Infineon hosts European Enhanced Power Pilot Line research project

A total of 32 European partners from industry and research are collaborating to advance production technology for power semiconductors, an industry segment where Europe already has the leading position. Europe is home to the first power semiconductor production sites manufacturing devices using 300-millimeter thin-wafer technology, i.e. on silicon wafers with a 300mm diameter which in addition are extremely thin: hardly thicker than a sheet of paper. With EPPL, Europe intends to further expand this production advantage.

The partner organizations cover the entire industry and research value chain of 300 millimeter power semiconductor production, comprising material research with a focus on silicon, semiconductor development that includes 3D integration and packaging, and related developments in logistics and automation technologies. The project will run until mid 2016, with Infineon as the project lead.

A project volume of Euro 74 million and the commitment of 32 partner organizations strongly underline the importance of EPPL for the semiconductor industry in Europe,” says Sabine Herlitschka, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of Infineon Technologies Austria. “Infineon currently is the only company worldwide to produce power semiconductors on 300-millimeter thin-wafers. We are proud and honored to contribute our experience in this area to the EPPL project and thus to Europe’s technology advancement.”

EPPL Research Goals

The EPPL research aims to develop an advanced generation of power semiconductors manufactured in the 300mm thin-wafer production technology, such as CoolMOS, IGBT, and SFET, as well as to further refine the production technology itself. The results of the project shall include the setup of a pilot-line as well as application demonstrators.

In its „Europe 2020“ initiative, the European Commission has set ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to improve energy efficiency and to establish electromobility in Europe. Power semiconductors that are designed and manufactured at competitive costs and in sufficient quantities in Europe are key enablers, and EPPL was set up to make a major contribution to achieve these targets.

For this reason, EPPL is supported by the European Union as well as by national and regional funding of the participating nations. Among others, the German Ministry of Education and Research plans to support the EPPL project under its “Information and Communication Technology 2020“ program.