ZF signs SiC supply agreement with ST
ST’s SiC devices to be integrated in ZF’s future modular inverter platform
ZF, a company supplying systems for cars, commercial vehicles, and industrial systems, will purchase SiC devices from STMicroelectronics from 2025. Under the terms of the multi-year contract, ST will supply a volume of double-digit millions of SiC devices to be integrated in ZF’s new modular inverter architecture going into series production in 2025.
ST will manufacture the SiC chips at its production fabs in Italy and Singapore with packaging of the chips into STPAK, an ST-developed advanced package, and testing at its back-end facilities in Morocco and China.
ST will supply ZF from 2025 with a volume of double-digit millions of third generation SiC MOSFET devices. ZF says it can connect a number of such devices together to match customers’ performance requirements without changing the design of the inverter. Among others, ZF will use the technology in inverters for vehicles of a European car manufacturer whose production start is planned for 2025.
“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 thirty billion euros. For this volume, we need several reliable suppliers for SiC devices,” says 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.”
“As a vertically integrated company, we are investing heavily to expand capacity and develop our SiC supply chain to support our global and European customers across automotive and industrial sectors, as they pursue electrification and decarbonisation targets,” says Marco Monti, president of ST's automotive and discrete group. “The key to success in electric vehicle technology is greater scalability and modularity with increased efficiency, peak power, and affordability. Our SiC technologies help deliver these benefits and we are proud to work with ZF, a leading automotive supplier for electrification, to help them differentiate and optimise the performance of their inverters.”
