12 Inch Square SiC Wafer Exposure

12 Inch Square SiC Wafer Exposure

Xu Xiulan, chairman of the semiconductor silicon wafer factory Global Crystal, revealed in an interview after the opening ceremony that the company will announce the development of 12-inch square silicon carbide (SiC) wafers at the exhibition, indicating that the company has relevant capabilities.

Xu Xiulan said that if the square wafer is switched, not only the process capability, but also the equipment capability, because there is no ready-made equipment available, and the relevant peripherals must also change, otherwise in the case of the wafer box, the square wafer will be larger than the box, "even the box cannot be installed." Or for example, silicon wafers are not transparent, but silicon carbide wafers are transparent, so measurement problems must also be dealt with.

In addition, Xu Xiulan mentioned that the current 8-inch silicon carbide wafers on the market are laser cut, but the 12-inch silicon carbide wafer cutting method still needs to be developed. Compared with other silicon carbide industries, which do not have experience in 12-inch wafers, Global Crystal already has a lot of experience in 12-inch wafers, but in the past it was to produce silicon products, not silicon carbide, and now the company has developed a 12-inch silicon carbide wafer cutting method without lasers.

In May this year, Wolfspeed, a major silicon carbide SiC wafer manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy, and Xu Xiulan, chairman of Global Crystal (6488), said that SiC is the right material, and SiC is more suitable than silicon in many application fields, but now the problem is that the price is too fast and too competitive, and Global Crystal is also struggling to follow up with China's bargaining, but customers who do not reduce prices may turn to China, so Global Crystal is also very active, and Global Crystal's own 12-inch is expected to be launched this year, and will directly enter the application field.

At present, the price of 6 inches has fallen the most, followed by 8 inches, and the current price in the supply chain in Africa is slightly better, but it is impossible not to reduce the price, because if the cost is too high, even customers will lose competitiveness.

Xu Xiulan said that Wolfspeed's global market share is 33%, but in the face of China's price halving every year, Wolfspeed has a large production capacity and relatively high cost, so it is relatively difficult, Global Crystal is not like Wolfspeed, not the same story at all, she estimates that next year's global crystal silicon carbide revenue will not exceed 10% of the total revenue, the volume will grow but ASP is still under pressure, and the company's strategy will still be promoted in scale and technology. The goal is to become the most competitive supplier of silicon carbide substrates outside of China.

Xu Xiulan said that the price of SiC is very similar to solar energy capacity, the price has been falling, but the market will continue to enlarge, and it will also drive the increase in volume, but the difference is that solar energy can only be used as a power plant, SiC can be applied in automobiles, 5G, home appliances, transportation construction, in the need of high voltage, to have a good degree of heat dissipation solutions, SiC performance is better than silicon, SiC used to be expensive so everyone used less, but if the cost drops quickly, customers feel that it is cost-effective, the application will be up quickly, especially now everyone is asking for energy consumption, There should be an environmental label, and when SiC is an affordable cost, people will switch to SiC solutions.

Market participants believe that Wolfspeed is the world's largest silicon carbide plant, and if it is difficult to operate, customers in the non-Chinese supply chain need alternatives, and may look for relatively healthy and competitive companies, and Global Crystal has a chance. According to experts, the third and a half generations quoted the green core channel ECC video source as saying that Infineon has successfully developed 12-inch silicon carbide wafers, and the number of chips produced by single wafers will increase significantly, which will further empower applications in new energy vehicles and other fields. "Connoisseurs say three and a half generations" believes that Infineon is accelerating the layout of 12-inch silicon carbide technology, aiming to further enhance its competitiveness in end markets such as new energy vehicles to meet the urgent demand for silicon carbide in the downstream market to "reduce costs and increase efficiency". At the same time, the demand for 12-inch silicon carbide technology in AR glasses (optical waveguides) and advanced packaging (interposers) for AI chips is becoming increasingly prominent:

AR glasses (optical waveguide): According to Meta's public information, a 6-inch silicon carbide substrate can only meet the production of 2 pairs of AR glasses, and if the 8-inch and 12-inch substrates are used, the output of lenses can double, and the cost of a single piece is expected to be greatly reduced.

AI chip advanced packaging (interposer): According to Zhang Zhongjie, chairman of Geqi Compound Semiconductor, in order to improve efficiency, Nvidia plans to replace the interposer material in the advanced packaging link of GPU chip CoWoS from silicon to silicon carbide. According to Zhang Zhongjie's judgment, "at the latest the year after too, silicon carbide will enter advanced packaging." "