Beijing, January 5 news (reporter Sun Ruxiang) "From the perspective of import substitution, today's domestic silicon carbide devices, especially high-end devices, most of them are still imported overseas." Li Hong, executive director and president of China Resources Micro, recently visited "Shanghai Hui · Hard Branch hard guest", said that this also provides a huge future incremental space for domestic third-generation semiconductor manufacturers.

Li Hong believes that the upstream and downstream of the domestic third-generation semiconductor industry chain should be open and honest and cooperate to shorten and catch up with the international level with the efforts of international manufacturers, further improve the device yield and reduce the comprehensive cost.

"We can expect a qualitative change in the silicon carbide power device market in the next year or two." Li Hong believes that the silicon carbide market is currently in a growth period, and the domestic industry will move forward with a double-digit growth rate every year in the future.

"There are a lot of silicon carbide and gallium nitride projects in China, but there may not be too many that can really do well and eventually achieve industrialization." Li Hong said that it is hoped that the policy level can actively encourage the third generation of semiconductors to accelerate the development, while increasing support and encouragement of head enterprises, so that head enterprises can join forces to make China's third generation of semiconductors really high-quality.

Most high-end devices rely on imported domestic manufacturers with huge incremental space

The third generation of semiconductor materials refers to silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN) as the representative of wide band gap semiconductor materials, the industry chain is mainly divided into substrate, epitaxy, wafer, sealing four parts.

"From the whole industry chain, the current domestic manufacturers in the substrate, epitaxial and sealing part of the rapid progress, but in wafer manufacturing, there is still a significant gap between the international advanced level of standards." Li Hong admitted that the lowest rate of localization is semiconductor manufacturing equipment, especially the key epitaxial furnace, injection machine, high temperature annealing and etching equipment.

Li Hong said that the domestic head manufacturers of silicon carbide substrate and epitaxy have approached the international advanced level in terms of output and quality, and will be very competitive based on the further reduction of costs such as scale and yield improvement in the future. SiC power devices and modules are currently used in application scenarios other than main drive, and domestic products have been gradually replaced, such as OBC, charging piles, inverters, industrial power supplies, etc.

"But the most core and also the largest use of automotive main drive applications, there are not many mass production in China." "Li Hong believes that in a certain period of time, domestic manufacturers will still carry out research and development and product improvement around car-scale silicon carbide power devices and modules, which is the market that will be fought for in the future."

"I believe that domestic manufacturers will soon enter the main drive system of domestic new energy vehicles." Li Hong said.

The industry chain should work together to improve the cost performance, improve the yield and make the device as small as possible

From the point of view of the device, Li Hong believes that the growth of the tertiary oxide layer, defect density, reliability and quality also have room for improvement.

"In fact, whether we do gallium nitride or silicon carbide, the comprehensive cost is high, the relative competitiveness, performance and silicon base ratio, there is still a big gap." Li Hong said that the entire industry chain "should work together, from the device end to the substrate to the epitaxial, to the device to the package, and work together, it is possible to reduce the comprehensive cost."

"China has the world's largest application market, with the strong support of the country and a strong atmosphere of innovation, in all fields of the third-generation semiconductor industry chain through professional leading enterprises to focus on research and development and technological innovation, the upstream and downstream of the industry chain are open and honest, full cooperation, to shorten and catch up with the international level with the efforts of international manufacturers." Li Hong suggested that SiC focus on how to reduce the defect rate, improve the overall yield and product reliability, to meet the stringent application requirements of automotive electronics; At the same time, innovative product design continues to reduce product Rsp and improve cost performance.

In terms of reducing costs and improving the cost performance ratio, Li Hong said that efforts should be made from two aspects: "On the one hand, further improve the device yield, and on the other hand, make the device area as small as possible."

"We believe that the whole third generation of semiconductors will still move forward. The silicon-based development path has proven that we can overcome various technical challenges." Li Hong said.

The annual growth rate of the industry will be double digits China Resources Micro will become one of the head players

Yole, a well-known French semiconductor consulting firm, expects that by 2028, the entire silicon carbide market will reach $8.9 billion, and the gallium nitride market will reach $4.7 billion (power + RF).

Li Hong believes that from the perspective of application scenarios and market size, silicon carbide is ahead of gallium nitride. At present, the market for SIC products is larger than the market for GaN products, because silicon carbide started earlier, and because of Tesla's leading application and rapid volume, and the application scenario is relatively concentrated, high maturity, which is also the reason for more manufacturers to develop SIC products.

Li Hong said that the silicon carbide market is currently in a growth period, the compound annual growth rate of more than 20% in the past five years, mainly based on the first is that the main application markets of silicon carbide such as new energy vehicles, charging piles, photovoltaic, energy storage and other industries are in a period of rapid development, and the second is that silicon carbide power devices due to its high pressure, high temperature and high frequency characteristics. In many applications, it is gradually replacing the market share of silicon-based products, such as air compressors, UPS, RF power supplies, and so on.

"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 is expected that the next year or two will have a qualitative change in the silicon carbide power device market." Li Hong said that in particular, the penetration rate of silicon carbide models will maintain rapid growth in the next three years, "I think it should be able to reach more than 40% penetration by 2025."

Li Hong expects that the domestic industry will move forward with a double-digit growth rate every year in the future.

However, at the same time, "China's silicon carbide projects, and even gallium nitride projects, are really too many, both large and small." But there may not be too many that can be successfully industrialized." Li Hong said, "In fact, whether it is to build a silicon carbide factory or a gallium nitride factory, on the one hand, there must be a large investment, on the other hand, there are many technical problems in it." So it's really hard for a new company to be successful in the long run."

For CR Micro, Li Hong said that the company has a long-term planning and layout for upstream materials, its own device manufacturing and downstream market applications, such as through investment, mergers and acquisitions, industrial collaboration and other ways to improve and strengthen the industrial chain. In the field of silicon carbide, investment in upstream material manufacturers to ensure supply; In the field of gallium nitride, through cooperation with the manufacturers of drive chips, the sealing products are realized and the added value of products is increased.

"We will continue to maintain capital investment in third-generation semiconductors, especially the improvement of production line capacity and the growth of capacity scale, timely start the construction of 8-inch third-generation semiconductor industry base, and use their own advantages to play a key role in the automotive electronics industry chain." Li Hong said.

Li Hong said that it is hoped that the policy level can vigorously encourage the domestic development of the integrated circuit industry, especially the use of China's huge market now, and actively encourage the third generation of semiconductors to accelerate the development. "At the same time, we also hope to support and encourage some leading enterprises, so that these leading enterprises can join forces and work together to do a really high-quality job of third-generation semiconductors." (CNG Capital Eye)

Source: CNR.cn