Recently, Italy France Semiconductor announced that it will invest 730 million euros in Italy to build an integrated silicon carbide (SiC) substrate factory. At the same time, according to the Wall Street Journal, the European Commission said on the same day that it had approved a post epidemic assistance in Italy, providing 292.5 million euros (about 292.1 million dollars) to support Italian French Semiconductor to build a semiconductor factory in Italy.
The European Commission said that this assistance would support the 730 million euros invested in the construction of the factory by Sino French Semiconductor. The plant, located in Catania, will mainly produce silicon carbide wafers, which are used as the base of microchips for electric vehicles, fast charging stations and other equipment.
Italy France Semiconductor's new SiC manufacturing plant in Italy was subsidized by the European Union by 290 million euros
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for Competition Affairs, said that the approved Italian aid initiative would strengthen the semiconductor supply chain in Europe.
This project is a key step for STC to promote the vertical integration strategy of SiC business. STC expects that the new factory will be put into operation in 2023 and the overall construction will be completed in 2026.
Italian French Semiconductor's SiC substrate manufacturing factory in Catania, Italy, and the existing SiC device manufacturing factory have integrated all the steps in the production process, and will become the first factory in Europe to mass produce 150mm SiC epitaxial substrates. In the future, STC is committed to developing 200mm wafers. In addition, STC said that it is changing its global manufacturing business, increasing its manufacturing capacity by 300mm, and focusing on broadband gap semiconductor to support its revenue target of more than 200 billion dollars.
It is understood that STPOWER silicon carbide products in large quantities are currently produced in its wafer plants located in Catania and Hongmaoqiao (Singapore). The assembly and testing were completed at the back-end sites in Shenzhen (China) and Bouscula (Morocco).