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Soitec once again demonstrates its excellence in innovation through its rise in the 2024 ranking of patent filers published by the INPI (the French National Institute of Industrial Property).
This recognition highlights Soitec’s unwavering commitment to innovation and confirms its central role in the development of disruptive technologies, driven by a global strategy and a network of research centers spread across several continents.
For the first time, the patents filed originate from all of its innovation sites around the world, illustrating a collaborative approach that combines technological excellence with strong local roots.
With 76 patents filed in France in 2024, compared to 62 the previous year, Soitec:
- Confirms its 1st place among the most innovative mid-sized companies, for the second consecutive year;
- Rises to 22nd place nationally, up three places.
This achievement reflects the strength of Soitec’s innovation strategy, driven by its research, technology, and intellectual property teams. The company protects its technological advances with a robust patent portfolio, securing its innovations and ensuring product differentiation in the market through the exclusivity of its innovations. With approximately 400 patents filed worldwide each year, Soitec has established itself as an essential technology leader.
Pierre Barnabé, CEO of Soitec, stated:
“This progress in the INPI ranking demonstrates Soitec’s unwavering commitment to innovation and intellectual property. Our teams continue to develop breakthrough solutions that address the strategic challenges of our industry. By strengthening our patent portfolio, we consolidate our leadership position and create value for our customers and partners worldwide.”
Soitec’s continuous investments in R&D enable it to anticipate the needs of strategic markets and address the technological challenges of the future. With 14% of its revenue dedicated to R&D this year, the company develops innovative materials that accelerate the transition to more efficient and sustainable solutions in the field of mobile communications, artificial intelligence, and power electronics.
At the same time, Soitec continues to diversify its activities by introducing innovative new products. The company is at the forefront of Photonics-SOI technology, which facilitates the shift from electrical to optical interconnects – a key development for the evolution of data centers and telecommunications. Furthermore, Soitec’s SmartSiC™ silicon carbide wafers, produced using its patented SmartCut™ technology, enhance the performance and sustainability of power electronics applications, which are essential for electric mobility and the energy industry.
Another example is Soitec’s POI (Piezoelectric On Insulator), an innovative substrate also manufactured using its SmartCut™ technology. It is based on a high-resistivity silicon substrate, topped with an embedded oxide layer and a thin layer of single-crystal piezoelectric material, making it particularly suitable for advanced applications in optoelectronics and telecommunications.
Original – Soitec
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STMicroelectronics and Innoscience announced the signature of an agreement on GaN technology development and manufacturing, leveraging the strengths of each company to enhance GaN power solutions and supply chain resilience.
The companies have agreed on a joint development initiative on GaN power technology, to advance the promising future of GaN power for consumer electronics, datacenters, automotive and industrial power systems and many more applications in the coming years. In addition, the agreement allows Innoscience to utilize ST’s front-end manufacturing capacity outside China for its GaN wafers, while ST can leverage Innoscience’s front-end manufacturing capacity in China for its own GaN wafers. The common ambition is for each company to expand their individual offering in GaN with supply chain flexibility and resilience to cover all customers’ requirements in a wide range of applications.
Marco Cassis, President, Analog, Power & Discrete, MEMS and Sensors of STMicroelectronics declared: “ST and Innoscience are both Integrated Device Manufacturers, and with this agreement we will leverage this model to the benefit of our customers globally. First, ST will be accelerating its roadmap in GaN power technology to complement its silicon and silicon carbide offering. Second, ST will be able to leverage a flexible manufacturing model to serve customers globally.”
Dr. Weiwei Luo, Chairman and Founder of Innoscience, stated “GaN technology is essential to improve electronics, creating smaller and more efficient systems which save electric power, lower cost, and reduce CO2 Emissions. Innoscience pioneered mass production of 8-inch GaN technology and has shipped over 1 billion GaN devices into multiple markets, and we are very excited to move into strategic collaboration with ST. The joint collaboration between ST and Innoscience will further expand and accelerate the adoption of GaN technology. Together the teams at Innoscience and ST will develop the next generations of GaN technology”.
GaN power devices leverage fundamental material properties that enable new standards of system performance in power conversion, motion control, and actuation, offering significantly lower losses, which allows for enhanced efficiency, smaller size, and lighter weight, thus reducing the overall solution cost and carbon footprint; these devices are rapidly being adopted in consumer electronics, data center and industrial power supplies, and solar inverters, and are being actively designed into next-generation EV powertrains due to their substantial size and weight reduction benefits.
Original – STMicroelectronics
