will be equipped with the most advanced production facilities and will use self-developed manufacturing processes to produce silicon carbide semiconductors.

　　In addition, Bosch also mentioned that in the future it plans to use 200mm wafers to manufacture silicon carbide semiconductors. Compared to the 150 mm wafers used today, the use of 200 mm wafers can bring considerable economies of scale. After all, it takes months for a single wafer to complete hundreds of process steps in countless machines and equipment. Harald Kroeger said: "The use of large-size wafers for production can produce more chips in one production cycle, thereby satisfying more customer needs."