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Annual production capacity 240,000 pieces! The silicon carbide IDM manufacturer achieves bulk shipments

Annual production capacity 240,000 pieces! The silicon carbide IDM manufacturer achieves bulk shipments

January 15 , 2024 0

SiC has been one of the hottest and most promising materials in semiconductor field due to its excellent characteristics such as large band gap, high breakdown electric field strength and high saturation drift speed.

Recently, core Starling "into the industry chain" column reporter interviewed the domestic silicon carbide IDM enterprise Jie square semiconductor deputy general manager Huang Hongliu, to explore in the background of explosive development of silicon carbide, Jie square semiconductor to achieve rapid growth breakthrough way.

Focusing on high-barrier markets, products have been shipped in bulk in automotive, photovoltaic and other fields

It is understood that Jie Square Semiconductor was founded in 2021, is a focus on car gauge chips and third-generation semiconductor IDM manufacturers. Based on the rich industry experience of the core team for more than 30 years, Jisquare has introduced a number of series of high-performance silicon carbide (SiC), analog signal chain and other cutting-edge products to the market, which can be widely used in photovoltaic, energy storage, new energy vehicles and other fields.

In the field of new energy vehicles, silicon carbide is mainly used in main drive inverters, on-board charging systems (OBC), power conversion systems (on-board DC/DC) and non-on-board charging piles. Wolfspeed predicts that inverters will account for about 83% of the value of silicon carbide in cars by 2026, making it the largest part of the value of electric vehicles. The second is OBC, the value volume accounts for about 15%; The SiC value in DC-DC converters accounts for about 2%. In addition, electric vehicle charging piles are also a major application area of SiC devices.

From the point of view of the boarding situation, with the acceleration of the 800V high-pressure platform layout in recent years, in addition to the Tesla Model Y/Model 3, The industry includes BYD Han EV/ Tang EV, WEilai ES7/ET7/ET5, Xiaopeng G9, Ideal L9, Millet SU7, Porsche Tayan and other models have also used silicon carbide devices in electric drive. Under the trend of 800V high voltage platform layout by domestic and foreign car companies, silicon carbide is expected to achieve larger growth in the automotive field in the future.

Huang Hongliu, deputy general manager of Jie Square, said: With the acceleration of the change of the new energy automobile industry, the global new energy vehicles have ushered in rapid development, especially in the domestic market, and BYD and other manufacturers have become the leader of the global new energy automobile industry. Driven by the continuous shipment of silicon carbide related models in the main engine factory, the overall penetration rate of 800V silicon carbide in the main drive is also increasing. According to our forecast, by 2029, the penetration rate of domestic new energy vehicles 800V will reach 66%, and the related sales will rise to 7 billion US dollars, and the entire market will usher in huge development opportunities.

Based on the deep understanding of the market demand, Jisquare has developed a series of related products for the fast-growing market segments such as main drive inverters, OBC, DC/DC and charging piles. Among them, in the field of main drive inverter, the company has developed JPM120008, JPM120012 and other series products; In the field of OBC and DC/DC, the company also launched JPM120020B4, JPM120040B4, JPM120040B4, JPM120080B4, JPM1700650B3 and other series products; In the field of charging piles, the company's JPM120020B4, JPM120040B4, JPM1700650B3 and other series of products can meet the diverse needs of downstream customers.

Specifically, JPM120008 is a 1200V/ 8mΩ main product launched by JPM120008, which is mainly developed for the electric drive of new energy vehicles. It has a simpler design and comprehensively compares the level of international first-class manufacturers in terms of technical parameters, which can greatly reduce the cost of the entire system for the Oems. The JPM120040 is an N-channel enhanced SiC MOS product launched by Jie Square, with a voltage of 1200V and a on-resistance of 30mΩ, which is 30% lower than that of competitive products in the industry. In addition, the product also has high breakdown voltage, low on-resistance, high switching speed, easy drive and parallel, high avalanche tolerance, etc., can reduce cooling requirements and system costs for automotive DC/DC converters, automotive chargers (OBC) and other fields, while improving its system efficiency and power density.

