Infineon Technologies AG has acquired a startup that has developed an innovative technology to process crystal material efficiently and with minimal loss of material. The company will use the Cold Split technology developed by Siltectra GmbH, which is based in Dresden, to split silicon carbide (SiC) wafers, thus doubling the number of chips out of one wafer.

A purchase price of €124 million was agreed on with the venture capital investor MIG Fonds, which is the main shareholder.

"This acquisition will help us expand our excellent portfolio with the new material silicon carbide as well. Our system understanding and our unique know how on thin wafer technology will be ideally complemented by the Cold Split technology and the innovative capacity of Siltectra," said Dr. Reinhard Ploss, Chief Executive Officer of Infineon.

Siltectra was founded in 2010 and has been growing an IP portfolio with more than 50 patent families. The start-up developed a technology for splitting crystalline materials with minimal loss of material compared to common sawing technologies. This technology can also be applied with the semiconductor material SiC, for which rapidly rising demand is expected in the coming years.

SiC products are already used today in very efficient and compact solar inverters. In the future, SiC will play a more and more important role in electro-mobility. The Cold Split technology will be industrialized at the existing Siltectra site in Dresden and at the Infineon site in Villach, Austria. The transfer to volume production is expected to be completed within the next five years.

Dr. Jan Richter, Chief Technology Officer of Siltectra said, "We are glad to become part of the team of the global market leader in power semiconductors. Having shown that the Cold Split technology can be used at Infineon in principle, we will now work together to transfer it to volume production."