Domestic SiC Power Device Processing Equipment Enters Mass Production Delivery

According to China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, the first full-automatic thinning machine for silicon carbide device wafers, independently developed by its Beijing subsidiary, has been delivered to a leading domestic wafer manufacturer for mass production. The business arm now offers a complete set of solutions covering silicon carbide ingots, wafers and device wafers across the whole manufacturing chain.

Wafer thinning is a core semiconductor manufacturing step. It removes excess substrate material from the rear side of wafers to achieve target thickness for packaging and improves chip heat dissipation. Rear-side thinning strongly shapes thermal resistance, conduction loss and mass yield of silicon carbide power devices. Silicon carbide is hard and difficult to grind, and processing may trigger edge chipping, microcracks or wafer breakage, which imposes strict requirements on machine rigidity, spindle vibration suppression, chuck shape control and closed-loop process management.

The thinning machine adopts a three-axis, four-station layout and integrates automated transfer and cleaning modules to deliver fully dry, unattended processing, shortening workflow cycle times. Its high-rigidity, low-vibration, high-power air-bearing spindle, grinding wheel and tuned process parameters balance throughput and consumable expenditure. Mass production trials confirm that 8-inch silicon carbide wafers can be stably ground down to 120 micrometres. The machine outputs no fewer than 15 wafers per hour, and intra-wafer thickness variation stays within 3 micrometres, meeting mass-production requirements for throughput and consistency.

The equipment carries an in-house high-stiffness precision air-bearing spindle with submicron rotational accuracy. It supports a broad process window and works with a wide range of thinning consumables. High-precision load monitoring tracks process status continuously and alerts operators to breakage risks. Software and hardware also support automatic grinding wheel dressing and calibration routines.

This equipment marks a major advance for domestic hardware in rear-side thinning for 8-inch silicon carbide wafers. It fills gaps in compound semiconductor manufacturing kit and underpins large-scale domestic production of silicon carbide power devices.