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The decarbonization trend will result in strong market growth for power semiconductors, in particular those based on wide bandgap materials. As a leader in Power Systems, Infineon Technologies AG is now taking a further, decisive step to shape this market: By significantly expanding its Kulim fab – over and above the original investment announced in February 2022 – Infineon will build the world’s largest 200-millimeter SiC (silicon carbide) Power Fab. The planned expansion is backed by customer commitments covering about five billion euros of new design-wins in automotive and industrial applications as well as about one billion euros in pre-payments.
Over the next five years Infineon will additionally invest up to five billion euros in Kulim during a second construction phase for Module Three. The investment will lead to an annual SiC revenue potential of about seven billion euros by the end of the decade, together with the planned 200-millimeter SiC conversion of Villach and Kulim. This highly competitive manufacturing base will support Infineon’s SiC market share target of 30% towards the end of the decade. Infineon is confident that the company’s SiC revenue in the fiscal year 2025 will come in ahead of the target of one billion euros.
“The market for silicon carbide shows accelerating growth, not only in automotive but also in a broad range of industrial applications such as solar, energy storage and high-power EV charging. With the Kulim expansion, we will secure our leadership position in this market,” said Jochen Hanebeck, CEO of Infineon. “With the industry’s leading scale and a unique cost position, we are leveraging our competitive position of best-in-class SiC trench technology, the broadest package portfolio and unrivaled application understanding. These factors are the areas of differentiation and success in the industry.”
Infineon has been awarded new design wins of about five billion euros along with about one billion euros in prepayments from existing and new customers: In the automotive sector this includes six OEMs, three of them from China. Among the customers are Ford, SAIC and Chery. In the area of renewable energies customers include SolarEdge and three leading Chinese photovoltaic and energy storage systems companies.
In addition, Infineon and Schneider Electric agreed on a capacity reservation including prepayments for power products based on silicon and silicon carbide. Infineon and the respective customers will provide more details in separate announcements in the near future. The prepayments will contribute positively to Infineon’s cash flow in the coming years and shall be fully repaid in connection with the agreed sales volumes by 2030 at the latest.
The Right Honourable Dato’ Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia, expressed his appreciation for Infineon’s commitment to creating a significant wide bandgap hub in the country. “Malaysia is putting in maximum efforts to meet its national target to decarbonize its economy and achieve net zero by 2050. Malaysia’s continued appeal as a preferred investment destination comes with a well-established landscape for developing innovative and sustainable technologies. In this vein, Infineon’s vision on green technology and sustainability puts it right at home in Malaysia.
Infineon and other well-established German corporations’ continued faith in Malaysia is a vote of confidence in Malaysia’s new economic growth agenda premised on inclusivity and sustainability, enabled by strong policies on knowledge transfer, quality investments, business enablement and socio-economic well-being based on equitable sharing of the nation’s wealth.”
The Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI), His Hon. Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Aziz lauded Infineon’s expansion and said, “Infineon’s expansion of their world-class silicon carbide facility in Kulim marks a significant milestone in Malaysia’s pursuit of developing advanced manufacturing capabilities, creating high-skilled employment opportunities and positioning the country at the forefront of enabling green technologies, which are crucial to achieving our global sustainable development goals.
The innovative power semiconductor technologies manufactured in the SiC Power Fab will also bolster Malaysia’s position as a key player in the world’s semiconductor ecosystem, with a growing role specifically in the sustainable technology supply chain. I am heartened by Infineon’s sharing of Malaysia’s commitment to address the impact of climate change and I look forward to our long-term partnership for the further development of Malaysia’s green technologies ecosystem.”
Sustainability is a key element in the planning, construction and operation of the fab. The building is designed in a way that allows Infineon to make responsible use of resources such as electricity and water.
Original – Infineon Technologies
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Infineon Technologies AG reported the results for the third quarter of its 2023 fiscal year (period ended 30 June 2023).
