Littelfuse takes major stake in SiC maker Monolith Semiconductor

The fuse and protection systems maker Littelfuse has increased its investment in Silicon Carbide. They already took part in the SiC business by investing in Monolith Semiconductor in December 2015. They increased their participation in the start-up of $15M to become the major investor.

This move fully integrates with the company’s strategy to enter the semiconductor market. They secured more standard technology production by acquiring a part of  ON Semiconductor. More precisely, the new “TVS” and “IGBT” product lines of Littelfuse were the former diodes, thyristors and Automotive IGBT activities of ON Semiconductor. Littelfuse also planned to invest $30M in production facilities improvement.

With this new investment, Littelfuse can now be considered as part of the main power semiconductor manufacturers. The Silicon Carbide market, which took time to establish. It has been difficult to manufacture components in mass and to drag costs down. It is now beginning to be real. Littelfuse grabbed the opportunity to be part of the next generation power semiconductor market.