Although the company was founded 21 years ago, it has developed so far, and the entire development process has surpassed most start-up companies. In terms of automobiles, now we have shipped in bulk in the field of OBC, and the cooperative manufacturers mainly include Changan, FAW Hongqi and so on. The main drive products of the car due to high technical barriers, so the whole R & D and cycle will be relatively long, we have been in this whole R & D for almost two years, is currently accelerating, is expected to be ready around the second quarter of 2024, will be released around the third quarter, after the completion of the verification on the car. Of course, in addition to the Oems, we also cooperate with top Tier1 manufacturers such as Junshen Electronics to explore complementary mechanisms outside the global supply chain by customizing car-scale chips to create new chip alternatives.

In the field of optical storage, silicon carbide devices can increase the conversion efficiency of power generation from 96% of silicon-based to more than 99% of SiC MOSFET, reduce energy loss by 50%, and increase the cycle life of the equipment by up to 50 times, which makes the optical storage inverter have greater power to replace silicon carbide.

For the vast optical storage new energy market such as micro-inverters and series inverters, At present, JPS120002E201, JPS120005E201, JPM120020B4, JPM120040B4, JPS120020B301, JPS120030B30, JPM1700650B3 and other series of products have been launched.
Taking JPM120020B as an example, the product is a 1200VSiC MOSFET power device independently developed by Jie Square, which supports a voltage resistance of 1200V, a conductive impedance of 20mΩ, high temperature resistance, and a stable operating temperature of 175℃. In the process, the product adopts advanced thinning process, has excellent low impedance characteristics, can reduce the energy loss of the device; In addition, the product also has the characteristics of fast switching speed, low loss, and easy parallel connection, which is very suitable for photovoltaic inverter applications such as larger conduction current and lower impedance.

Huang Hongliu pointed out: At present, in the field of micro inverter business, we are mainly based on silicon carbide diode products, by replacing traditional silicon diode products with silicon carbide diodes, so that the output diode power loss is reduced by more than 50%, which can help downstream customers to minimize production costs; The series inverter mainly uses the combination of silicon carbide diode + silicon carbide MOS, which can not only carry higher power, but also make the inverter smaller. From the shipping point of view, silicon carbide diode due to the relatively low technical threshold, now we in Shenzhen and Jiangsu and Zhejiang along the mainstream light storage customers have achieved batch shipments, and series inverter products currently we have been in the rapid introduction, but also the company is now a main shipping direction.

Production capacity of 240,000 pieces/year! Millet production and investment support to accelerate its development

In recent years, with the continuous improvement of silicon carbide device production capacity and yield, its cost has been significantly reduced, which not only further accelerates the process of commercialization of silicon carbide in major industries, but also allows the silicon carbide industry to usher in the sweet spot of industrial explosion.

In terms of market size, according to Yole data, the global silicon carbide power device market size in 2022 is $1.794 billion, and is expected to maintain a compound annual growth rate of 31% in the next 6 years, and its market size will reach $8.906 billion in 2028.
It is worth noting that the current silicon carbide market is still dominated by automotive applications, accounting for 70% of the overall market with a scale of $1.256 billion in 2022. Driven by the explosive growth of new energy vehicles, the market demand for SiC devices is unprecedented, especially as more and more models of silicon carbide are used in main drive inverters, which will consume most of the global SiC substrate capacity, and the global substrate capacity will continue to be scarce.

In this context, the form of long orders in the industrial chain began to appear. By signing a long contract with chip suppliers and Tier1, downstream Oems can not only lock the production capacity of the next 3-5 years in advance, avoid the chip shortage, but also reduce the batch purchase price to 2.0-2.5 times that of silicon-based IGBT, so that silicon carbide large-scale car from theory to reality. It can be seen that at present, including Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, BYD, Stellantis and other international large car companies are competing with Wolfspeed, Infineon, stmicroelectronics and other chip manufacturers to establish long-term silicon carbide chip supply agreements, and various large orders of more than $1 billion in the industry have been common.

