Saxonburg-based Coherent Corp., a photonics company, has begun distributing its 300mm high thermal conductivity silicon carbide (SiC) substrates to leading artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor partners for sampling.
This is a step toward scaling the materials platform and will move it from internal development to customer evaluation.
AI and high-performance computing systems are moving higher power densities. This necessitates effective heat removal, higher power density and faster switching.
The company first announced the product in December. It was engineered to manage rising thermal loads to meet the performance and scalability needs of datacenters. When compared to current solutions, it improved heat spreading by up to 25 percent. It also is compatible with existing semiconductor manufacturing platforms.
“AI performance is increasingly constrained by the industry’s ability to remove heat from next-generation processors,” Craig Mullaney, Coherent senior vice president and general manager, said. “Advanced SiC thermal management materials can play an important role in addressing that challenge. By combining decades of silicon carbide expertise with a scalable 300mm manufacturing platform, Coherent is helping build the materials foundation for future AI infrastructure.”
Silicon carbide combines high thermal conductivity, mechanical strength, and thermal stability. The transition to 300mm in power electronics allows more devices per wafer and reduces cost per chip.