Okmetic is participating in WIBASE (Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Power Electronics), a Finnish initiative focused on accelerating wide bandgap semiconductor technologies for next-generation power electronics. The three-year program aims to strengthen national capabilities spanning device processing, prototyping, integration, packaging, testing and lifetime modelling, supporting the shift toward more efficient and sustainable power conversion.
Coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre, the WIBASE consortium brings together ten partners, including six companies and four Finnish research organizations. The industrial participants cover the value chain from advanced materials and thin-film expertise to engineered silicon substrates and end applications in power electronics. The project is funded by Business Finland.
WIBASE targets several barriers that can slow wide bandgap adoption, including device and module reliability, material defects, thermal management challenges and high-temperature interconnect technologies. The initiative also emphasizes collaboration with leading international research groups and is designed to support technology development, know-how growth and IP creation in wide bandgap power technologies.
Within WIBASE, Okmetic is working with project partners to develop and characterize optimized silicon substrates for GaN power devices. The company highlighted the role of GaN-on-Si in combining gallium nitride’s high electron mobility, thermal stability and high-voltage capability with silicon’s scalability, stable supply base and cost-efficient high-volume manufacturing potential. Okmetic said its contribution builds on its experience supplying Power GaN Substrate wafers, with the goal of providing a reliable and well-controlled silicon platform aligned with performance and manufacturability requirements.
Okmetic expects WIBASE to help establish a Finnish expertise cluster in wide bandgap power electronics, reinforcing technological self-sufficiency, strengthening IP creation and improving competitiveness across the semiconductor and power electronics ecosystem. The outcomes are also positioned to benefit the broader power device sector through advances in materials, silicon substrates and manufacturing know-how.
WIBASE partners in Finland include Okmetic, VTT, Aalto University, LUT University, University of Helsinki, ABB, Picosun, Danfoss Drives, Comptek Solutions and Kempower.
Original – Okmetic