The weekend of the Association for Science and Technology + Academicians of the two academies of the General Assembly specifications are very high, 7 giants collectively attended, the news broadcast took up 20 minutes to broadcast. The basic can show that science and technology innovation in China's current policy position.
Summarizing the leaders' speeches, we can probably assume that third-generation semiconductors and semiconductor materials science will be the core of the current attack. That is, top-down forward-looking science and bottom-up basic science, both hands together, both hands must be hard.
What are third-generation semiconductors?
The third generation refers to the change in semiconductor materials, transitioning from the first and second generations to the third generation.
The first generation of semiconductors is represented by silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge), and most semiconductors today are silicon-based.
The second generation of semiconductors is represented by gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium phosphide (GaP), which are the materials for most of the communication devices in the 4G era.
The third generation of semiconductors, represented by gallium nitride (GaN), silicon carbide (SiC), zinc oxide (ZnO), and diamond, is the main material in the 5G era. In wireless communications, automotive electronics, power grids, high-speed rail, satellite communications, military radar, aerospace and other areas of application with the unparalleled advantages of silicon-based.
GaN is usually used in low voltage, such as small appliances, especially chargers are the most widely used; SiC is usually used in high voltage, such as automotive, 5G base stations, power grids and so on. Simply put, the advantages of third-generation semiconductors are: high-voltage, high-temperature resistance, high power, radiation resistance, strong conductivity, fast working speed, and low operating losses.
The main applications of third-generation semiconductors
The main applications of third-generation semiconductors downstream are consumer power supplies, industrial power supplies, UPS power supplies, new energy vehicles, photovoltaic inverters and so on. According to the current development, its main applications are semiconductor lighting, power electronics, lasers and detectors, as well as other four areas , each with a different degree of industrial maturity.
1. Semiconductor lighting. In the four application areas, the semiconductor lighting industry is developing most rapidly, and has formed a tens of billions of dollars of industry scale. The material system used in semiconductor lighting is mainly categorized into 3 types: sapphire-based GaN, SiC-based GaN, and Si-based GaN, and the products of each material system correspond to different applications. Among them, sapphire-based GaN is the most commonly used and the most mature material system, most of the LED lighting is manufactured through this material system. SiC-based GaN has a higher manufacturing cost, but due to better heat dissipation, it is very suitable for manufacturing low-energy, high-power lighting devices. Si-based GaN has the lowest manufacturing cost among the 3 material systems, and is suitable for low-cost display.
2, Power electronics. In the field of power electronics, the application of wide-band semiconductor has just started, the market size is only a few hundred million dollars. Its application is mainly concentrated in the field of military sophisticated equipment, is gradually expanding to the civilian field. Microwave devices, GaN high-frequency high-power microwave devices have begun to be used in military radar, smart weapons and communication systems. In the future, GaN microwave devices are expected to be used in 4G 5G mobile communication base stations and other civilian fields. Power devices, GaN and SiC two material system application areas are different. Si-based GaN devices are mainly used in low-voltage (200 1 200V), such as notebooks, high-performance servers, base station switching power supply; SiC-based GaN is focused on high-voltage (1 200V), such as solar power generation, new energy vehicles, high-speed rail transportation, smart grid inverters and other devices. The company's products have been widely recognized by the industry for their high performance and reliability.
3, lasers and detectors. In the field of lasers and detectors applications, GaN-based lasers can be covered to a wide spectral range, the realization of blue, green, ultraviolet lasers and ultraviolet detection manufacturing. Violet lasers can be used to manufacture high-capacity optical disks with 20 times more data storage disk space than Blu-ray disks. In addition to this, violet lasers can be used for applications such as medical sterilization and fluorescent excitation light sources, totaling a market capacity of $1.2 billion. Blue lasers can be used together with existing red lasers and frequency-doubled, fully-cured green lasers to achieve full true-color displays, enabling laser TVs to be widely used. Currently, blue lasers and green lasers output value of about $ 200 million, if the technical bottleneck has been broken through, the potential output value will reach $ 50 billion.GaN-based UV detectors can be used for missile warning, satellite secret communications, a variety of environmental monitoring, chemical and biological detection and other fields, but has not yet been industrialized.
