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Infineon acquired all shares of Dresden-based Siltectra in November 2018 for €124 million, about $139 million in contemporary coverage. The deal gave the semiconductor maker Cold Split, a laser-based method intended to recover more usable silicon carbide (SiC) material than conventional sawing. Its promise was better wafer economics—not a guarantee that every wafer would yield twice as many saleable chips.
What Infineon acquired—and what the price means
Infineon’s financial reporting dates the purchase of 100% of Siltectra GmbH to November 9, 2018. The company announced the acquisition on November 12. Its reported transaction value was €124 million; the $139 million figure in the contemporary EE Times headline was an approximate currency conversion, not a separately disclosed dollar price. Infineon agreed the price with MIG Fonds, Siltectra’s main shareholder.
Founded in 2010, Siltectra brought more than a process name to the deal: it had a Dresden-based team, development capability and intellectual property. Infineon later described its portfolio as containing more than 50 patent families. The purchase was a way to bring the technology and its development roadmap inside a semiconductor manufacturer, rather than simply acquire one machine or license a single patent. Infineon’s 2018 annual report and its 2019 annual report document the transaction and technology portfolio.
Why silicon carbide wafering mattered
Silicon carbide is a hard, valuable wide-bandgap semiconductor used in power devices. Its ability to handle high voltages and temperatures makes it useful in electric vehicles, charging systems, solar inverters, trains and other power-electronics applications. As demand for those systems grew, access to suitable SiC material became strategically important.
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- Silicon carbide (SiC) 4H conductive wafers/square sheets, thickness 0.35 mm, for research and development experiments in power electronics and optoelectronics.
- Silicon carbide has a wider bandgap, enabling it to withstand higher operating temperatures, the bandgap of silicon carbide is approximately three times that of silicon, with a theoretical operating temperature exceeding 400°C.
- The critical breakdown field strength of silicon carbide is approximately ten times that of silicon, enabling it to withstand higher voltages and making it more suitable for high-voltage devices.
- The high thermal conductivity of silicon carbide effectively conducts heat, reduces device temperature, and maintains normal operation, its saturated electron drift velocity is twice that of silicon, which helps increase operating frequency and enables device miniaturization.
Before a device can be made, a SiC crystal boule must be turned into wafers. Conventional sawing removes material in the cut, or kerf, and the resulting wafers may need additional grinding and finishing. When the substrate itself is costly and difficult to produce, material lost during wafering affects both cost and how many wafers can be made from available crystal. Infineon’s rationale was that reducing this loss could improve material efficiency and supply leverage, though it would not remove constraints in crystal growth, equipment capacity or qualification.
How Cold Split works
Cold Split is Siltectra’s name for a laser-based process that separates crystalline material along a controlled plane. Infineon describes the process as using laser energy and thermal stress to initiate the split. Unlike a saw, which cuts through the crystal and removes a kerf, the process aims to separate material with little material loss. “Cold” is part of the technology’s name; it does not mean the process involves no heat.
Rank #2
- Silicon carbide (SiC) 4H conductive wafers/square sheets, thickness 0.35 mm, for research and development experiments in power electronics and optoelectronics.
- Silicon carbide has a wider bandgap, enabling it to withstand higher operating temperatures, the bandgap of silicon carbide is approximately three times that of silicon, with a theoretical operating temperature exceeding 400°C.
- The critical breakdown field strength of silicon carbide is approximately ten times that of silicon, enabling it to withstand higher voltages and making it more suitable for high-voltage devices.
- The high thermal conductivity of silicon carbide effectively conducts heat, reduces device temperature, and maintains normal operation, its saturated electron drift velocity is twice that of silicon, which helps increase operating frequency and enables device miniaturization.
The basic comparison is straightforward: sawing consumes material to make a cut, while Cold Split is designed to create a separation plane within the material. The public descriptions do not provide a complete manufacturing recipe or establish that every separated surface can go directly into device production. Surface finishing, cleaning, polishing or other processing may still be needed, and wafer quality and yield matter as much as the theoretical amount of material saved. Infineon’s Siltectra overview and CoolSiC technology description explain the company’s current account of the process.
What “two wafers from one” actually means
Infineon described two distinct uses for Cold Split. One is to split a SiC boule into wafers with less material loss than conventional wafering. The other is to split an existing wafer horizontally, separating a thin layer from its surface while retaining the remainder for potential reuse.
