For decades, power electronics have been built around silicon. But as engineers push systems to handle higher voltages, temperatures, and frequencies, silicon’s limits have become impossible to ignore. That’s why silicon carbide (SiC) has become the material of choice in everything from electric vehicles to data centers—and now, aerospace.
This week, Axcelis Technologies and GE Aerospace announced a joint development program aimed at tackling one of the toughest challenges in the field: producing superjunction power devices rated at 6.5 to 10 kilovolts. These devices are key to delivering efficient, compact, and resilient power in demanding environments.
Why Superjunctions Matter
Traditional high-voltage transistors require compromises between on-resistance and breakdown voltage. Superjunction devices, with their precisely engineered alternating p- and n-type columns, break that tradeoff—offering both high efficiency and the ability to block extreme voltages. For aerospace systems, where every watt of wasted energy adds weight and thermal stress, that advantage can be decisive.
Tools of the Trade
Axcelis will bring to the project its Purion XEmax high-energy ion implanter, capable of driving ions into wafers at energies up to 15 MeV. The tool makes it possible to build the deep, uniform profiles that superjunction architectures demand. For engineers working at these voltage levels, precision isn’t optional—it’s the difference between a device that survives a hypersonic test flight and one that fails on the launchpad.
GE’s Long SiC Bet
GE Aerospace isn’t new to SiC. Over three decades, its research center in Niskayuna, New York, has amassed a portfolio of intellectual property around wide-bandgap semiconductors. That work has already shown up in avionics and ground vehicle power systems, and the company has recently turned its focus toward the most extreme use cases: hypersonics, space exploration, and electric propulsion.
By pairing that application expertise with Axcelis’s process equipment know-how, the companies hope to accelerate the readiness of SiC devices for missions where failure isn’t an option.
Bigger Picture
The collaboration fits into the CLAWS Hub (Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors), coordinated by North Carolina State University. The hub’s mission is to connect industry and academia around next-generation semiconductor power technologies. If successful, the Axcelis–GE effort could ripple far beyond aerospace, influencing how designers build systems for AI clusters, quantum computing, autonomous vehicles, and resilient power grids.
What Comes Next
Like any development program, this one carries risk. Manufacturing high-voltage SiC devices at scale is not trivial, and both companies acknowledge that timelines may shift. But the fact that a semiconductor equipment supplier and an aerospace giant are aligning resources underscores the urgency.
High-voltage power devices may not grab headlines like AI chips or quantum processors, but they form the silent backbone of progress. If Axcelis and GE can deliver on their promise, engineers across multiple industries will have new building blocks to work with—and the technologies of tomorrow may fly higher, run faster, and waste far less energy than those of today.
