Soitec and Shin-Etsu Handotai expand technology cooperation agreement

Semiconductor-materials supplier Soitec and silicon-wafer supplier Shin-Etsu Handotai are extending and expanding their technology cooperation agreement over Smart Cut licensing by an extension. The new partnership includes an extended 10-year licensing agreement between the two companies and establishes a new level of joint-technology cooperation. It will facilitate the development and supply of SOI (Silicon on Insulator) wafers to meet major market opportunities such as SOI for RF devices, FinFETs on SOI, and FD (Fully Depleted) planar circuits. Both companies will be able to increase the global output of SOI wafers at a time when electronics-industry demand is surging due to the increase in mobile and embedded computing devices in the consumer market. This partnership represents a major step forward in the supply chain and ecosystem that will enable the next generation of technologies on an optimized SOI wafer from two independent suppliers collaborating at the R&D level, and it will accelerate time to market for breakthroughs at a material level. Soitec's Smart Cut technology is the industry standard for manufacturing SOI wafers. The agreement announced is a licensing extension that expands the scope of the partnership between Soitec and SEH, including cross-licensing Smart Cut related patents between the two companies. As a result of the agreement, SEH will continue to use Soitec's industry-defining Smart Cut technology to manufacture SOI wafers, but now will be able to extend its Smart Cut manufacturing capabilities to other materials, commonly referred to as SOA (Silicon on Anything) or any material on top of which there is a thin film of plain silicon, which will allow SEH to further expand its scope of applications. "We are very excited about the business opportunities for SOI products, and we look forward to working with Soitec to extend the global supply chain for new products, such as FD-SOI and SOI for FinFETs, which are showing potential benefits in mobile and embedded applications," said Nobuo Katsuoka, SEH director, SOI process engineering department. "Our relationship with Soitec has been a very positive and fruitful one, and we are excited to extend that collaboration. The unique features of Smart Cut will enable our two companies to jointly improve global output for existing and new SOI products." "We are thrilled to extend our partnership with SEH," said Paul Boudre, COO of Soitec. "We have worked side by side with SEH for more than 15 years, and together we have established Smart Cut as the industry standard for manufacturing SOI. As we continue to work together, we look forward to manufacturing new products such as planar FD-SOI and SOI for FinFETs. "It is a critical time in the electronics industry, and there is an increasing need for new and innovative wafer materials that extend the performance and energy efficiency of consumer devices we all use every day. Together, Soitec and SEH will be providing the industry with the leading materials it needs to continue to innovate." Soitech Shin-Etsu Handotai