CCTV Beijing, December 25 (Reporter Cao Qian) Science and technology innovation cutting-edge, hard customer forward-looking. On December 22, the second episode of the program "Shanghai Market Hui Hard Science and Technology Hard Customer" "Lane Change and Overtaking the Third Generation Semiconductor" was recorded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
This program focuses on the field of the third-generation semiconductor industry, and invites Li Hong, President of China Resources Micro, Zhao Qi, General Manager of Xinlian Integration, and Zong Yanmin, Chairman of Tianyue Advanced, three senior executives of third-generation semiconductor leading enterprises, to gather together with a number of securities companies, fund management companies, QFII and other institutions to have in-depth exchanges on the performance advantages, application scenarios, industrialization process, and development trends of third-generation semiconductors, and to discuss the opportunities and challenges of "lane change and overtaking".
"Shanghai Market Exchange" is an exclusive platform for highly integrated media jointly created by the Shanghai Stock Exchange and China Central Radio and Television Network, aiming to contribute the professional strength of authoritative media to the high-quality development of Shanghai companies through a series of high-quality content output. As the fist column of "Shanghai Market Exchange", "Hard Science and Technology" focuses on the leaders of the subdivided industrial chain of scientific and technological innovation, aiming to build a space for all-round display and in-depth communication for the iconic soul figures of the development of "hard technology", allowing entrepreneurial scientists to summarize experience, review the path, industry outlook and make suggestions, so as to further lead and help the continuous improvement of the ecology of the industrial chain of the Science and Technology Innovation Board and achieve high-quality development.
The third generation of semiconductor leaders is emerging
The third generation of semiconductors is called the "cornerstone of the future electronics industry", which refers to wide bandgap semiconductor materials represented by silicon carbide and gallium nitride. Due to their performance advantages, the third-generation semiconductors have broad application prospects in the fields of semiconductor lighting, new energy vehicles, new generation mobile communications, new energy grid-connected, and high-speed rail transit. In September 2020, the third-generation semiconductor was written into the "14th Five-Year Plan", driven by the three forces of technology, market and policy, a number of leading companies in the field of third-generation semiconductors have emerged in China in recent years.
"Compared with traditional semiconductor materials, the third-generation semiconductor materials have the advantages of high breakdown electric field, high thermal conductivity, high electron saturation rate, and strong radiation resistance, and are more suitable for making high-temperature, high-frequency, radiation-resistant and high-power devices. Zong Yanmin, chairman and general manager of Tianyue Advanced, introduced.
As an IDM company focusing on power semiconductors, CR Micro has laid out the third-generation semiconductors many years ago. "At present, the company's 6-inch silicon carbide and gallium nitride wafer lines have been stably mass-produced, such as silicon carbide JBS and silicon carbide MOS, which can be compared with the international advanced level, and are shipped in batches to more benchmark customers in the industrial and automotive fields. Li Hong, executive director and president of China Resources Micro, said.
Since 2021, Siliant has invested in the R&D and capacity construction of silicon carbide MOSFET chips and module packaging technologies, and has completed three rounds of technology iterations in two years. In 2024, the company will also build the first 8-inch silicon carbide MOSFET production line in China, and the contribution of silicon carbide business to the company's operating income will continue to increase rapidly. Zhao Qi, general manager of Xinlian Integration, said.
Founded in 2010, Tianyue Advanced, which focuses on silicon carbide substrates, is one of the few enterprises in the world that can supply high-quality 4-inch and 6-inch semi-insulating silicon carbide substrates in batches, and has realized the mass sales of 6-inch conductive silicon carbide substrates and the preparation of 8-inch conductive silicon carbide substrates.
"Since its establishment, the company has focused on one thing, that is, to make materials, to be able to industrialize, but also to catch up with overseas, and we have achieved this goal. Zong Yanmin introduced.
From import substitution to accelerated access to the sea
At present, the global third-generation semiconductor industry as a whole is in its infancy and is accelerating.
The three guests believed that mainland has carried out the layout of the whole industrial chain in the field of third-generation semiconductors, and internationally competitive enterprises have emerged in all links. Compared with silicon-based semiconductors, they are on the same starting line in the field of third-generation semiconductors and the world, and are expected to achieve "lane change and overtaking".
