Semiconductor manufacturer II-VI Inc. has announced that it will expand its wafer fabrication capabilities in Northampton County and Sweden as part of a $1 billion investment over 10 years. II-VI will significantly expand its local facility of nearly 300,000 square feet.
“The Easton fab will increase II-VI’s SiC (silicon carbide) substrate production by at least a factor of 6 over the next five years, and it will also be II-VI`s flagship manufacturing center for 200mm SiC epitaxial wafers, one of the largest in the world ," Executive Vice President Sohail Khan said in a company statement. Khan is the company's Executive Vice President of New Enterprise and Wide Bandgap Electronics Technologies.
Silicon carbide has electronic and thermal properties that make it useful for high power and high frequency semiconductors. The local factory will be powered by an uninterrupted microgrid based on fuel cell technology.
"This is exactly the type of development that Northampton County needs," County Executive Lamont McClure said today. "We've been working hard to make this happen for years. Compared to some warehouse jobs, the high-tech jobs we've created will be very popular and will last for years to come."
Based in Saxenburg, Pennsylvania, II-VI develops products for the communications, industrial, aerospace and defense, semiconductor devices, life sciences, consumer electronics and automotive markets. It operates globally. II-VI trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol IIVI. The stock was last traded at $65.08. The stock had a 52-week high of $83.45 and a low of $54.35. The company's market capitalization (shares outstanding times current price) is $6.9 billion.
Official Announcement: II-VI Incorporated Announces Massive Plant Expansion in Pennsylvania and Sweden, Accelerating Investment in Silicon Carbide Substrate and Epitaxial Wafer Manufacturing
II-VI, a leader in wide-bandgap semiconductors, announced today that it is accelerating investments in 150mm and 200mm silicon carbide (SiC) substrate and epiwafer manufacturing, with operations in Easton, Pennsylvania, and Kista, Sweden expansion. This is part of the company's previously announced $1 billion investment in SiC over the next 10 years.
The urgency to decarbonize global energy consumption is accelerating the “electrification of everything” and driving a sea change in power electronics technology through the adoption of SiC, a wide-bandgap material that enables more efficient, More compact power electronic subsystems. To meet growing global demand for SiC power electronics, II-VI will expand its nearly 300,000-square-foot facility in Easton to expand production-scale production of its state-of-the-art 150 mm and 200 mm SiC substrates and epitaxial wafers. Easton's production of 150mm and 200mm SiC substrates is expected to reach 1 million 150mm substrates per year by 2027, with the proportion of 200mm substrates growing over time. Kista's epitaxial wafer capacity expansion is aimed at serving the European market.
"Our customers are accelerating their plans to meet the expected wave of demand for SiC power electronics in electric vehicles, which we expect will lag current adoption cycles in industrial, renewable energy, data centers, and more," the company said in a statement. said Sohail Khan, Vice President of New Ventures and Wide Bandgap Electronics Technologies. "The Easton fab will increase II-VI's SiC substrate production by at least a factor of 6 over the next five years, and it will also become II-VI's flagship manufacturing center for 200mm SiC epitaxial wafers, one of the largest in the world."
II-VI will leverage its industry-leading epiwafer technology developed at Kista. The technology differs in that it enables thick layer structures in single or multiple regrowth steps, ideal for power devices in applications above 1 kV.