“The company has strongly performed in the past quarter, while Semiconductor market trends continue to present a mixed picture with both light and shade,” says Jochen Hanebeck, CEO of Infineon. “On the one hand, in electromobility, renewable energy and related application areas, demand has stayed high. On the other hand, demand for consumer applications, such as PCs and smartphones remains low. Infineon is performing well in this challenging market environment thanks to its persistent focus on structural growth drivers for the digital transformation and the transition to a green economy. This is why we take a forward-looking long-term approach and are investing in additional manufacturing capacity.”
For the full version of financial data, please download the PDF version.
- Q3 FY 2023: Revenue €4.089 billion, Segment Result €1.067 billion, Segment Result Margin 26.1 percent
- Outlook for Q4 FY 2023: Based on an assumed exchange rate of US$1.10 to the euro, revenue of around €4 billion with a Segment Result Margin of around 25 percent expected
- Outlook for FY 2023: Based on an assumed exchange rate of US$1.10 to the euro, Infineon continues to anticipate revenue to be at around €16.2 billion with an adjusted gross margin of about 47 percent and a Segment Result Margin of about 27 percent. Investments are expected to amount to approximately €3.0 billion. Taking the planned investments in frontend buildings into account, Free Cash Flow is now expected to be around €1.2 billion (previously €1.1 billion) and adjusted Free Cash Flow now around €1.7 billion (previously €1.8 billion)
Original – Infineon Technologies
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Bernd Hops, Chief Communications Officer and Head of Communications & Public Policy at Infineon Technologies AG, will leave the company at the end of September at his own request and by best mutual agreement. The succession process has been initiated.
“Bernd Hops has played a key role in shaping Infineon’s communications and political work over the past more than ten years. We accept his decision with great regret,” said Jochen Hanebeck, CEO of Infineon.
“Thanks also to Bernd Hops’ intensive work, awareness among our key stakeholders and the general public of the important contribution Infineon is making to the decarbonization and digitalization of our world has grown significantly in recent years. Under his leadership, the Communications and Public Policy team has also been significantly expanded. On a personal note, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Bernd Hops for his outstanding support, especially during the transition period last year when I took over the role as CEO of Infineon.”
“The decision to leave Infineon after more than ten years was not an easy one for me. I am grateful for having been able to help appropriately position this great company with its dedicated people. Now I would like to pursue a new challenge. I would like to thank Jochen Hanebeck and his predecessor Reinhard Ploss very much for the great trust they have placed in me, which is a prerequisite for good corporate communication. I would also like to thank my team and the many other colleagues who accompanied me at Infineon and strongly supported me.”
Bernd Hops joined Infineon in 2013 as Head of CEO Communications and subsequently took on various additional leadership roles in Communications & Public Policy. In January 2020, he assumed global responsibility for the department. Previously, Bernd Hops worked as a business editor and reporter at “Der Tagesspiegel” and “Financial Times Deutschland” and as a communications manager at the management consultancy Roland Berger and the utilities company Verbundnetz Gas.
Original – Infineon Technologies
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Infineon Technologies AG and SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. announced the signing of a multi-year Capacity Reservation Agreement (CRA).
Extending the existing partnership, Infineon will supply SolarEdge with critical components for a variety of SolarEdge products. In addition to the CRA, the companies will collaborate on the development of future technologies and cutting-edge solar products based on wide-bandgap (WBG) materials that are key for global green energy supplies.
“We are excited to expand our strategic partnership with SolarEdge to shape innovation in green energy technologies and decarbonization”, said Andreas Urschitz, Chief Marketing Officer at Infineon. “Our long-lasting collaboration is an enormous asset for both companies that paves the way for breakthrough-innovation and accelerated growth, as we combine our expertise and resources. With the latest investments in silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) manufacturing capacity, Infineon underlines its commitment to be a leading partner in climate technologies such as solar power.”
Uri Bechor, Chief Operating Officer at SolarEdge, said: “Securing the capacity levels of critical components such as power and wide-bandgap from Infineon enhances SolarEdge’s supply chain resiliency. This Capacity Reservation Agreement with Infineon is in line with our strategy to continue leading the global industry in solar energy advancement.”
