In a context of global warming, the depletion of natural resources and the loss of biodiversity, our planet is currently facing threats of unprecedented intensity.

At Soitec, we are convinced that businesses have a significant part to play in overcoming these threats. This is what drives us on a daily basis and pushes us to surpass ourselves and innovate in order to better reconcile electronic performance and energy efficiency and to build a more environmentally friendly future.

We innovate on a daily basis to develop new materials that are increasingly energy efficient. One of these materials, silicon carbide (SiC), has remarkable properties that can considerably reduce the energy consumption of end-use applications in electronic equipment such as smartphones and cars. In recent years, it has emerged as a key material in electric vehicle and charging infrastructure markets. SiC devices increase travel range per charge by at least 10% and significantly cut battery charging times.

Sustainable innovation also means analysing the entire life cycle of our products in order to identify different levers for reducing our energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Wherever possible, we also adopt an eco-design approach. For example, this approach has been deployed in the development process for one of our new products: the SmartSICTM. Based on the early results, we expect this product to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the production of 100,000 wafers by 4,000 tCO2 eq.

We are committed to playing an active role in building a microelectronics and semiconductor ecosystem. We have established a global network of alliances and cooperation agreements with research laboratories, universities and organisations across the electronic components industry. In addition to CEA-Leti, with which we have had a strong partnership since our foundation, we collaborate with world-class research centres and universities, such as Imec, Fraunhofer Institute, SITRI, CNRT, CEMES, A*STAR – Institute of Microelectronics, as well as Stanford, Berkeley, National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and University College London.

Credit:
Soitec