en.Wedoany.com Reported - On July 13, Germany's Bosch announced that its silicon carbide semiconductor factory in Roseville, California, has commenced sample production. The project plans to invest up to $2 billion to systematically transform the existing wafer fab, building new cleanroom space and silicon carbide chip manufacturing lines. The factory aims to produce the first commercial silicon carbide chips on 200mm wafers by 2026, transitioning from sample manufacturing to mass production.
The Roseville factory has over 40 years of semiconductor production foundation. After Bosch completed the acquisition of the factory in August 2023, it immediately initiated the production system transformation. The project is not simply about replacing some manufacturing equipment; it involves converting the existing silicon-based semiconductor facility into a specialized wafer fab capable of producing and testing silicon carbide power devices. The transformation covers cleanroom environments, wafer processing equipment, production control systems, testing facilities, and back-end processing stages.
Currently, the factory has formed approximately 130,000 square feet of cleanroom space and installed advanced manufacturing equipment for 200mm silicon carbide wafer production. The facility is equipped with in-line metrology and process control systems that continuously monitor key parameters during wafer processing and adjust processes based on test results. It also has wafer sorting, final testing, and quality verification capabilities, enabling front-end wafer manufacturing and back-end testing, sorting, and dicing to be integrated within the same factory.
The launch of sample production indicates that some production facilities at the Roseville factory have been installed and initially debugged, with the project transitioning from the plant and equipment transformation phase to the process verification phase. The samples currently produced will be used to verify wafer processing flows, equipment stability, product performance, and manufacturing consistency, providing a foundation for subsequent yield improvement and production scale-up. Before formal mass production, the factory still needs to complete continuous operation verification of production equipment, process parameter optimization, product reliability testing, and customer qualification. This assessment of the project phase is based on the semiconductor production process.
The Roseville factory will adopt Bosch's silicon carbide technology to produce power semiconductors on 200mm wafers. Compared to smaller-sized wafers, a single 200mm wafer can accommodate more chips, helping to improve equipment utilization and output per batch. Related products are primarily used in electric vehicle inverters, charging conversion devices, and other high-voltage power conversion systems, and may also enter industrial energy, communication equipment, and data center power supply systems in the future.
Silicon carbide devices can operate under high voltage, high temperature, and high switching frequency conditions while reducing energy loss during power conversion. In data centers and artificial intelligence computing facilities, such devices can be used in server power supplies, energy storage equipment, and other high-power conversion stages, helping to reduce conversion losses, heat generation, and some cooling loads. Bosch also plans to produce third-generation silicon carbide chips at the Roseville factory in the future, but the specific introduction timeline and new equipment arrangements have not yet been announced.
According to current plans, the Roseville factory will start commercial production in 2026. The next major engineering milestones will include sample qualification, manufacturing equipment integration, process yield improvement, commercial product certification, and production ramp-up. Once fully operational, the factory will become Bosch's first semiconductor manufacturing base in the United States, handling silicon carbide wafer front-end processing as well as testing, sorting, and dicing production tasks.
