San'an integration: Silicon carbide vehicle specification products "on the car", Hunan base to achieve large-scale delivery

In the first month of the new year, China's first vertically integrated manufacturing platform for the whole industry chain of silicon carbide - Hunan San'an "Xiti" has many good news. Changsha manufactured silicon carbide diodes after mass production of goods through customer verification, the first batch of national "recommended catalog" of vehicle grade diodes successively received orders from customers in the automotive industry.

New energy vehicles ushered in the "first year of silicon carbide", and Hunan San'an entered the fast lane of development

In the face of fossil fuel resources and environmental issues, countries have issued "double carbon" plans. The European Union has decided to ban fuel vehicles completely between 2040 and 2060, the Biden administration plans to spend more than $60 billion on promoting the electrification of family cars and buses, and Japan is promoting the popularity of new energy vehicles by raising industry fuel economy standards.

With its excellent energy conversion efficiency, silicon carbide power devices play a key role in the high-voltage charging and discharging of new energy vehicles such as charging piles, vehicle chargers, and inverters. In the industry revolution of silicon carbide "getting on the car" set off by Tesla, new energy vehicle companies at home and abroad have responded, which can be described as the "first year of silicon carbide" for new energy vehicles. The silicon carbide power device market is expected to cross the $1 billion mark in 2026.

As China's first and the world's third silicon carbide industry chain integrated R&D and manufacturing platform- Hunan San'an is ready to meet this rapidly developing market.

"Changsha-made" silicon carbide diode mass production rolled off the production line and passed customer reliability verification

In June 2021, the first phase of the "Hunan San'an" project, which took only one year to complete construction and smoothly light up and put into operation, made a new major breakthrough half a year later. The mass production line from "silicon carbide crystal growth" to "device packaging and testing" was fully connected, and a full range of silicon carbide Schottky diodes was mass-produced in November.

Recently, it was learned from customers that the "Changsha-made" silicon carbide diode has fully passed the reliability verification of large customers. This marks that the mass production of the Changsha plant in "Hunan San'an" is steadily advancing, and the quality management and product yield have reached the level of customer recognition.

The New Year opened well, and the vehicle specification diode was selected into the "Recommended Catalog" and received orders from customers in the automotive industry

Sanan 650V 20A Silicon Carbide Diode was selected as the first batch of "Recommended Catalogue for the Promotion and Application of Automotive Chips" in January 2022. Jointly compiled by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the China Semiconductor Industry Association, the Catalogue is an authoritative reference catalogue for main engine manufacturers and component suppliers in China's new energy automobile industry when purchasing automotive chips, representing the cutting-edge level of China's automotive chips.

In the early stage with customers in the automotive industry and customers in the sample delivery and testing process, the product has achieved excellent reliability and product performance, has been widely recognized by customers. At the beginning of the new year, good news is frequent. Up to now, it has received orders from the head enterprises in the field of vehicle charger (OBC) and the earliest OEMs in China to lay out new energy vehicles, marking the official "launch" of Sanan vehicle-grade power devices.

Silicon carbide "on the car" boom is coming, what are the killer tools for Sanan to ensure the supply of car companies?

With the increasingly fierce trend of high voltage of automotive platforms, it is expected that the demand for 6-inch silicon carbide wafers in the new energy vehicle market will exceed 2 million pieces in 2025, of which the main drive inverter, on-board charger and power module of new energy vehicles will become the main driving force, and it is expected to occupy 62% of the silicon carbide application market share in 2025.

The overall maturity of China's third-generation semiconductor industry is insufficient, and there are many challenges in important aspects such as substrate material production efficiency, chip performance efficiency, packaging level and yield. The industrial chain that has yet to be improved may lead to a recurrence of the "lack of core" tide in the field of automotive power devices.

Sanan adheres to the integration model of the whole industry chain, realizes the all-round control of production capacity, cost and quality verification, accelerates the product application of silicon carbide and gallium nitride power devices in subdivided industry customers, and promotes industrialization and large-scale production. The 6-inch silicon carbide crystal production line deployed in Hunan San'an can be compared with the international level of crystal thickness, and the homogeneous epitaxy has its own research and development patent; in 2021, the pure self-developed 1200V silicon carbide MOSFET platform and device were officially released; and the 1200V and 650V silicon carbide diodes obtained AEC-Q vehicle specification level reliability certification.

According to Zhang Zhenrong, head of market sales of Hunan Sanan Semiconductor, the model of the whole industry chain has attracted the recognition and attention of key customers at home and abroad. In 2021, Sanan will introduce 549 customers of silicon carbide power devices, covering benchmark customers in various market segments such as server power supply, communication power supply, photovoltaic inverter, home appliances, charging pile power supply and vehicle charging machine of new energy vehicle charging system, and mass production and delivery of 66 products. Hundreds of millions of new orders were obtained, mainly from new energy vehicles, photovoltaic inverters, PFC power supplies, etc.

Global silicon carbide companies have expanded production in a large scale to meet the era of large demand, and some new energy vehicle companies are worried that the expansion of global silicon carbide production capacity is lower than the rapid growth of market demand, and have laid out the strengthening cooperation between upstream and downstream enterprises in advance, and the strategic agreement of supply and demand orders. "Sanan is confident of maximizing the advantages of the integration of the whole industry chain and providing customers with the guarantee of high-quality and on-time delivery," Zhang Zhenrong finally added.