On October 15, 2026, Infineon and Wolfspeed jointly announced the expansion and extension of their long-term silicon carbide wafer supply agreement, with the scope of cooperation expanding from the current 150 mm (6-inch) to 200 mm (8-inch) specifications. This multi-year agreement is designed to support Infineon’s ongoing mass production of 200 mm silicon carbide power devices—its Villach, Austria facility began delivering its first batch of 200 mm wafers in February 2025, while Module 3 at the Kulim, Malaysia site is also ramping up large-scale production as needed. The agreement further strengthens Infineon’s multi-source procurement strategy, enhancing supply chain resilience.
For Wolfspeed, this collaboration represents a critical breakthrough amid ongoing pressure on its materials business. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 (ending June 28, 2026), revenue from materials products totaled just $43.3 million, a year-over-year plunge of 45%; GAAP gross margin stood at –25%, primarily due to weak end-market demand, which has prevented the new manufacturing line in Lenoir, North Carolina, from fully ramping up capacity, while the Durham facility has already reduced its operating load. Although the expansion of the Lenoir facility and the Mohawk Valley wafer fab was completed by the end of fiscal 2025, insufficient order intake has kept capacity utilization low, sustaining pressure to spread fixed costs across underutilized capacity.
The 200mm upgrade is not merely an expansion of wafer area—its theoretical area is 1.78 times that of the 150mm format—but also entails tackling technical challenges across the entire supply chain: single-crystal growth requires reengineering the PVT process’s temperature field and gas-phase transport model; controlling the density and distribution of crystal defects (such as microtubes and dislocations) becomes significantly more challenging as diameter increases; requirements for epitaxial layer uniformity, wafer warpage, surface roughness, and other processing metrics are tightening; moreover, new production lines must pass multiple hurdles, including equipment commissioning, process validation, and downstream customer certification. At present, the industry remains in a phase where 150mm and 200mm wafers coexist; while companies like Bosch, STMicroelectronics, and Coherent have already made arrangements or begun shipments, stable mass production has yet to be fully rolled out.
Domestic substrate manufacturers are thus seizing structural opportunities. Tianyue Advanced expects that by the third quarter of 2026, revenue from 200mm substrates will account for over 50%, with a global market share of 51.3% in the 200mm conductive‑type substrate segment. Since 2023, it has collaborated with Infineon to transition to 200mm wafers and, in September 2026, received Infineon’s Global Excellent Supplier Award. Tianke Heda has also completed the preparation of 209mm single crystals and validated 200mm processing; its Phase II industrialization base in Beijing is currently under construction. However, gaining entry into the supply chains of leading international players requires simultaneously meeting three critical thresholds: wafer‑level quality consistency (including defect density and resistivity uniformity), reliable cross‑batch delivery capabilities, and long‑term validation of integration into customers’ existing process flows.