Original – Infineon Technologies
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A small footprint of discrete power MOSFETs plays a critical role in achieving space savings, cost reduction, and easy-to-design applications. Additionally, higher power density can lead to layout routing flexibility and overall system size reduction. By expanding the current PQFN 2×2 portfolio with the new best-in-class OptiMOS™ power MOSFETs, Infineon Technologies AG offers benchmark solutions optimized for efficiency and performance in a small footprint. The new products are ideal for applications like synchronous rectification in switched mode power supplies (SMPS) for servers, telecom, and portable- and wireless chargers. Additional applications also include electric speed controllers for small brushless motors in drones.
The new OptiMOS 6 40 V and OptiMOS 5 25 V and 30 V power MOSFETs further optimize the proven OptiMOS technology for high-performance designs. They offer leading-edge silicon technology, package reliability, and superior thermal resistance (R thJC, max = 3.2 K/W) in the ultra-small PQFN 2×2 mm² package. The new devices combine industry-leading low on-resistance R DS(on) with industry-leading figures of merit (FOMs, Q G and Q OSS) for outstanding dynamic switching performance. As a result, MOSFETs with ultra-low switching and reduced conduction losses ensure optimal energy efficiency and power density, all while simplifying thermal management.
With the compact PQFN 2×2 mm² package outline, the OptiMOS power switches enable an improved system form factor with smaller, more flexible geometric outlines for end-user applications. The MOSFETs facilitate reliable system design with less need for paralleling, significantly reducing space and system cost.
Original – Infineon Technologies
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In static switching applications, power designs focus on minimizing conduction losses, optimizing thermal behavior, and achieving compact and lightweight systems while ensuring high quality at a low cost. To meet the needs of next-generation solutions, Infineon Technologies AG is expanding its CoolMOS™ S7 family of high-voltage superjunction (SJ) MOSFETs.
The devices are aiming at SMPS, solar energy systems, battery protection, solid-state relays (SSR), motor-starters and solid-state circuit breakers, as well as PLCs, lighting control, HV eFuse/eDisconnect, (H)EV on-board chargers.
The portfolio extension includes innovative QDPAK top-side cooling (TSC) packages and offers a wide range of features in a small footprint. This makes it highly advantageous for low-frequency switching applications while optimizing cost positioning.
Thanks to the novel high-power QDPAK packaging, they offer an R DS(on) of only 10 mΩ, which is the lowest on the market in this voltage class and the lowest in SMD packages. By minimizing conduction losses of the MOSFETs, the CoolMOS S7/S7A solutions contribute to higher overall efficiency and provide an easy and cost-optimized way to improve system performance.
The CoolMOS S7 power switches also effectively manage heat dissipation with improved thermal resistance. Thanks to the innovative and efficient QDPAK packaging, they also reduce or even eliminate the need for heat sinks in solid-state designs, resulting in more compact and lighter systems.
The MOSFETs are available in both top-side and bottom-side variants, and feature high-pulse current capability, enabling them to handle sudden surges of current. In addition, they exhibit body diode robustness to ensure reliable operation during AC line commutation.
With fewer components required, they reduce part count, resulting in flexible system integration, lower BOM costs, and total cost of ownership (TCO). In addition, these MOSFETs enable shorter reaction times, particularly when breaking a current, facilitating smoother and more efficient operation.
Original – Infineon Technologies
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Power semiconductors companies continue to invest heavily in new factories, production capacity expansions, and R&D centers. Thus, recently the total value of the active investment projects launched since 2021 has surpassed 70 billion USD.
Driven by the pandemic and geopolitics, major power semiconductors companies started to invest more in new factories and joint ventures to have more confidence in their own supply chain in the future.
As of today, it is obvious to see the major split of power semiconductors into three geographical regions – the USA, Europe, and Asia. Asia may as well be divided into several regions with China being the leading investor of all.
