Photo by Hallie Walker
By Katherine Wan
On Tuesday, March 28, 2023, President Joe Biden visited Wolfspeed in Durham, North Carolina as the first stop on his “Investing in America” tour. According to a statement from the White House, his tour is aimed at promoting his administration’s economic plans and legislation that he has signed into law, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and more. These acts and recent investments are designed to increase American manufacturing and create more jobs for the working-class American.
So what are semiconductors and what makes them so important? Semiconductors are a type of material that can control the flow of currents, which is vital to electronic devices. Its conductivity lies between conductors and insulators, as the name suggests. Wolfspeed produces semiconductors made from Silicon Carbide. While silicon is also a popular choice for semiconductor manufacturing, Silicon Carbide is more effective in high power applications, as stated by an article from Arrow, making it the preferred material for Wolfspeed. Through a process called doping, Silicon Carbide goes from an insulator to a semiconductor. This doped Silicon Carbide can then create a transistor, which acts as a switch or an amplifier, essentially controlling the flow of currents. Putting thousands of transistors together can create chips that are necessary for computers, cars, washing machines, planes and more.
The importance of semiconductors has risen in public knowledge because of supply chain issues. “Not many people knew about semiconductors a few years ago, until during the pandemic, you couldn’t buy a car, you couldn’t buy a washing machine, you couldn’t buy a refrigerator, and it opened all of our eyes to how important it is,” said Gina Raimondo, United States Secretary of Commerce.
This is where Wolfspeed comes in. Founded in 1987 by NC State graduates, Wolfspeed produces more than 60% of the world’s Silicon Carbide materials in Durham, North Carolina, and they are only continuing to expand, as claimed on their website. Wolfspeed recently opened the 200mm Mohawk Valley device fab facility in Marcy, New York. According to Willy Shih from Forbes, The 200mm wafer produced in the Mohawk Valley fab is unique in that it can hold 1.78 times the chips that the traditionally-used 150mm wafer does. Wolfspeed is also constructing The John Palmour Manufacturing Center for Silicon Carbide in North Carolina, which will expand the company’s material capacity by 10 times.
Wolfspeed’s investment in expanding their production of Silicon Carbide could create huge advancements in environmental technology, particularly for electric vehicles and clean energy.
“…[W]e’re gonna have the supply chain start in America, building a clean energy future Made in America,” said President Biden. “And that means providing incentives for companies to manufacture clean energy technologies here in North Carolina and across the country.”
Silicon Carbide is such an efficient material for electric vehicles because it can increase overall energy conservation without increasing the size of the battery, meaning that electric vehicles can drive longer distances, stated by an Arrow publication. It is also predicted that Silicon Carbide will decrease both costs of electric vehicle production and costs of owning electric vehicles. Further advancements can also make charging stations faster and more cost-effective. All of this increases the accessibility for American consumers to purchase and use electric vehicles.
In addition to electric vehicle applications, Silicon Carbide is also increasingly important to power renewable energy. The Silicon Carbide produced by Wolfspeed goes towards fueling wind power, solar power and energy storage systems. Silicon Carbide proves to be an exceptional solar inverter due to the harsh conditions semiconductor chips must endure such as fluctuating temperatures and high humidity. According to Unmesha Ray from AZoCleantech, Silicon Carbide also boasts fewer power losses in the energy conversion system in comparison to silicon, increasing the reliability of renewable energy sources.
Through the efforts of Wolfspeed, North Carolina is “[b]uilding on our tradition of textiles and furniture to expand to a new generation of clean energy, electric vehicles, supersonic jets and semiconductors,” said Governor Roy Cooper.
All in all, Silicon Carbide is vital in increasing American manufacturing and leading improvements in environmental technology, and Wolfspeed is at the forefront of leading these improvements. Along with recent legislation President Biden signed into law, Wolfspeed’s recent investments in North Carolina education and labor are sure to bring a boost for North Carolinians and the world.