Fiammetta - an advanced and energy efficient method for SiC crystal growth

The need for silicon carbide (SIC) has the past years increased dramatically thanks to the advantageous properties of SiC in electric vehicles (EVs), charging posts, and inverters. It is estimated that SiC can save on average 20% of all the electric energy generated today, but the transition is hindered by the lack of large diameter SiC substrates. The common production method is Physical Vapor Transport (PVT) is poorly suited for producing large diameter substrates since the technique is slow, expensive, and consumes enormous amounts of energy and graphite.

By estimate 1.5 TWh energy and 1700 ton of synthetic graphite is needed to provide all EVs with SiC in the year 2030.

Xtal.works, (pronounced crystal works), a spinoff company from Linköping University, has developed a growth method that can produce SiC crystals with higher quality, an estimated 30 times lower energy consumption, and that does not consume any graphite. The first prototype will be built and tested in this project.