Li Hong believes that the domestic leading manufacturers engaged in silicon carbide substrates and epitaxy have approached the international advanced level in terms of output and quality, and will be very competitive in the future based on the further reduction of costs such as scale and yield improvement.
Zhao Qi agrees with the above views and said that in the field of devices, domestic enterprises have also achieved localization of silicon carbide diodes and gallium nitride devices. The most difficult silicon carbide MOSFET devices and modules that can be used for on-board traction inverters will also be mass-produced from 2023, and the number of import substitutions will further increase rapidly in the future.
From the material side, Tianyue company in the semi-insulating substrate, vehicle grade substrate application has been in the forefront of the world, Zong Yanmin said, the current silicon carbide substrate can not only meet the domestic demand, to achieve all import substitution, but also to achieve overseas export, the company has become including Infineon, Bosch and other overseas head enterprises of the main supplier.
Connecting the industrial chain requires concerted efforts
At the meeting, when it came to whether the silicon carbide industry can achieve a substantial breakthrough, the guests at the meeting also admitted that there are still many challenges, and the fundamental reason is whether the cost performance can be compared with IGBT.
Zhao Qi pointed out that considering the advantages of silicon carbide devices to improve the performance of the entire system, only when the cost of silicon carbide devices reaches less than 2.5 times the cost of the corresponding IGBT devices, is the era of large-scale commercial application of silicon carbide devices. In this process, the continuous improvement of the yield of substrate, epitaxy, and device production is an important cost reduction direction that requires the cooperation of the entire industry chain.
Li Hong believes that the third-generation semiconductor is different from the physical properties of silicon-based materials, which greatly increases the difficulty of manufacturing, and the defect rate of the third-generation semiconductor materials is significantly higher than that of silicon-based materials, and the defect control in the manufacturing process is also an important direction for the industry to strive to improve. In addition, in the packaging stage, new packaging materials and packaging processes around the characteristics of silicon carbide are still being explored and tackled.
Li Hong called on the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain to work together to shorten and catch up with the international level with twice the efforts of international manufacturers.
Zong Yanmin also said that the defects of silicon carbide materials are the key factors affecting yield and cost, and the company will continue to increase basic technology research and development in defect management. At the same time, with the continuous expansion of end applications, the large-scale production of substrates is expected to further reduce costs.
Li Hong also introduced that the company has a long-term plan and layout for upstream materials, its own device manufacturing and downstream market applications, such as improving and strengthening the industrial chain through investment and shareholding, mergers and acquisitions, and industrial collaboration.
At the same time, the guests called on industrial policies to increase support for upstream and downstream cooperation.
Zong Yanmin proposed that the domestic industrial chain has matured and can provide reliable power devices for terminal applications, and hopes that the government can continue to guide the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain to strengthen cooperation and jointly build the competitive advantage of the mainland's third-generation semiconductors.
Third-generation semiconductors will grow more than expected
According to Yole data, the global silicon carbide market size is expected to reach $8.906 billion in 2028, and the gallium nitride market size will reach $4.7 billion. For the above data, the guests believe that it is in line with expectations, and even the actual growth may exceed expectations.
Li Hong said that the silicon carbide market is currently in the growth period, mainly based on the fact that the main application markets of silicon carbide such as new energy vehicles, charging piles, photovoltaics, energy storage and other industries are in a period of rapid development, and second, silicon carbide and gallium nitride are gradually replacing the market share of silicon-based products in many application fields due to their high-voltage, high-temperature and high-frequency characteristics, such as air compressors, uninterruptible power supplies, radio frequency power supplies, etc. More and more companies with certain technical capabilities are designing the next generation of new products around the characteristics of silicon carbide power devices, and it can be expected that the silicon carbide power device market will change qualitatively in the next one or two years.
Zhao Qi also pointed out that research institutions estimate that the compound annual growth rate of the world's third-generation semiconductors in the next few years will be 30-40%. For Chinese companies, we are expected to achieve a growth curve higher than the global average due to our leading position in key end-use application markets such as new energy vehicles and photovoltaics.
Tianyue, which is in the upstream of the industrial chain, has a strong intuitive feeling for the outbreak of market demand. Zong Yanmin said that at present, Infineon, Bosch and other overseas leading enterprises are expanding production strongly, and it is expected that domestic manufacturers will continue to increase their production expansion efforts, seize the opportunity of industry development, and consolidate the advantages of the Chinese market. (CCTV Capital Eye)
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