The third generation of semiconductors will usher in a huge explosion of applications

On December 28, Alibaba DAMO Academy released the top ten technology trends for 2021. This is the third time that DAMO Academy has released annual technology trends in its three years of establishment.

According to official news from Alibaba Cloud, the DAMO Academy proposed that the third-generation semiconductors represented by gallium nitride and silicon carbide will usher in an explosion in applications, quantum error correction and practical advantages will become core issues in the post-quantum hegemony era, breakthroughs in carbon-based technology will accelerate the development of flexible electronics, AI will improve the efficiency of drug and vaccine research and development, brain-computer interfaces will help humans transcend biological limits, data processing will achieve "autonomy and self-evolution", cloud native will reshape the IT technology system, agriculture will enter the era of data intelligence, the industrial Internet will move from single-point intelligence to global intelligence, and smart operation centers will become the standard of future cities.

In the field of third-generation semiconductors, DAMO Academy believes that in recent years, with the continuous breakthroughs in materials growth, device preparation and other technologies, the cost-effectiveness of third-generation semiconductors has gradually emerged and is opening up the application market: SiC components have been used as automotive inverters, and GaN fast chargers have also been launched in large quantities. In the next five years, electronic devices based on third-generation semiconductor materials will be widely used in 5G base stations, new energy vehicles, ultra-high voltage, data centers and other scenarios.

In the quantum field, DAMO Academy said that 2020 is the first year after "quantum hegemony". The world's investment in quantum computing continues to rise, technology and ecology are booming, and multiple platforms are colorful. This trend will continue to increase social attention and expectations in 2021. Research on quantum computing needs to prove its practical value; the industry needs to focus on the mission of the "post-hegemony" era: collaborative innovation, solving numerous scientific and engineering problems, and paving the way for the early arrival of the two milestones of quantum error correction and practical advantages.

In addition, in terms of carbon-based material technology, the DAMO Academy pointed out that in recent years, technological breakthroughs in carbon-based materials have provided better material options for flexible electronics: the quality of carbon nanotubes, a carbon-based flexible material, can already meet the preparation requirements of large-scale integrated circuits, and the performance of circuits prepared on this material exceeds that of silicon-based circuits of the same size; and large-area preparation of graphene, another carbon-based flexible material, has also been achieved.