Recently, Zhuhai InnoSec 8-inch silicon-based gallium nitride power electronic device mass production line officially opened in Zhuhai. According to reports, this is the first 8-inch silicon-based gallium nitride production line in China and the world. From this perspective, it means that domestic companies are in the forefront of the world in the competition of wide band gap semiconductors.
The significance of silicon-based gallium nitride
With the rise of power electronics, new energy, electric vehicles, 5G communications, and intelligent industries, the emergence of applications such as wireless charging, lidar for driverless cars, and data centers has created new requirements for the performance of power devices. However, traditional silicon devices are limited by material characteristics and cannot meet emerging needs in terms of performance. This has prompted the industry to find new materials to replace. Wide band gap semiconductors represented by gallium nitride are one of them.
Renewal of power semiconductor device morphology
It is understood that this binary group of three or five direct band-gap semiconductor crystals has the characteristics of a higher band gap. The chips manufactured by it can withstand higher voltages and temperatures, output higher energy density, and resist radiation. Features. Through the epitaxy of different materials, it can be widely used in the fields of LED, RF amplifier and power electronics. Innosecco's silicon-based gallium nitride is an important option for power electronics.
InnoSec said that silicon-based gallium nitride devices have high breakdown voltage, low on-resistance, fast switching speed, and zero reverse recovery charge. Small size, low energy consumption, radiation resistance and other advantages. In theory, the chip area under the same breakdown voltage and on-resistance is only one thousandth of silicon, and currently it can be one tenth.
If there are any disadvantages of silicon-based gallium nitride devices, it is that the price of a single product is too expensive. However, as far as we know, after using this device, the cost of supporting peripheral electronic components and cooling system is greatly reduced. Although on the cost of a single device, gallium nitride is more expensive than silicon-based devices, but on the overall system cost, the cost gap between gallium nitride and silicon-based devices is already very small. After large-scale mass production, higher performance and silicon devices can be achieved. Lower cost.
The main thing is that the current penetration rate of silicon-based gallium nitride devices is not high, which will bring huge opportunities to related industries.
Domestic manufacturers achieve transcendence abroad
As mentioned earlier, this is the first 8-inch silicon-based gallium nitride production line in China and the world. To put it another way, before that, there were already other GaN research and production companies, and the mainstream before was on the 6-inch production line.
At present, international mainstream GaN manufacturers include EPC (Fabless), GaN Systems (Fabless), TSMC (Fab), Taiwan Han Lei (Fab), and so on. From this we can see that there are not many IDMs like InnoSec, and both TSMC and Han Lei are 6-inch lines.
When asked why the world ’s leading 8-inch silicon-based gallium nitride production line was built, InnoSecco pointed out that this is first of all to improve the layout of the domestic semiconductor industry chain and will greatly enhance the international competition of China's wide band gap semiconductor chips. Power, and the competitiveness of the national gallium nitride technology system; secondly, 8 inches can bring greater cost advantages. Today's machines and related supporting equipment are all 8-inches. Using 8-inch wafers can not only significantly reduce chip costs, but also make it easier to work with upstream and downstream manufacturers, such as advanced manufacturing and packaging, to build closer low-cost cooperation.
Looking back at the development of GaN, when the mainstream international GaN manufacturers entered this field around 2010, the 8-inch silicon-based gallium nitride epitaxial technology was not mature enough, so 6-inch wafers were used. At present, InnoSec has the world's leading 8-inch silicon-based gallium nitride epitaxy technology, breaking through the global challenges of low warpage, low defect and dislocation density, and low leakage wafer manufacturing.
"As a entrant into the GaN market, we have no upfront investment burden and have core technology advantages. We can directly enter the more advanced 8-inch silicon-based gallium nitride field. The company's IDM industrialization model and its first 8-inch multi-chip silicon The large-scale mass production line of gallium nitride-based power electronic devices enables the company's products to have market advantages such as low cost, high efficiency, and high reliability, "Innoco emphasized.
The Phase I project of Innosecco, which was established in December 2015, is located in the national high-tech zone of Zhuhai. It has completed an investment of RMB 1.09 billion and has completed China's first 8-inch enhanced silicon-based GaN epitaxy and large-scale chip production. Mass production line. Since the company was initiated by a returnee team with rich R & D experience and assembled by dozens of domestic and foreign elites, they successfully overcome many difficulties in the product development process. InnoSec also said that the GaN industry has arrived on the eve of the outbreak, and the company took the lead in achieving a major breakthrough in the industrialization of 8-inch silicon-based gallium nitride wafers. The opportunity has been prepared to lay a good foundation for future success. It will contribute to China's realization of "change lane overtaking" in the semiconductor field. InnoSecco will also become the world's leading wide-bandgap power semiconductor company.
In the late 1970s, power electronics were dominated by bipolar transistors (BJTs). The emergence of MOSFETs disrupted the entire industry, changed supply and terminals, and created a new giant. Now, power devices have reached a new turning point. Silicon-based GaN devices with superior performance will bring a new industrial revolution. This new device that has not been widely popularized around the world will be a huge opportunity for InnoSec, and it will be a new opportunity for the Chinese semiconductor industry.
In this tuyere of silicon device to silicon-based gallium nitride device transfer, Innosecco may become the leader in China's gallium nitride industry.
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