Core Energy: The third generation of semiconductors, especially SiC, may explode in 2021

In 2020, the semiconductor industry experienced the complexity and uncertainty of the global epidemic and international situation. As for how the industry will develop in 2021, Guangdong Xinju Energy Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xinju Energy") has given the answer.

Capacity shortages will continue throughout 2021

Xinju Energy believes that due to the rapid development of new energy vehicles and the green energy industry, as well as the rapid development of data centers, the overall demand for power semiconductors has further increased rapidly, bringing development opportunities to the entire power semiconductor industry. Power semiconductors in mainland China will definitely have better development and seize a larger market share.

Xinju Energy is a high-tech enterprise that designs power chips and develops and manufactures power modules for new energy vehicles and general industrial products. It focuses on the research and development, design, packaging, testing and marketing of IGBT/SiC power modules and power devices, providing customers with complete solutions.

Faced with the shortage of integrated circuit wafer manufacturing capacity in 2020, Core Energy said that this situation may continue throughout 2021, which is related to the tight production capacity of certain products and the panic stockpiling of downstream products. In addition, due to the tight production capacity of wafer fabs, many small design companies need to prepay the full amount of production capacity to reserve production capacity, which also aggravates the financial constraints of small design companies. Coupled with the further inclination of wafer fab capacity to large companies, small design companies will definitely have a harder time in 2021.

SiC will have a chance to explode

As my country's favorable policies for new energy vehicles increase, the market will become more and more open, which will be beneficial to the development of automotive power semiconductors as a whole.

Since Tesla introduced SiC MOSFET to the main drive and quickly put it into mass production, domestic new energy vehicles have also begun to follow suit and have been widely accepted by the market. As a result, the "killer application" of SiC devices was born and confirmed as new energy vehicles.

As a key third-generation semiconductor material, SiC has developed rapidly in the past two years. Initially, the supply of SiC substrates was insufficient. To solve this problem, Cree signed long-term supply agreements with several key companies and announced in May 2019 that it would invest $1 billion in the next five years to expand substrate production lines. In addition, Infineon acquired Siltectra, which has substrate manufacturing technology, and ST acquired 55% of Norstel's shares.

"With the further expansion of substrate production capacity, further reduction of defect density and further improvement of production efficiency, the third-generation semiconductors, especially SiC, will definitely have a very good outbreak in 2021," Xinju Energy believes.

It is believed that as the output of SiC wafer factories further increases, it will attract international leading companies to join the competition. For SiC devices, especially MOSFET prices will further decrease, which also creates conditions for SiC devices to gain more market share. Zhou Xiaoyang, president of Xinju Energy, said that more and more players will enter the field of automotive SiC devices. At the same time, with the rapid development of the industry, the entire market layout is also changing rapidly.

Zhou Xiaoyang believes that compared with silicon materials, SiC can achieve higher junction temperature, higher frequency, and higher voltage resistance, which will provide electric vehicles with more effective electric drive control, improve cruising range, reduce battery consumption, and reduce the size and weight of the entire electric drive system; it can be used for faster and higher-capacity on-board charging solutions; due to the excellent performance of silicon carbide and the continuous reduction of its own cost (material technology is more mature), it will bring system-level cost advantages and accelerate its application in the pure electric market. Based on this, SiC has huge growth opportunities in the future.

Although the future prospects are good, SiC chips themselves have new characteristics in field strength, energy gap, thermal conductivity, melting point, electron mobility, etc., which put forward new requirements and challenges for packaging. In order to go from design to mass production of products, the process implementation must go through many severe challenges.

It is understood that Core Energy Semiconductor mainly focuses on the packaging, testing and application of automotive-grade and industrial-grade power devices and modules. Its industrial-grade products have entered mass production in some leading companies in the industry, including automotive-grade silicon-based IGBT and SiC main drive modules. The verification work of leading car companies is progressing smoothly. The product performance and reliability have reached the same level as international manufacturers and the price is lower. It will enter mass production in the second half of this year.

The industry chain works together to narrow the gap with the international advanced level

The concept of third-generation semiconductors is very hot in 2020. With the progress of various investments, Xinju Energy believes that mainland China's third-generation semiconductor companies (including substrates, epitaxy, chip manufacturing, packaging and testing, and applications) have made great progress and developed very rapidly, and the gap with the international level has further narrowed.

However, we also see that there is a rush of investment in third-generation semiconductors in China, and few can achieve effective commercial production capacity. Xinju Energy admits that although the gap between China's third-generation semiconductors and the international advanced level is much smaller than the gap between China's silicon-based integrated circuit advanced technology and the international advanced level, the gap is also comprehensive, mainly in materials, equipment, inspection and testing capabilities, etc.

"Only when the entire industry chain increases cooperation and several key enterprises work together in each segment, will it be possible to narrow the gap with the international advanced level as soon as possible. At the same time, mutually beneficial international cooperation is indispensable," Xinju Energy added.

Finally, when talking about corporate talents, Xinju Energy said that as a startup, it has recruited more than double-digit fresh graduates for three consecutive years, and has also formulated a very detailed training plan. It currently has a group of independent newcomers.

"Based on self-cultivation of talents, starting from recruiting fresh graduates and training fresh graduates, we will cultivate more manpower for the industry." This is the foundation of Xinju Energy's talent training.