II‐VI Incorporated announced that it will supply 200 mm silicon carbide (SiC) substrates under REACTION, a Horizon 2020 four-year program funded by the European Commission. The goal of the REACTION program is to establish in Europe the world's first 200mm pilot production facility for power electronics based on SiC. These 200mm SiC substrates can help scale up today's standard of 150mm SiC wafers for power electronics. SiC achieves superior efficiency, higher energy density, and lower system-level cost per watt.

The REACTION program is expected to develop the first worldwide 200mm silicon carbide (SiC) pilot line facility for power technology. This pilot line is anticipated to play a crucial role in the project's mission of developing the most innovative and cost competitive technology for applications like smart energy and smart mobility, and industrial. The advances are also expected to help industry meet the increasing demand of requirements for quality and cost constraints fof next decade generation power electronics.

The REACTION project intends to implement the Pilot Line value chain, and integrate and optimizing partnerships in the fields of SiC equipment developers, SiC process technologists, RTOs, and end users partners till the development reaches the final application's context. This value chain implementation and partnerships are intended to result in a full 8" SiC line ecosystem that will increase the competitiveness of EU- Industries down to the value chain.

Innovative SiC power device Performances improvements, together with cost and size reductions, are expected to be the most relevant challenges addressed in the project that is intended to lead to a new stronger European supply chain for very compact SiC converters, from 600V to 3.3kV range.  The ambition is to develop first generations of 8" SiC profitable Smart Mobility and Smart Energy products and components, have primary access to the intellectual property for the relevant fundamental capabilities, and begin competitive manufacturing of such components in Europe.

Power electronics using SiC has demonstrated its potential to have a highly beneficial impact on improving power efficiencies and reducing carbon emissions.

"II-VI introduced the world's first 200 mm SiC substrates in 2015," said Martin Benzing, Managing Director, II-VI GmbH. "The strength of II-VI's technology platform is based on a strong portfolio of 30 active patents and on highly differentiated and proprietary manufacturing platforms and technologies."

The ultimate goal of the program is to achieve the cost, performance, and size requirements to enable the broad adoption of SiC components in emerging clean technology applications such as smart power grids, electric cars, and renewable energy systems.