Mitsubishi Electric will spend about 5.1 billion yuan to build a new factory! Increasing SiC power semiconductor production

Source: Science and Technology News

    Due to strong demand from electric vehicles (EVs), Mitsubishi Electric of Japan will spend hundreds of billions of yen to build new factories, increase production of silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors, and plan to double investment in equipment for the power semiconductor industry.

    Mitsubishi Electric announced on March 14th that it will increase production of SiC power semiconductors, mainly due to strong demand for EV, driving the market forecast to show rapid growth. Mitsubishi Electric will invest about 100 billion yen to build a new factory in the existing factory area of Kikuchi City, Kumamoto Prefecture. The new factory will introduce an 8-inch SiC wafer production line, which is expected to be put into production in April 2026. Mitsubishi Electric will also expand the 6-inch wafer production capacity of the factory located in Hiroshi City, Kumamoto Prefecture.

    Japanese media pointed out that by 2026, Mitsubishi Electric‘s SiC wafer capacity will expand to about 5 times the level of 2022 through the above-mentioned investment in production increase.

    Mitsubishi Electric pointed out that, including the above investment calculation, the company‘s total investment plan for power semiconductor equipment during the five-year period 2021-2025 will reach 260 billion yen, and the investment scale will double the original planned value (130 billion yen).

    Semiconductor manufacturing engineering can be roughly divided into a "front stage process" for forming circuits on silicon wafers and a "back stage process" for assembling, sealing, and testing. The two aforementioned bases of Mitsubishi Electric in Kumamoto Prefecture are all "front stage process" bases. In the "post process" section, Mitsubishi Electric plans to invest approximately 10 billion yen in the construction of a new plant within the "Power Device Manufacturer (located in Fukuoka City).".

    According to Japanese media reports, in 2021, Mitsubishi Electric SiC power semiconductors ranked sixth in the global market share, second only to Rohm, which ranked fourth among Japanese factories. Fuji Electric and Toshiba also rank among the top 10 in the world, with the leading manufacturer being Swiss STMicroelectronics.