From 2025 ZF will purchase silicon carbide devices from STMicroelectronics. Under the terms of the contract, ST will supply a volume of double-digit millions of silicon carbide devices that will be integrated in ZF’s new modular inverter architecture going into series production in 2025.
The release highlights that ZF will leverage ST’s vertically integrated silicon carbide manufacturing in Europe and Asia to secure customer orders in electromobility.
“With this strategically important step, we are strengthening our supply chain to be able to securely supply our customers. Our order book in electromobility until 2030 now amounts to more than 30 billion euros. For this volume, we need several reliable suppliers for silicon carbide devices,” said Stephan von Schuckmann, member of the ZF Board of Management responsible for electromobility as well as materials management. “In STMicroelectronics, we now have a supplier whose experience with complex systems meets our requirements and who, above all, can produce the devices in exceptionally high quality and at the required quantities.”
ZF has said that it will manufacture the silicon carbide chips at its production fabs in Italy and Singapore. The packaging of the chips into STPAK and testing will take place at its back-end facilities in Morocco.
“As a vertically integrated company, we are investing heavily to expand capacity and develop our silicon carbide supply chain to support our global and European customer base across automotive and industrial sectors, as they pursue electrification and decarbonization targets,” said Marco Monti, President Automotive and Discrete Group of STMicroelectronics. “The key to success in electric vehicle technology is greater scalability and modularity with increased efficiency, peak power and affordability. Our silicon carbide technologies help deliver these benefits and we are proud to work with ZF, a leading automotive supplier for electrification, to help them differentiate and optimize the performance of their inverters.”
ST will supply ZF from 2025 with double-digit millions of third generation silicon carbide MOSFET devices. ZF will use the technology in inverters for vehicles of a European car manufacturer whose production start is planned for 2025.
Source: ZF