4 Other applications. In the field of cutting-edge research, wide-band semiconductors can be used in solar cells, biosensors, water hydrogen medium, and some other emerging applications, these hot areas are still in the laboratory research and development stage.
Sanan Optoelectronics
The company set up Sanan Integration in May 2014 to lay out compound semiconductors, constructing GaAs and GaN epitaxial wafer production lines, as well as production lines of GaAs and GaN semiconductor chips suitable for the communications market, etc. In December 2017, Sanan Optoelectronics set up Quanzhou Sanan Semiconductor to expand compound semiconductor business, and invested 33.3 billion yuan for the construction of two LED epitaxial wafer projects and five compound semiconductor projects.In 2020, the company cooperated and invested in SiC projects in Changsha, covering long crystal-substrate fabrication-epitaxial growth-chip preparation -packaging industry chain, with a total investment of 16 billion yuan. At present, the Changsha SiC project is relatively full of orders, is expected to contribute to revenue in the second and third quarters of this year; three Ann integrated GaN capacity planning 4 inch 2000 pieces / month, the future continue to invest in 6 inch.
The main point of view - sic
SiC threshold is very high, in the U.S. and China's embargo list, the production efficiency is much lower than sapphire, each run out of crystal substrate, a month of production capacity of 20-50 pieces of domestic players are not many, domestic capacity It is also not easy to excess, cree's level is about 50 tablets level.
From the demand side, Tesla's dosage is about two-thirds of the 6-inch wafer, about 140 slices, according to the growth rate of the electric car, must be in short supply, at the same time, home appliances are on the sic power devices, more power saving, smaller compressor. In addition, as costs fall, the future scene will continue to expand.
From a technical point of view, there is not much difference between China and the United States, are emerging areas, cree to do 6 inches, the goal is 8 inches, Sanan is also trying to do, CREE think 2 years to do 8 inches, Sanan is 6 inches at present, strive to do 8 inches in 2-3 years; Cree's customers are more willing to try in the new field, Tesla's price cuts give Sanan opportunity, the domestic want to follow the Tesla's performance, it must be used.
Lumiao Technology
Three years Lumiao Technology began to formally enter the industry, at the beginning of the development of silicon carbide equipment with the central enterprises, the company announced that the people's government of Changfeng County, Hefei City, Changfeng County, Hefei City, Changfeng County, *** with the investment in the construction of the third generation of power semiconductors: Silicon Carbide Industrial Park, including the growth of silicon carbide crystals, Substrate production, epitaxial growth and other R & D production, total project investment is expected to be 10 billion yuan.
Last year began to hire the first domestic silicon carbide R & D Professor Chen, the development of equipment on hand orders about 700 units, domestic and foreign customers are in the process of further negotiation. 2-3 rounds of technology iteration. The plant has been topped out on March 15th, equipment entry on May 15th, the first phase of lighting on June 30th, before the end of the year there will be a thousand pieces of products out.
LU Xiaoxiao Technology's point of view is that the equipment and foreign comparison, mainly equipment is China's strengths, not only the price is better than abroad, spare parts are also, 90% of the realization of the localization of individual parts need to buy from Europe . Silicon carbide equipment is generally designed and assembled by themselves and not sold to the public, company because it is the main business to do the equipment, so there is a sale, the other Tianke Heda, North China, Jingsheng electromechanical have sold.
And other friends compared to the advantages: 1. equipment and process combination, can be synergistic 2. process and other domestic 6-inch, laboratory to industrialization process will be shorter; 3. long crystal yield advantage.
Substrate sampling verification: last year, the downstream standards identified as complete, after September 30th to start trial production, device factory will have automotive grade certification, the requirements of each month to achieve a certain yield a certain size, the need for 3-6 months of certification.
Huarun Micro
The company is the largest power semiconductor IDM supplier in China, using the design + OEM operation mode. In terms of SiC power devices, the company has released and mass-produced 6-inch 650V and 1200V SiC BS series products, and has completed the new generation of SiC BS product design, process development and sample output. In terms of GaN-on-Si power devices, the static parameters of the company's self-developed 650V GaN-on-Si devices have reached the level of foreign benchmark samples.
CR Micro's point of view is backed by state-owned enterprises, research strength is outstanding, in addition to his idm business model, resulting in the entire cost game will be a lot of space.