In recent years, the third-generation semiconductors represented by materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) have attracted attention due to their excellent performance such as wide band gap, high saturation drift speed, and high critical breakdown electric field. .
As the current mainstream third-generation semiconductor chip, silicon carbide chips are widely used in emerging high-end industries such as new energy vehicles.
Benefiting from the increasing market demand for silicon carbide chips, the third-generation semiconductors have become a place to compete. Not only are the international giants "staking the market", but Chinese companies are not far behind. They have deployed silicon carbide, expanded their production capacity, and tried to replace them with domestic products. Compete for market share.
In October this year, ZJJS Electronic Materials Technology Corporation plans to invest no more than 5.7 billion yuan to build a new silicon carbide substrate wafer production base;
ZJSD Semiconductor Technology Corporation plans to invest no more than 3.5 billion yuan to build silicon carbide chip research and development and industrialization projects.
In fact, the silicon carbide market has formed an industrial competition pattern in which supply exceeds demand and domestically produced substitutes, which has brought a good opportunity for rapid development of Chinese silicon carbide-related enterprises. Since 2021, domestically produced silicon carbide such as Pine Jie and Tyco Tianrun Power device manufacturing companies have also received ten million yuan financing.
Increase production capacity in the silicon carbide field
In the semiconductor field, semiconductor materials have gone through three stages of development:
The first stage is group IV semiconductors represented by silicon and germanium;
The second stage is group III-IV compound semiconductors represented by GaAs and InP, among which GaAs technology is mature and mainly used in the field of communications;
The third stage is mainly wide-gap semiconductor materials represented by silicon carbide and gallium nitride, which are also known as third-generation semiconductor products.
Semiconductor materials go through three stages of development
Silicon carbide is a representative material of the third generation of semiconductors, and the related business layout is in full swing. In the capital market, semiconductor listed companies are intensively raising funds to help the development of silicon carbide business.
Specifically, on October 25, ZJJS announced that it intends to issue funds to specific investors not exceeding 5.7 billion yuan, of which 3.134 billion yuan will be used for the silicon carbide substrate wafer production base project, and 564 million yuan will be used for 12-inch integration The circuit project of large silicon wafer equipment test and experiment line, 432 million yuan is used for the annual production of 80 sets of semiconductor material polishing and thinning equipment manufacturing projects, and 1.57 billion yuan is used to supplement working capital.
According to the announcement, ZJJS's silicon carbide project is an annual output of 400,000 conductive and semi-insulating silicon carbide substrate wafers with a size of 6 inches and above. The estimated investment is 3.36 billion yuan and the project construction period is 60 months.
Coincidentally, ZJSD is also actively deploying silicon carbide chip business, and its main business is R&D and production of power semiconductor chips based on IGBTs. On October 12 this year, the company's application for non-public issuance of shares was approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission. ZJSD plans to increase the total amount of funds raised this time not to exceed 3.5 billion yuan, and the silicon carbide chip research and development and industrialization project is one of the uses of the fixed increase funds.
According to the fixed-increasing plan, the ZJSD automotive-grade silicon carbide modules have been designated by many well-known car companies and Tier1 customers at home and abroad, which will provide a continuous driving force for the company's sales growth of automotive-grade silicon carbide modules from 2022 to 2028. In order to further enhance the competitiveness of its products, the company will implement this project to replace imported silicon carbide chips.
Hay Think noted that in addition to ZJJS and ZJSD, there are more than 10 well-known listed companies that are also deploying the third-generation semiconductor industry.
For example, ZJWT`s silicon carbide products announced in May this year that the first batch of silicon carbide wafers and samples have been delivered; HR Microelectronics announced in July that it will officially launch 1200V and 650V industrial grade silicon carbide Schottky diodes on the market. Power device product series, and its 6-inch commercial silicon carbide wafer production line was officially mass-produced; SHSA Optoelectronics has invested a total of 16 billion yuan, including but not limited to silicon carbide and other compound third-generation semiconductor research and development and industrialization projects. Start on the 20th;
GZSW Microelectronics said in August that it has technical reserves in silicon carbide-based gallium nitride materials and manufacturing; GDLX Technology announced in August that it will invest in the construction of a third-generation power semiconductor (silicon carbide) industrial park, including but not limited to silicon carbide The R&D and industrialization projects of third-generation semiconductors, including the R&D and production of silicon carbide crystal growth, substrate production, and epitaxial growth, etc. The total investment scale of the project is estimated to be 10 billion yuan: ZJDN Electronics said in October that the company’s silicon carbide semiconductor material project is still In the stage of R&D and proofing; etc.
Public information shows that according to incomplete statistics, the total investment in China's newly-started and newly contracted third-generation semiconductor industry projects disclosed from January to August this year has exceeded 45 billion yuan.
According to CASA`s incomplete statistics, China will put into production three 6-inch silicon carbide wafer production lines in 2020. By the end of 2020, China has at least eight 6-inch silicon carbide wafer production lines (including pilot lines). 10 silicon carbide production lines are under construction.
Strong demand for domestic substitution usher in opportunities
The third-generation semiconductor power devices represented by silicon carbide and other materials have superior performance and energy band structure, and have a wide range of applications. They have gradually penetrated into emerging fields such as new energy vehicles, renewable energy power generation, and frequency conversion home appliances.
Looking at the global third-generation semiconductor industry, the leading companies are still dominated by foreign companies. According to Omdia data, the world's top ten third-generation semiconductor power device companies in 2018 came from the United States, Europe and Japan, with a total market share of 60%. At present, international giants such as Cree, STMicroelectronics, Roma, ON Semiconductor, Infineon, Qorvo, Sumitomo, NXP, Mitsubishi Electric and other international giants are still in the third place through expansion of production capacity, cooperative alliances, or mergers and acquisitions. The next-generation semiconductor market squeezes in a race and accelerates the layout.