News: Suppliers
28 May 2026
Purdue and Taiwan’s GCCS partner to scale silicon carbide substrates to 8- and 12-inches
Purdue University has formed a strategic partnership with Taiwan-based GeChi Compound Semiconductor Co (GCCS) to accelerate the commercialization of silicon carbide (SiC). The collaboration targets the critical thermal, power and 6G bottlenecks currently constraining the next generation of high-compute infrastructure.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) is for five years and will strengthen collaborative R&D as well as create academic-industry workforce development initiatives. GCCS will serve as a provider of semiconductor materials and Purdue as a critical hub for the technology.
The signing was conducted on campus at Hovde Hall with Dan DeLaurentis, executive VP for research; Mark Lundstrom, chief semiconductor officer; and Zhihong Chen, the Mary Jo and Robert L. Kirk director of the Birck Nanotechnology Center, among Purdue’s attendees. Representing GCCS were chief technology officer Kuo-Wei Yeh, founder Chung-Chieh Chang, and board chairman Kuan-Ming Hsiung.
Picture: Purdue’s executive VP for research Dan DeLaurentis, left, and GeChi Compound Semiconductor Co’s board chairman Kuan-Ming Hsiung, who signed a research MoU. (Purdue University photo/Kelsey Lefever.)
“This partnership represents a profound strategic alignment between GeChi Compound Semiconductor and Purdue University,” said Hsiung. “By combining our manufacturing scale with America’s leading academic institution, we are taking decisive action to secure the domestic supply chain for silicon carbide,” he adds. “This collaboration is not merely about advancing materials; it is about establishing the resilient, high-yield manufacturing capacity within the United States that is absolutely essential for national tech security and the future of global critical infrastructure.”
GCCS specializes in silicon carbide crystal growth, bridging foundational engineering from Taiwan’s semiconductor ecosystem with scalable manufacturing infrastructure in the USA. As AI density pushes legacy silicon to its physical limits, GCCS’s silicon carbide technology is said to directly unlock three critical hardware barriers:
- thermal management: serves as a superior wafer substrate, enabling advanced cooling via micro-channeling in chip-on-wafer-on-substrate and chip-on-panel-on-substrate packaging platforms;
- power delivery: modernizes grid-to-server power conversion with breakthrough efficiencies utilizing high-voltage direct current transmission and solid-state transformers;
- 6G telecoms: provides the essential material efficiency required for advanced devices powering next-generation connectivity.
Joint research will focus on isolating crystal defects and optimizing silicon carbide material growth to accelerate the transition to high-yield 8-inch and 12-inch wafer platforms. This collaborative framework ensures that these academic breakthroughs in thermal management and material characteristics translate rapidly into high-volume commercial manufacturing.
Purdue’s expertise in microelectronics and semiconductors is a cornerstone of Purdue Computes, a comprehensive initiative that spans computing departments, physical artificial intelligence, quantum science and semiconductor innovation.
The West Lafayette visit by GCCS included a technical tour of the Birck Nanotechnology Center to assess key capabilities of the Purdue facility and discussions with Purdue faculty. Birck is a hub for research and houses the Scifres Nanofabrication Laboratory cleanroom and space for interdisciplinary work. As one of the USA’s largest and most advanced academic cleanroom and characterization facilities, Birck annually serves more than 140 Purdue research groups and 25 external institutions.
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