Despite the ongoing tensions and export restrictions between the US, Europe, and China related to advanced semiconductors, when it comes to power semiconductors European companies continue to invest in the Chinese market expanding their product capacity or establishing new joint ventures like STMicroelectronics and Sanan Optoelectronics did recently.
Even with some delay, Japanese companies like ROHM, Mitsubishi Electric, Fuji Electric, Renesas Electronics, Toshiba, and others, pushed by their US and European competitors, announced their own projects aimed to secure the capacity on the wafer and device level to correspond to the growing demand for Si and SiC based power semiconductors coming from the electric vehicle and charging, photovoltaics, battery energy storage systems, and the other emerging applications.
If we take a closer look at all projects announced, SiC is the leading technology with over 60% of total investment. Over 25 market leaders announced their plans to invest in silicon carbide.
Thus, ROHM is investing in new production to multiply its SiC capacity in the coming years. Mitsubishi Electric teams up with Coherent to scale manufacturing of SiC power devices on a 200 mm SiC technology platform as one of the steps of their 260 billion yen investment project planned till March 2026.
Infineon Technologies continues to bet on both local European and Asian markets investing in their new fab in Dresden and expanding backend operations in Indonesia. STMicroelectronics continues to invest in WBG semiconductors with the ongoing construction of a new wafer fab in Sicily announced in 2022.
With a global total number of new investment projects of over 80, the US companies Wolfspeed, onsemi, and Microchip Technology, similar to their European counterparts, invest locally, in Europe and Asian markets. Totally the US semiconductor companies announced new projects valued at almost 9 billion USD.
With the US and EU Chips Acts, and similar initiatives in China, Japan, South Korea, and some other countries, it is clear that the investment into power semiconductors industry will continue to reach 100 billion USD soon.
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As digitalization, urbanization, and the rise of electro-mobility continue to shape the rapidly evolving world, the demand for power consumption is reaching unprecedented levels. Acknowledging energy efficiency as an important concern, Infineon Technologies AG addresses these megatrends with its silicon carbide (SiC) CoolSiC™ MOSFET 650 V in TO leadless (TOLL) packaging. The new SiC MOSFETs are enhancing Infineon’s comprehensive CoolSiC portfolio and are optimized for the lowest losses, the highest reliability, and ease-of-use in applications such as SMPS for servers, telecom infrastructure as well as energy storage systems and battery formation solutions.
The CoolSiC 650 V high-performance trench-based power SiC MOSFETs are offered in a very granular portfolio to best suit different target applications. The new family comes in a JEDEC-qualified TOLL package featuring a low parasitic inductance, allowing for higher switching frequency, reduced switching losses, good thermal management, and automated assembly. The compact form factor enables efficient and effective usage of the board space, empowering system designers to achieve exceptional power density.
The CoolSiC MOSFETs 650 V showcase remarkable reliability even in harsh environments, making them an ideal choice for topologies with repetitive hard commutation. The inclusion of the innovative .XT interconnect technology further enhances the devices’ thermal performance by reducing the thermal resistance (R th) and thermal impedance (Z th). In addition, the new devices feature a gate threshold voltage (V GS(th)) greater than 4 V for robustness against parasitic turn-on, a robust body diode, and the strongest gate oxide (GOX) in the market resulting in extremely low FIT (failures in time) rates.
While a cut-off voltage (V GS(off)) of 0 V is generally recommended to simplify the driving circuit (unipolar driving), the new portfolio supports a wide driving interval of V GS voltage within the range of -5 V (turn-off) to 23 V (turn-on). This ensures ease-of-use and compatibility with other SiC MOSFETs and standard MOSFET gate-driver ICs. This is paired with higher reliability, reduced system complexity, and the enablement of automated assembly, reducing system and production costs and accelerating time-to-market.
