Yesterday, Cree, which has recently entered the semiconductor business, announced that it will invest 1 billion U.S. dollars in expanding SiC silicon carbide production capacity, which will accelerate the transition from Si silicon to SiC silicon carbide industry and meet the needs of EV electric vehicles and 5G markets. Cree said that the expansion of production capacity will bring a 30-fold increase in the production capacity of SiC silicon carbide wafers and a 30-fold increase in the production of SiC silicon carbide materials to meet the expected market growth by 2024.
Cree said that they are building a state-of-the-art automated 200mm SiC silicon carbide production plant and a materials super plant at the company's US headquarters in Durham, North Carolina. This marks the company's largest investment to date and will provide momentum for the Wolfspeed SiC and GaN-on-SiC SiC-based gallium nitride businesses. When fully completed in 2024, these plants will greatly enhance the company's SiC silicon carbide material performance and wafer manufacturing capabilities, enabling wide band gap semiconductor material solutions to bring significant technological changes to the automotive, communications facilities and industrial markets.
Cree CEO Gregg Lowe said, "We are constantly seeing the tremendous benefits of using SiC to drive innovation in the automotive and communications infrastructure. However, existing supplies are far from meeting our expectations Demand for SiC silicon carbide. Today, we announced the company ’s largest investment in manufacturing to date, which will significantly increase supply and help customers provide transformative products and services to the market. This equipment, infrastructure, and company manpower The huge investment will significantly increase our production capacity. Compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2017 (that is, the first stage of our capacity expansion), it can bring a 30-fold increase in SiC silicon carbide wafer manufacturing capacity and material production. 30-fold growth. We believe this will allow us to meet the expected growth of Wolfspeed SiC silicon carbide materials and devices over the next 5 years and beyond. "
Cree further stated that this plan will provide additional capacity to the industry-leading Wolfspeed SiC silicon carbide business. By adding existing building facilities as a 253,000-square-foot 200mm power and RF radio frequency wafer fabrication facility, the first step is taken to meet expected market demand. The new North Fab will be designed to fully meet automotive certification facilities, and its production will provide 18 times the surface area of wafers available today, with 150mm wafers being produced in the beginning. The company will transform the existing production and materials plant in Durham into a materials super plant.
Cree CEO Gregg Lowe also said, "These SiC silicon carbide manufacturing super factories will accelerate innovation in today's fastest-growing markets. By providing solutions to help increase EV electric vehicle mileage and reduce charging time, while supporting The deployment of 5G networks around the world. We believe this represents the largest capital investment in SiC silicon carbide and GaN gallium nitride technology and manufacturing, and is also a financially responsible way. By using existing plants and installing For most of the new tools, we believe that we can achieve the 200mm fab with the most advanced technology, and the cost is only about 1/3 of a new fab. "
Coincidentally, another big SiC company with a full supply chain advantage has also announced their expansion plans earlier.
In a previous press release, ROHM announced that it will increase the capacity of silicon carbide (SiC) power control chips used in electric vehicles (EV) and other applications, and will build its production subsidiary "ROHM Apollo" at the Chikugo Plant (Fukuoka Prefecture). The new plant will be built in), which is expected to start in February 2019 and be completed in December 2020. In addition, ROHM stated at the SiC power control chip business strategy briefing that it would invest about 20 billion yen to double the capacity of SiC power control chips in 2020, and ROHM also considered investing in increasing production in Miyazaki Prefecture in 2025. A total of 60 billion yen will be invested before the end of the month, at which time the capacity of SiC power control chips will be greatly expanded to 16 times in 2016.
In addition, Japan's Showa Denko has also issued multiple capacity expansion statements. The company previously announced an increase in the production of SiC wafers in September 2017 and January 2018. However, due to the rapid growth of the SiC power control chip market and in order to respond to strong demand from customers, it has decided to conduct a third degree of SiC wafers. Investment to increase production. Showa Denko's monthly production capacity of SiC wafers was increased from 3,000 to 5,000 in April 2018 (the first increase in production), and will be further increased to 7,000 in September this year (the second increase in production) for the third time. After increasing production investment, it will be expanded to a level of 9,000 pieces in February 2019, 1.8 times the current (5,000 pieces).
In addition to wafer supplier expansion, downstream foundries are also accelerating their deployment to meet the forthcoming SiC boom.
X-Fab announced in September last year that it plans to double its capacity at its 6-inch SiC process plant in Texas to meet growing customer demand for efficient power semiconductor devices. To double the capacity, the X-Fab Texas plant purchased a second heated ion implanter for the manufacture of 6-inch SiC wafers. Production is expected to be timely in the first quarter of 2019 to meet projected near-term demand.
"With the increasing popularity of SiC, we have long understood that improving ion implantation capabilities is the key to our continued manufacturing success in the SiC market. But this is just our specific SiC manufacturing process improvement," said Lloyd Whetzel of X-Fab Texas. The first step in our overall capital plan. This demonstrates X-Fab's commitment to the SiC industry and maintains our leadership in the SiC foundry business. "
Han Lei, a wafer foundry from Taiwan, also announced in August last year that it had decided to expand the capacity of silicon carbide (SiC). The board of directors resolved to invest 340 million yuan to build a new 6-inch SiC production line, making it the first in Taiwan to expand SiC. The capacity of the foundry is expected to start trial production in the second half of next year. It is understood that Han Lei has now established a monthly production capacity of about 1500 for a 4-inch SiC process. It is expected that some of the existing 6-inch wafer fab production lines will be changed to SiC process production lines. The process will be established first to meet the strong customer demand for automotive and industrial control products Demand, because the price of 6-inch SiC reaches 4,000 US dollars (about 120,000 Taiwan dollars), it is estimated that as long as the output of 2,000 to 3,000 pieces per month, driving revenue is expected to increase by more than 200 million yuan.
In terms of chip makers, STMicroelectronics, ROHM, Infineon, and Lite are all struggling to expand their power. A battle in this market is bound to begin.