Wolfspeed’s Mohawk Valley SiC fab reaches 20% utilisation
Wolfspeed’s Mohawk Valley silicon carbide fab in Marcy, New York has reached 20% wafer start utilisation, a critical step in the company’s efforts to meet the growing demand for SiC power devices.
Additionally, Wolfspeed’s Building 10 Materials facility has achieved its 200mm wafer production target to support approximately 25% wafer start utilisation at the Mohawk Valley fab by the end of calendar year 2024.
Adding to this, the company's John Palmour Manufacturing Center in Siler City, North Carolina, which will be the world’s largest silicon carbide materials facility upon completion, has installed and recently activated initial furnaces less than one year after vertical construction commenced. As a result, the facility is on schedule to achieve crystal qualification by early August 2024. The target is to deliver wafers from the facility to Mohawk Valley by the summer of 2025.
Wolfspeed also provided an update stating that it experienced an equipment incident at its Durham 150mm device fab, which resulted in a temporary capacity reduction while the incident was being remediated. Production has been resumed and the company expects that the Durham 150mm device fab’s capacity utilisation can return to previously targeted levels by August. Wolfspeed does not expect an impact on fourth-quarter revenue due to the incident but does expect to have an underutilisation impact and incur other costs in the fourth quarter.
“Having reached our 20% utilization target at Mohawk Valley, we are well-positioned to continue executing our 200mm vertical integration strategy ahead of other market participants,” said Gregg Lowe, president and CEO of Wolfspeed, in the press release. “Further, recent advancements at the JP put Wolfspeed well on track to achieve our facility targets and significantly expand our materials capacity, driving meaningful progress towards our strategic goals. We quickly identified and resolved an equipment incident at our Durham 150mm device fab, and we continue to focus on execution as we move with urgency to continue this first-of-its-kind ramp.”