Original – Infineon Technologies
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Semiconductors are the linchpin to the performance, safety, and customer features of Stellantis vehicles today and in the new state-of-the-art, BEV-centric STLA vehicle and technology platforms arriving soon. As the auto industry’s demand for semiconductors accelerates, Stellantis is implementing a multifaceted strategy designed to manage and secure the long-term supply of vital microchips. Developed by a cross-functional team, the strategy was created through a rigorous assessment of customer desires for advanced technology features and a keen focus on delivering the objectives laid out in the Stellantis Dare Forward 2030 plan.
The robust strategy, which is refined continuously, includes:
- implementation of a semiconductor database to provide full transparency on the semiconductor content;
- systematic risk assessment to avoid and proactively remove legacy parts;
- long-term chip level demand forecasting to support capacity securitization agreements with chip makers and Silicon Foundries;
- implementation and enforcement of a Green List to reduce chip diversity and – in case of future chip shortages – to put Stellantis in control of the allocation; and,
- the purchasing of mission-critical parts at chip makers including a long-term securitization of chip supply.
Stellantis has started to engage with strategic semiconductor providers like Infineon, NXP® Semiconductors, onsemi, and Qualcomm to further improve its all-new, state-of-the-art STLA platforms and technologies. In addition, Stellantis is working with aiMotive and SiliconAuto to develop its own differentiating semiconductors in the future.
“An effective semiconductor strategy requires a deep understanding of semiconductors and the semiconductor industry,” said Maxime Picat, Chief Purchasing and Supply Chain Officer at Stellantis. “We have hundreds of very different semiconductors in our cars.
We have built a comprehensive ecosystem to mitigate the risk that one missing chip can stop our lines. At the same time, key vehicle capabilities directly depend on the innovation and performance of single devices. SiC MOSFETS extend the range of our electric vehicles while the computation performance of a leading-edge SoC is essential for the customer experience and safety.”
To date, Stellantis has entered into direct agreements for semiconductors with a purchasing value of more than €10 billion through 2030. The supply agreements cover a variety of vital microchips, including:
- Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFETS, which are fundamental to the range of EVs.
- Microcontroller Unit (MCU), a key part of the computing zones for the STLA Brain electrical architecture.
- System-on-a-chip (SoC), where performance is essential for the high-performance computing (HPC) units that deliver the in-vehicle infotainment and autonomous driving assist functions.
Semiconductors play key roles in the vehicles that are driving the Stellantis transformation into a sustainable mobility tech company, as outlined in Dare Forward 2030. This includes enabling features and functions in the BEV-native STLA global platforms (Small/Medium/Large/Frame) and the seamless connectivity, remote upgradability, and the flexible service-oriented electrical/electronic architecture that underpins the STLA Brain, STLA SmartCockpit, and STLA AutoDrive artificial intelligence-powered platforms.
Original – Stellantis
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Infineon Technologies AG introduced a 62mm half-bridge and common emitter module portfolio with 1200 V TRENCHSTOP™ IGBT7 chips. The wide range of offerings in the proven 62mm housing is extended with the new 800 A maximum current class for the package family. The addition to the portfolio’s current classes provides system designers with a high degree of flexibility in designing higher current power solutions while offering higher power density and electrical performance.
It is tailored to meet the needs of solar central inverters as well as industrial drive applications and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS). Additionally, EV charging, energy storage systems (ESS) and other new industrial applications can be covered.
Based on the new micro-pattern trench technology, the 62mm module family with the 1200 V TRENCHSTOP IGBT7 chip has significantly lower static losses compared to the modules with the IGBT4 chipset. This results in significant loss reduction in applications, especially in industrial drives that typically operate at moderate switching frequencies. The IGBT’s oscillation behavior and controllability have been improved. In addition, the new power modules feature a maximum overload junction temperature of 175°C.
A solid, nickel-coated copper baseplate and screw main terminals ensure the high mechanical robustness of the 62mm module housing. The main terminals are located in the center of the housing, making them well suited for parallel circuits and 3-level configurations due to the low inductive DC link connection.
Unchanged standard package design and dimensions within the module family support mechanical compatibility with the previous module version. In addition, all modules are available with Infineon’s proven pre-applied thermal interface material (TIM).
Original – Infineon Technologies
