In 2023, SiC substrate shipments will surge by 22
Time:2023-05-31
Views:877
Source: Semiconductor Industry Horizontals
Research firm TECHCET recently predicted that despite a general slowdown in the global economy, the SiC substrate market will continue to grow strongly in 2023.
According to TECHCET data, the SiC N-type substrate market increased by about 15% in 2022 compared to 2021, with shipments reaching a total of 884000 wafers (equivalent to 6 inches). It is expected that the market will further grow in 2023, reaching 1.072 million wafers (equivalent to 6 inches), a further increase of about 22% compared to 2022. The overall compound annual growth rate for 2022-2027 is estimated to be about 17%.
The high demand for SiC wafers is due to the proximity of silicon based power devices to their physical limits, especially for high-speed or high-power applications. Broadband gap semiconductors represent the most promising alternatives currently available, while SiC is at the forefront in terms of material properties and supply chain maturity. In addition, the overall demand for SiC is driven by the demand for electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, green energy production, and more efficient power devices.
Although SiC is becoming increasingly popular, the chemical properties of this material make it difficult to process ingots into actual wafers. This has led to a shortage of supply in the SiC wafer market. In order to increase the supply of SiC ingots in the past few years, a large number of companies have entered or announced significant expansion in the growth capacity of SiC ingots, but few companies have truly entered the chip service market.
Vertically integrated SiC device companies such as Wolfspeed, Ansemy, and Italian Semiconductor are filling this gap by balancing their production capabilities internally. Other companies are attempting to bridge this gap by providing process services, such as X-trinsic and Halo Industries.
Faced with such rapid growth in demand, actively expanding production became one of the keywords for top manufacturers back then.
Currently, Wolfspeed dominates the SiC substrate market with a 60% market share, but with latecomers actively participating in competition, this pattern may have room for change. ST‘s active promotion of 8-inch wafers, such as announcing a partnership with SiC wafer head company Soitec at the end of 2022 to introduce wafer manufacturing technology; II - VI (renamed Coherent), Rom and others are also actively expanding their production capacity. In the field of devices, leading manufacturers such as Infineon and Ansemy also proposed significant production expansion plans at the beginning of the year.
Ansemy executives have publicly stated that the SiC market is expected to remain relatively scarce in 5-10 years, which is also the driving force for the company to continue expanding production capacity. Wolfspeed also believes that demand clearly exceeds supply, and the current silicon based semiconductor industry is in a cyclical recession, while SiC has long-term development prospects.
Not only are manufacturers expanding their own production capacity, but over the past few years, the SiC industry chain has also been actively expanding its capabilities outward. Ansemy is one of the manufacturers that places particular emphasis on SiC. At the end of 2021, after acquiring SiC manufacturer GTAT, it has achieved full industry chain capability coverage from SiC substrate to packaging.
Domestic SiC Company Encounters a Big Performance Explosion
According to data from the Securities Times, as the leader of A-share IGBT, Star Semiconductor has maintained a doubling growth for two consecutive years. Last year, the company achieved a net profit of about 800 million yuan, and in the first quarter of this year, the net profit achieved about 200 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 36%. The company continues to layout the SiC track: in 2020, the company invested about 200 million yuan to build a full SiC power module industrialization project, and invested in the construction of an annual production line and R&D testing center for 80000 vehicle grade full SiC power modules; In 2022, the company completed a fixed capital increase of 3.5 billion yuan to invest in IGBT and SiC chip projects. The latest progress shows that the company‘s car grade SiC modules have started to be supplied in small quantities in overseas markets. In addition, car grade SiC MOSFET modules using the company‘s independent chips are expected to start mass supply to main motor controller customers in 2023.
Macro Micro Technology‘s performance has also experienced a major explosion, with a year-on-year increase of 1.53 times in net profit in the first quarter of this year. It is reported that the company has full orders and successfully developed SiC diodes, achieving small batch supply. According to an institutional survey conducted by company executives, the company launched its first generation planar SiC MOS from 2022 to 2023, and is expected to develop groove products from 2024 to 2025; From the perspective of application scenarios, SiC MOS products are mainly used in electric vehicles, while SiC diode products are used in the photovoltaic field.
On April 20th, Yangjie Technology announced that it plans to invest 1 billion yuan to build a 6-inch SiC wafer production line in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, with a planned production capacity of 5000 chips per month. In the future, it plans to further lay out the construction of 6-8 inch SiC chip production lines. At present, Yangjie Technology has launched SiC modules and a full range of products including 650V SiC SBD and 1200V series SiC SBD to the market, and SiC MOSFETs have made critical progress. Yangjie Technology has further improved the company‘s core capabilities in wafer manufacturing by investing in and controlling Hunan Chuwei Semiconductor, forming a relatively complete wafer product manufacturing capability. According to the plan, the second phase construction of Chuwei Semiconductor is planned to add an 8-inch silicon based chip production line project of 30000 chips per month and a 6-inch SiC based chip production line project of 5000 chips per month.
In addition, the net profit of Dongwei Semiconductors nearly doubled to 284 million yuan last year, and the net profit in the first quarter of this year increased by nearly 50% year-on-year. Among them, the company achieved operating revenue for the first time in SiC devices; The Yandong Weibi 6-inch SiC SBD (Schottky Diode) product is in small-scale mass production, and the first sample of 1200V SiC MOSFET is in performance evaluation.
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