Soitec, SunEdison strike wafer patent licence deal

Nov 27, 2013 - French silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer maker Soitec (EPA:SOI) said Tuesday it had sealed a cross-licence deal with US SunEdison Inc (NYSE:SUNE), giving them access to each other’s SOI technology patent portfolios.

The deal is related to existing engineered unpatterned handle-substrates such as partially depleted SOI (PD-SOI), fully depleted SOI (FD-SOI) and radio-frequency SOI (RF-SOI) as well as advanced FinFETs. Also, Soitec and SunEdison have agreed to grant each other the right to use their respective wholly-owned patents for research and development (R&D) activities. Thus the two companies will be able to develop products in which the device layer is made of a semiconductor material other than plain, non-strained silicon.

The contract puts an end to all outstanding legal disputes between the two companies, Soitec said.

“This cooperation adds to SunEdison’s current SOI product capability and enhances the ability of both companies to provide more compelling SOI solutions to our customers,” said Horacio Mendez, vice president of semiconductor advanced solutions at SunEdison.

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