It is well known in the industry that power SiC IDM is still its mainstream business model, and 6-inch is the mainstream SiC wafer size of leading manufacturers. Under the stimulus of supply and demand, many companies in the industry have a variety of capacity expansion plans based on this mature platform. At present, Wolfspeed is the only manufacturer in the world to partially manufacture on the 8-inch platform, and although several manufacturers have announced their intention to follow this strategic decision, there are still many hurdles to overcome from planning to the final landing.

As a cutting-edge silicon carbide enterprise, Jie Square also uses IDM as its business model, and plans to invest a total of about HK $6.9 billion to build an 8-inch silicon carbide fab with an annual output of 240,000 pieces in Yuen Long, Hong Kong. It is worth mentioning that this project is the first semiconductor fab with large-scale mass production capacity set up in Hong Kong history, reflecting the importance of the current SAR government to cutting-edge technology and the recognition of the strength of Jie Square enterprises.

Huang Hongliu said: The founder of our company, Dr. Yu Yongxi, is one of the first batch of semiconductor core personnel to return from the United States in China, and is also one of the co-founders of SMIC, and has made great contributions to the development of China's semiconductor from 0 to 1. As a veteran with many years of experience in wafer manufacturing, he believes that the silicon carbide industry must have its own factory in order to stand out in the competitive market. Therefore, based on the company founder's own resources in the industry, Jie Square is also actively building its own silicon carbide factory. Our factory is 8 inches, the equipment requirements and the degree of factory automation are higher than 6 inches. At present, the work of the fab is already progressing as planned, and it is expected that initial mass production will be achieved around the end of 2025. The production capacity of the first phase is about 240,000 pieces/year, which can basically support the demand of 2 million new energy vehicles.

Based on the good market development prospects of silicon carbide in the future, at present, in addition to stmicroelectronics, Infineon, ON and other traditional power device manufacturers have made efforts in the field of silicon carbide, start-ups in various market segments in the industry have also emerged in endlessly.

When talking about the company's competitive advantage, Huang Hongliu pointed out that one of the core advantages of Jie Square is to have its own factory, which means that the company has a very strong process capability. We are not a pure design company, we have our own process team, so the company will design and process combined to achieve a yield and product performance optimization. If there is any problem in the process of mass production, we can get a quick and timely solution, which is the ability of few other companies; The second is that our team is very experienced in the construction of factories, our existing team, a total of 13 fabs built in the world, which are basically based on advanced technology, so we have a deep accumulation in this area, can promote the company's work in accordance with the law of semiconductor development. Although we will also face a variety of challenges in the process of promotion, but you have successful experience, you know how to avoid and solve various problems in actual operation; Third, in terms of application, we not only understand the needs of downstream customers, but also according to the technological evolution of the market, forward-looking technology upgrades and innovations to reduce costs and increase efficiency, which will accelerate the landing process of the company's products in the market.

In order to accelerate the pace of development, Jie Square has also completed several rounds of financing, the main investors include millet investment, SMIC Juyuan, Linxin Investment, Tousi Financial Holding and so on. It is worth emphasizing that millet's first new energy vehicle SU7 has also adopted 800V silicon carbide motor scheme, Jie square as its ecological chain investment company, the future may benefit from the outbreak of millet cars.

Looking to the future, Huang Hongliu said: Jie Square's plan is to become a mainstream manufacturer of global vehicle regulations IDM. In order to achieve this goal, on the one hand, we will launch a richer product matrix around new energy vehicles. On the technical route, in addition to the current flat SiC, we will also actively promote the research and development of grooved SiC products to further enhance the overall technical and product competitiveness of the company; On the other hand, in terms of capacity, we have also planned two fabs, and the entire capacity is in a leading position in the industry. The company has a "Jay square law", that is, for the entire industry is expected, with the continuous evolution of technology, under the premise of performance improvement, the cost of silicon carbide can be halved every two years. Through the cost reduction brought about by technological evolution, the future will continue to focus on the two core markets of light storage and new energy vehicles to support the development of the entire new energy industry.