Norstel AB

New technology for hybrid vehicles

Norstel AB has the potential to become one of the world’s leading suppliers of SiC wafers, which are an important component for the successful development and production of environmentally friendly hybrid vehicles.

Norstel has achieved good results from its extensive and focused development efforts in recent years which indicate that the company is far ahead of the field in the development of SiC wafers. These results, combined with a modern development and production facility, form a good basis for a prompt launch on the market.

In January 2010 Fouriertransform acquired shares and convertibles in Norstel AB for EUR 10.5 million, making it the company’s largest shareholder. The company is co-owned by venture capital funds advised by Eqvitec, Creandum and Northzone as well as the pension fund Sjätte AP-fonden. In 2008 Norstel was selected for the Guardian/Library House Cleantech 100 list, which aims to cover the most exciting private companies in Europe that offer clean technology with growth potential and a positive environmental impact.

Brief product description

Practically all vehicle manufacturers are now investing in building hybrid vehicles for both cars and goods vehicles. Power electronics are and will remain one of the key systems in every kind of hybrid vehicle. At present the semiconductors used in power electronics are based on silicon wafers. However, silicon carbide (SiC) wafers – in which Norstel specialises – have many advantages over conventional silicon wafers. Semiconductors based on SiC wafers are an important component when building vehicles with efficient start/stop and plug-in functions, for example.

Such wafers withstand considerably higher temperatures and 10 times as high voltage as silicon. They are as conductive as copper, but are faster and can be produced in smaller dimensions. A very tangible advantage is that it will be possible to use air cooling in most applications that currently require water cooling. Since SiCs withstand much higher voltages and take up much less space, they will also be able to be used in the design of components and subsystems.