Recently, at the 2nd China Science and Technology Innovation Awards Recognition and Award Conference, 10 teams including the third-generation semiconductor (gallium nitride) innovation team won the National Science and Technology Innovation Medal! This fully demonstrates the importance that the country attaches to the research and development of third-generation semiconductor materials, and that GaN has achieved a major breakthrough in China.
Advanced semiconductor materials have risen to the national strategic level, with a target penetration rate of over 50% by 2025. The underlying materials and technology are the basic science of semiconductor development. In 2025, China made three sub-fields such as third-generation semiconductor single crystal substrates, optoelectronic devices/modules, power electronic devices/modules, radio frequency devices/modules, etc. Goal planning. In the mission objective, it is mentioned that the localization rate of 5G communication and efficient energy management will reach 50% by 2025;
Achieve large-scale applications in new energy vehicles and consumer electronics, with penetration rate of over 80% in the general lighting market. It is necessary to further improve the development policy of the power semiconductor industry; it is necessary to include the research and development of new materials for power semiconductors in the national plan, comprehensive deployment, strive to seize the strategic commanding heights, and realize the independent supply of power semiconductor chips as soon as possible. The downstream segment of power semiconductors will drive explosive growth in demand and will drive the application of third-generation semiconductor materials.
In the future, power semiconductors will exhibit high-performance, high-growth, and high-concentration development trends, which will drive the demand for the application of third-generation semiconductor materials. The main reasons are as follows: 1) significant increase in downstream emerging industries; 2) self-sufficiency rate is still biased Low replacement space is huge; 3) In the future, the fragmentation of concentrated products will be improved, and the performance and technical barriers of high-end products such as IGBT and MOSFET products will increase synchronously, and the downstream's dependence on high-end products will increase accordingly. The power semiconductor market is relatively large, driven by high performance, the penetration rate of new semiconductor substrate materials is expected to be further improved.
The third-generation semiconductor materials are represented by silicon carbide and gallium nitride, and have great performance advantages. The third generation semiconductor material refers to a wide band gap semiconductor material with a band gap width significantly greater than that of Si, mainly including SiC, GaN, diamond, etc. Because its band gap width is greater than or equal to 2.3 electron volts, it is also known as a wide band gap semiconductor material . Compared with the first and second generation semiconductor materials, the third generation semiconductor materials have the advantages of high thermal conductivity, high breakdown field strength, high saturation electron drift rate and high bonding energy, which can meet the high temperature and high power of modern electronic technology. , High voltage, high frequency, high radiation and other harsh conditions.
Investment in domestic base station construction expanded. It is expected that 5G new base stations will reach more than 800,000 in 2020, and most of them will be based on "macro base stations and small base stations". In the context of high-frequency and high-speed radio frequency, the penetration rate of the third-generation semiconductor materials will increase significantly. In 2023, the market size of GaN RF in base stations will reach 520 million US dollars, with a compound annual growth rate of 22.8%! The number of PAs used by 5G macro base stations will reach 18.432 million in 2019, and it is expected to reach 73.728 million in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 4 times. In the future, with the progress of GaN technology and scale development, the penetration rate of GaN PA is expected to continue to increase. It is expected that the market penetration rate will exceed 85% by 2023.
China's new energy vehicle market is now an era of rivalry, with BYD, Tesla, and even Apple also claiming to produce electric vehicles. German Volkswagen's acquisition of a 50% stake in China's leading lithium battery manufacturer Guoxuan Hi-Tech entered the ranks of electric vehicles. This is not only a great benefit to China's domestic electric vehicle industry chain, but also a great increase in the demand for electronics such as automobiles.
China is the world's largest consumer market for power semiconductors, and it is expected to maintain rapid development in the future. From the perspective of incremental sources, due to the improvement of downstream new energy and automotive electronics, the application field of power semiconductors has expanded from industrial control and consumer electronics to photovoltaics, wind power, smart grids, variable frequency home appliances, new energy vehicles, and many other markets. The development of the new downstream market is an important guarantee for the future increase of power semiconductors. The wide application of the third generation semiconductor materials has sufficient guarantee.