SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS, France – January 30, 2025 │In the closing quarter of 2024, our SiC Patent Monitor exhibited robust growth with over 900 new patent families and 400 newly granted patents. This period also witnessed over 100 patents expire or be abandoned and involved 7 notable patent transfers. The industry was devoid of any new IP litigation in the US or patent opposition in Europe during this time. However, the sector is abuzz with 10 notable patent collaborations and an influx of over 25 IP newcomers entering the field.
Focus on leading industry players for this last quarter of 2024
The report places a spotlight on leading companies such as Rohm, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, and Wolfspeed, which have significantly influenced the SiC technology domain. Their innovations and strategic moves have been pivotal in advancing technological frontiers and enhancing their position in the competitive landscape.
Notable innovations and collaborations
Continuous innovation within the SiC industry, particularly in Bulk and bare wafers segment, has led to the emergence of enhanced substrates and reliable power devices. This quarter, for example, NGK Insulators disclosed a composite SiC substrate with a biaxially oriented SiC layer that helps to reduce warpage by controlling a Raman shift value and to prevent breaking and cracking in the substrate during processing by controlling the volume density of base plane dislocations (BDP). Another notable player in the quarter is SICC which published inventions improving 3D stress distribution and reducing internal stress in large diameter SiC wafers (> 150 mm).
Sumitomo Electric continues to lead IP activities in the Epitaxial substrates segment with four new inventions disclosed during the quarter. The technical issues addressed by Sumitomo Electric in its patent publications are many. A new invention relates to issues in the epitaxial reactor, such as the presence of SiC particles on the susceptor, causing recesses in the rear surface of SiC epitaxial wafers. Another invention focuses on the reduction of certain defects (bump, pit, carrot, triangular defect, downfall) that can be imaged using a confocal scanning device. Eventually, an invention is more closely related to the related to device reliability and aims to improve recombination efficiency while reducing the required thickness of SiC epilayers, to prevent stacking faults from transferring from the buffer layer to the drift layer.
For the Devices segment, it is interesting to note the patenting activity of several Chinese automotive players, such as NIO and FAW. Especially, NIO stands out this quarter with a European patent publication related to SiC trench MOSFET. Other players from the automotive supply chain have been actively filing patents in this space during the quarter such as Bosch (e.g., to improve the short-circuit strength of SiC FET) and Nexperia (e.g., to improve on-resistance and surge performance of SiC Schottky diodes).
In the Modules and packaging segment, note that onsemi has disclosed electroless plating methods and systems suitable for SiC devices, and that Mitsubishi Electric is still present with two new inventions, of which one to suppress heat occurring in a SiC MOSFET connected in parallel with a Si IGBT, without providing a temperature detection circuit and a current detection circuit. Furthermore, Navitas Semiconductor, a leading player in the power GaN market, is looking to strengthen its patent portfolio for power SiC, with a new invention providing balanced current flow in SiC power modules.
In the Circuits and applications segment, ZF is also continuing its part, with a method of driving parallel-connected SiC-MOSFET and Si-IGBT based on the rapid detection of the current load of the active (switched-on) device. Furthermore, a collaboration has involved BMW with CSA Catapult and University of Warwick in the UK and led to a new patent publication describing a monitoring device to measure temperature or current in SiC devices under high current load even under rough mechanical conditions (e.g., under strong vibrations, in an automotive appliances).
This is one of the noteworthy collaborations highlighting the strategic alliances essential for maintaining technological leadership and fostering innovation. This aspect is explored further in the report.
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About the author
Rémi Comyn works for KnowMade as a Senior Analyst in the field of Compound Semiconductors and Electronics. He holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (France) in partnership with CRHEA-CNRS (Sophia Antipolis, France) and the University of Sherbrooke (Québec, Canada). Rémi previously worked in compound semiconductors research laboratory as Research Engineer.
About KnowMade
KnowMade is a Technology Intelligence and IP Strategy consulting company specialized in analysis of patents and scientific information. The company helps innovative companies and R&D organizations to understand their competitive landscape, follow technology trends, and find out opportunities and threats in terms of technology and patents.
KnowMade’s analysts combine their strong technology expertise and in-depth knowledge of patents with powerful analytics tools and methodologies to turn patents and scientific information into business-oriented report for decision makers working in R&D, Innovation Strategy, Intellectual Property, and Marketing. Our experts provide prior art search, patent landscape analysis, scientific literature analysis, patent valuation, IP due diligence and freedom-to-operate analysis. In parallel the company proposes litigation/licensing support, technology scouting and IP/technology watch service.
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