German multinational engineering and technology company Bosch has announced plans to acquire parts of TSI Semiconductors’ business in Roseville, California, and convert the site’s production to silicon carbide (SiC) chips. The move is part of Bosch’s plan to invest more than $1.5bn in the site over the coming years and expand its range of SiC chips globally. The SiC chips are a key component for electrified mobility and enable longer ranges and more efficient charging processes in electric vehicles. According to Bosch, SiC chips have up to 50% less energy loss, and up to 6% more range is possible on average compared to conventional silicon chips.
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TSI Semiconductors, which currently has 250 employees, is a manufacturing plant for application-specific integrated circuits. Once the acquisition is completed and regulatory approvals have been received, the Roseville site will become Bosch’s third semiconductor production facility alongside Reutlingen and Dresden. The company is yet to provide details on future production volumes, but it is expected that the available cleanroom space and skilled personnel in Roseville will enable Bosch to manufacture SiC chips for electromobility on an even larger scale.
Dr Markus Heyn, Bosch board of management member and chairman of the Mobility Solutions business sector, said that the acquisition of TSI Semiconductors would allow the company to build manufacturing capacity for SiC chips in an important sales market and set up its semiconductor manufacturing globally. Bosch has been investing in the development and production of SiC semiconductors since 2010 and has invested more than €2.5bn in its semiconductor manufacturing facilities in Reutlingen and Dresden. In July 2021, it began mass-producing such chips in Reutlingen on 200-millimetre wafers, and plans to expand its cleanroom area in Reutlingen to more than 44,000 square metres by the end of 2025.
