Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. and Kaga Electronics Co., Ltd. have reached an agreement for SMM to acquire 51% of the shares in the Kaga Electronics subsidiary Sicoxs Corporation, and concluded a stock transfer agreement and joint venture contract on October 2, 2017. The actual transfer of stock and the start of the joint venture are scheduled for October 30, 2017. SMM and Kaga Electronics will investigate the mass production of SiC substrates through a fusion of Sicoxs SiC substrate manufacturing technology and SMM's substrate production technology, and swiftly respond to market needs by leveraging Kaga Electronics' information gathering abilities and sales network in the field of electronics.

These are substrates that are formed by thinly bonding single-crystal SiC substrates onto a polycrystal SiC substrate. By making the polycrystal substrate the supporting substrate, it becomes possible to reduce the volume of high cost single-crystal substrates that are used and thus greatly reduce the overall cost. Semiconductor devices that use such substrates have the same manufacturing process as SiC substrates composed of single-crystal substrates, thus allowing the same characteristics as these devices to be obtained.