Wide bandgap semiconductors such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors have emerged as crucial materials for advancing energy efficiency, particularly in the transportation sector. Beside integrated device manufacturers (IDM), foundries play an important role in the necessary upscaling of SiC and GaN manufacturing and in enabling access for fabless and fab-lite companies. The presentation will provide an overview of X-FAB as a leading foundry for automotive, industrial and medical applications and of the power electronics market from a froundry perspective, with specific focus on SiC and GaN. Beside the advantages of SiC and GaN for achieving power efficiency and and carbon neutrality goals, the presentation will also cover the challenges associated with integration SiC and GaN manufacturing into a CMOS manufacturing process. Finally, the presentation will conclude with an outlook of X-FAB’s technology- and manufacturing strategy for wide bandgap semiconductors.

The microelectronics industry, with its multiple applications across sectors including automotive, defense, health, energy and digital, is considered strategic in Europe. It is the focus of many public funding opportunities. The European semiconductor industry faces fierce competition at global scale. Europe has a strategic positioning in terms of innovation capacity, but factories tend to be located elsewhere due to a less favorable cost structure and massive public support in Asia. This is especially true for wafer production and front-end manufacturing, where the required investments are huge and increase with the performance of the most advanced chips. The European semiconductor ecosystem benefited from significant public funding in 2018 and 2023 through the IPCEI on Microelectronics (€1.9 billion for 43 projects in 4 Member States plus the United Kingdom) and the IPCEI ME/CT (€8.1 billion for 68 projects in 14 Member States) aimed at bolstering the European technological leadership, transforming it into market opportunities, and coordinating innovating players at all levels of the value chain . In addition, in 2022, the European Commission launched the European Chips Act, which facilitates the funding of first-of-a-kind microelectronic gigafactories in Europe, in order to strengthen the resilience of European industry with regards to these key enabling technologies. european economics has supported 34 projects in the microelectronics industry as part of these initiatives and has contributed in securing a total of €11.7 billion for its clients (wafer manufacturers, IDMs and foundries).