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- Wafer Pattern May Vary from the Product Images. Great to be used as gift, display object, exhibition, educating demonstration, testing, decoration or your collection
- Beautiful microchip pattern structure made by the advanced copper technology
- 90~130nm minimum microchip feature Copper Characterization with TEOS or Black Diamond Low-k ILD on the single crystal silicon wafer
- The original value of un-polished wafer is above $500
- No guarantee for research and other applications
The second application underlies the “2-out-of-1” concept: one starting wafer could potentially provide two wafer layers. Infineon presented this as a way to double the number of chips obtained from a wafer in the relevant process configuration. That is a process objective, not a universal promise of twice as many finished, saleable chips. Each layer still has to meet specifications and pass subsequent fabrication steps; defects, processing requirements and yield can reduce the final output. Infineon’s FY2018 investor presentation sets out the concept.
Infineon later reported development-stage potential of up to a factor of two for wafer splitting and up to 2.6 times for initial boule splitting. Those figures describe process potential reported in its November 2020 investor presentation, not guaranteed production yields across products or factories. The same presentation said the industrialization journey was about one-third complete. Infineon’s FY2020 presentation provides that development-stage context.
Rank #4
- 4H Silicon Carbide (SiC) wafers devised for advanced research and development in power electronics and optoelectronics.
- With a thickness of 0.35mm, these conductive square sheets can withstand operating temperatures exceeding 400°C, making them ideal for high-temperature applications.
- Exceptional breakdown field strength, approximately ten times that of silicon, allows for reliable operation in high-voltage devices.
- Superior thermal conductivity effectively dissipates heat, reducing device temperature and ensuring stable performance during operation.
- Enhanced electron drift velocity, twice that of silicon, facilitates increased operating frequencies and supports the miniaturization of electronic devices.
Why Infineon made the bet
Cold Split complemented Infineon’s thin-wafer and power-semiconductor manufacturing expertise. If the process could reliably produce more usable SiC wafer material from a boule—or recover another usable layer from a wafer—it could reduce a costly material bottleneck as demand for power devices expanded. Acquiring Siltectra gave Infineon control of the technology, patents and engineering work needed to develop that process within its own manufacturing network.
The expected benefit depended on integration, not just the separation step. A process would have to preserve flatness and surface quality, control defects and contamination, fit clean-room production, and deliver wafers that could pass downstream manufacturing and customer qualification. Automotive and industrial devices face demanding reliability requirements, so theoretical material savings alone do not establish commercial value.
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- Wafer Pattern May Vary from the Product Images. Great to be used as gift, display object, exhibition, educating demonstration, testing, decoration or your collection
- Beautiful microchip pattern structure made by the advanced copper technology
- 90~130nm minimum microchip feature Copper Characterization with TEOS or Black Diamond Low-k ILD on the single crystal silicon wafer
- The original value of un-polished wafer is above $500
- No guarantee for research and other applications
The industrialization plan and what followed
In its November 2018 announcement, Infineon identified Siltectra’s Dresden site and its own Villach, Austria, site as locations for industrialization, with a planned transfer to volume production over the following five years. The November 2020 update showed that the effort was still in progress: tool development and clean-room preparation were underway in Dresden, and Infineon put the journey at roughly one-third complete. That timeline is important context; the acquisition did not mean Cold Split moved immediately into broad high-volume production. The 2018 announcement describes the original plan.
Infineon’s current Siltectra page describes the business as an independent Infineon subsidiary with R&D, development, production and pilot-line activity in Dresden. Infineon says it built a new Dresden site in 2023, with ISO 9001 certification and ISO 7 clean-room and laboratory areas. The company continues to present Cold Split as part of its SiC and thin-wafer capabilities.
How the deal fits Infineon’s later SiC expansion
Infineon announced that it began shipping its first products based on 200-millimeter SiC wafer technology from Villach in the first quarter of 2025. That milestone shows the company’s broader SiC manufacturing program advanced, but its public announcements do not quantify how much of that output depends on Cold Split or establish that the technology enabled the 200-millimeter rollout. The milestone should not be treated as proof that Cold Split alone solved SiC supply constraints. See Infineon’s 2025 product announcement and Austria FY2025 update.
Why the €124 million purchase mattered
The acquisition was a strategic investment in making an expensive, difficult-to-process semiconductor material go further. Cold Split offered a possible way to reduce wafering losses and improve the economics of SiC power devices. Its significance lies in that manufacturing opportunity—and in Infineon’s effort to control and industrialize the process—not in a blanket promise that one wafer would always become twice as many saleable chips.
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