Dialogue with 3 leading SiC companies: How will the industry landscape evolve in 2024?

Regarding the silicon carbide business progress and future plans, they said this:

China Resources Micro Li Hong: We started to enter the research and development of SiC and gallium nitride five years ago, focusing on layout in Wuxi and Chongqing. (In addition to the wafer line), we are doing gallium nitride epitaxy, SiC substrate, SiC epitaxy, etc. . We predict that our performance will double next year (2024). In addition, we will further increase investment in research and development and pursue specialization, industrialization, marketization and internationalization.

In fact, we hope to create an ecosystem around chips and automobiles. We have formed strategic cooperation with leading domestic companies such as SiC substrates, epitaxy, and automobile companies. Now some automobile manufacturers have also participated in production line investment. Domestic leading automotive electronics manufacturers and automobile manufacturers have established strategic cooperation alliances with us. Our SiC, IGBT, half-bridge/full-bridge modules and other products have been certified by automobile manufacturers. Or it has been officially used in the car.

Xinlian Integration Zhao Qi: In the past two years, our planar SiC MOSFET technology has been iterated through three generations. The performance of the third-generation products has reached the international leading level, and we have achieved large-scale mass production of 5,000 pieces/month. Our single-sided water-cooled plastic SiC power modules have also achieved mass production. More than 90% of our SiC MOSFET chips and modules are used in main drive inverters of new energy vehicles.

Next, we will continue to increase investment in SiC and iterate technically from planar MOSFETs to trench MOSFETs. At the same time, we are also building an 8-inch SiC production line, which is expected to be put into production in 2024.

Tianyue Advanced Zong Yanmin: Tianyue Advanced's SiC substrate materials not only solve the problem of import substitution domestically, but also enable export abroad.

Currently, more than 50% of the world's top ten power semiconductor companies are our customers and have signed long-term cooperation contracts. We are also the main supplier of some companies.

From the perspective of the industrial chain, Tianyue is at the forefront of the industrial chain. Whether it is improving quality or reducing costs, we have arduous tasks. We are very willing to work with the device side and the epitaxial side to form a "joint fleet" to promote technology Iterate.

We dream of becoming TSMC in the field of SiC substrates. We hope that the SiC substrates we provide will have the best quality and the lowest cost, laying a foundation for the development of the domestic silicon carbide industry and paving the way for domestic SiC device companies. We hope that we can work together in the future. Towards the forefront of the world.

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Regarding the challenges facing China’s silicon carbide industry, they said this:

Li Hong of China Resources Micro: There are currently many third-generation semiconductor projects in China, but there may not be many that can be successfully industrialized in the end. And although there are too many projects, there are still not enough good projects and projects that can be industrialized.

Everyone prefers to describe the possibility of rapid localization of silicon carbide as "overtaking in a corner". It seems that it can be realized at once. In fact, it is not that simple, and there are still many specific difficulties. The best companies in the world now actually achieve large-scale application after a long period of accumulation.

From a technical perspective, the domestic silicon carbide industry has two aspects that need to be addressed: On the one hand, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the domestic material defect density. The second is that the device still has room for further improvement in terms of gate oxide layer growth, defect density, reliability, quality, etc. However, we believe that the entire silicon carbide industry will move forward because the development path of silicon-based semiconductors has proven that we can overcome various technical challenges.

Xinlian Integration Zhao Qi: In 2023, the entire industry chain has achieved breakthroughs from substrates, epitaxy, devices, modules, including applications, so the "Spring and Autumn Era" of China's SiC industry has ended. In 2024, we will enter the "Warring States Period", and finally form the world structure of the "Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period".

What will be the focus of competition in the silicon carbide industry in the future? We think there will be four points: the first is technical capabilities, the second is innovation capabilities, the third is scale, and the fourth is cost performance. These are important factors for selecting companies.

The silicon carbide industry faces three challenges in the future. The first challenge: the general situation and trend of switching to 8 inches. Mainstream manufacturers abroad have now begun to lay out the production of 8-inch SiC. At present, 6 inches are still the mainstay in China, and the country is slightly behind. We have started building an 8-inch device production line this year and hope to use the country's first 8-inch device production line to boost domestic substrate, epitaxy and device production.

The second challenge: Domestic silicon carbide MOSFET chip manufacturing (especially for main drive inverters) has just started, and mass production has just begun. From the beginning of domestic mass production to the entry into large-scale mass production, there is still a lot to be optimized in production. direction or process.

The third challenge: China's new energy terminals, whether "wind", "light" or new energy vehicles, are already leading the world. However, in the past year or two, we have seen that mainstream foreign SiC manufacturers have deployed cooperation and production capacity in various ways in China, with the clear purpose of seizing the domestic SiC market. The domestic silicon carbide industry chain is still in the process of gradually maturing, so this is also a very serious problem before us.

In this regard, the entire domestic silicon carbide industry chain needs to work together to improve performance and reduce costs as soon as possible to compete with international manufacturers and seize market share. On the other hand, China's new energy terminal companies continue to maintain their leading position in the world, and they also need a device-level (technological leadership) foundation. Therefore, we hope to ensure China's continued iteration of SiC technology through joint layout with downstream companies and maintain The sufficient scale of production capacity will support China's continued leadership in new energy terminals.

Therefore, in the second half of 2023, we will spin off the SiC business and unite new energy vehicles and semiconductor upstream and downstream companies, such as Bosch, Xiaopeng, SAIC, Luxshare Precision, CATL, and Sungrow, to establish a new Xinlian Power, focusing on SiC chips/modules, can provide one-stop integration, foundry and solutions.

Tianyue Advanced Zong Yanmin: There are still many technologies that need to be tackled on the domestic silicon carbide material side, but large-scale mass production has been achieved and can meet the needs of downstream applications. But at this stage, silicon carbide is still in its infancy and has not yet been released in large quantities. Once large-scale mass production is completed, problems such as quality, supply capacity, and delivery capabilities (of some companies' silicon carbide materials) will be exposed.

SiC is widely used in electric vehicles, photovoltaics, energy storage, white goods, etc., attracting many investors. This industry is like the "Football World Cup". It is now the qualifiers and everyone can participate. Once it enters the knockout rounds, it cannot be separated. Due to economic attributes, there are only a few companies left in each industry (segment), so we still need to treat this blue ocean market calmly.