Under the wave of electrification, various new materials including silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) and new power devices are breaking through the limitations of traditional materials and promoting the development of Electronic power technology. The vigorous development of the new energy vehicle industry also brings opportunities for semiconductor chips. Affected by the epidemic last year, the global semiconductor industry has shrunk somewhat, but the automotive semiconductor market is growing against the trend, especially the double-speed growth of the SiC market. This is also due to the deep cultivation of domestic semiconductors in the field of third-generation materials, which provides more choices for automobile manufacturers and OEMs. At the time when the global chip shortage trend is evolving, Chinese chip manufacturers are in a rapidly changing market environment and need to seek breakthroughs amidst opportunities and challenges.
From October 28th to 30th, 2021, at the Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center (Bao’an New Hall), the electronica South China in Munich will bring together key forces in many industries and return strongly! At that time, Qiu Qi, deputy general manager of marketing of Tyco Tianrun Semiconductor Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tyco Tianrun), one of the advocates of the industrialization of SiC power devices in China, was invited to discuss with techsugar How the supply and demand of SiC products will evolve, the growth momentum of the SiC industry in the next few years, and what advantages China’s third-generation semiconductor companies will use to compete for the market will be discussed.
SiC quickly cuts into various fields
SiC quickly cuts into various application fields. Power electronics technology is a technology that uses electronics (weak current) as a means to control electric power (strong current), so that the power frequency power of the grid is finally converted into power of different nature and different uses, so as to meet the different needs of different electrical devices. Qiu Qi believes that SiC is suitable for high-frequency, high-power, and high-power-density power supplies. This is basically in line with the development direction of power electronics. The development of power supplies will be closely integrated with the characteristics of SiC chips.
This year is the tenth year that Tyco Tianrun has been deeply involved in the field of SiC chips. The products of Tyco Tianrun have been widely used in industrial categories such as high-power LED power supplies, PC power supplies, communication power supplies, photovoltaic inverters and charging modules for charging piles. Etc., vehicle power supplies such as OBC, DCDC, etc., consumer products such as PD fast charging.
At this exhibition, Tyco Tianrun has brought new ultra-thin SiC packaging products, such as SOD123, DFN5*6, DFN8*8, etc. Compared with the traditional TO chip packaging, these new products are characterized by extremely thin, its The thickness is only 1mm. DFN8*8 also has no pins, which can reduce problems caused by excessive parasitic inductance of the device package. The 650V 1A product in the SOD123 package is the world’s first and smallest SiC diode of Tyco Tianrun. These ultra-thin new packages are very suitable for power applications with very strict volume requirements, to replace silicon Frd with high voltage and low current, and solve the pain point of Trr. Tyco Tianrun’s SiC devices 650V/2A-100A, 1200V/2A-50A, 1700V/5A-50A, 3300V/0.6A-50A and other series of products have been put into mass production, and Tyco Tianrun is the first company in China to obtain The SiC original factory with the third-party AEC-Q101 and DNV-USCG certification reliability test report, the product quality has reached the advanced level of the same industry in the world.
Figure: Tyco Tianrun is the world’s first smallest SiC diode
——650V 1A SOD12
Benefiting from the IDM model, Tyco Tianrun’s SiC products have been upgraded from 4 inches to 6 inches, and the cost performance of the products has been greatly improved. In July of this year, Tyco Tianrun’s 6-inch SiC production line was put into operation, with more than 40 engineering batches, and a comprehensive yield rate of more than 90%. In September, the reliability test was completed and batch shipments were made. According to Qiu Qi, under the same order of magnitude in the horizontal direction, Tyco Tianrun’s products are updated from 4 inches to 6 inches, and the cost performance can be increased by about 20%.
The gap between supply and demand continues, and new energy may become the biggest growth driver
As SiC is in a steady upward trend, the gap between supply and demand will continue to exist in the next few years. Qiu Qi analyzed that, first of all, the future direction of power supply is miniaturization, light weight, and high power density. Emerging fields such as electric vehicles must use SiC materials. Secondly, from 4-inch to 6-inch and even 8-inch in the future, the cost of SiC will drop and the silicon market will be subdivided. For example, Tyco Tianrun DFN8*8 is a SiC product that has entered the market.
The best carrier of future intelligence lies in new energy vehicles, and the most powerful growth momentum of power devices lies in new energy vehicles. Qiu Qi said that electric vehicles need a large number of automotive electronic and electrical components, which play a very important role in the total value, size, total volume, dynamic performance, overload capacity, durability and reliability of the whole machine. As the dominant power device, silicon-based IGBT is used in the three subsystems of electric control system, on-board air conditioning system and charging pile inverter in new energy vehicles, accounting for about 7%-10% of the cost of the whole vehicle. The second most expensive component is also a key component that determines the energy efficiency of the vehicle. With the development of IGBT chips, it has become very difficult to further reduce energy consumption. Next, people are more optimistic about SiC. The performance of the new generation of automotive power devices based on SiC will also shine.
The IDM model accelerates the development of domestic third-generation semiconductors
Domestic production has gradually entered the independent innovation stage of entering the silicon market with SiC from the domestic alternative route focusing on cost performance. Qiu Qi analyzed that in terms of third-generation semiconductors, the gap between domestic and foreign countries is not as obvious as that of first- and second-generation semiconductors. She further explained that as far as the category of SiC diodes is concerned, the level at home and abroad has been flat; in terms of SiC Mosfet, there are still some gaps at home and abroad; in terms of GaN, my country’s GaN radio frequency equipment market is growing continuously, and its main pillar And the main growth drivers are military defense and wireless communication infrastructure; in terms of silicon-based GaN, it is now mainly used in consumer charging heads, because consumer products are very sensitive to cost, and the technical threshold of the product itself is lower than that of industrial and vehicle products. The outer gap will no longer be noticeable after a while.
At present, the development direction of SiC devices is clear, and domestic original factories occupy the right time and place. Regarding the domestic SiC environment, Qiu Qi analyzed that under the pressure of external factors such as the Sino-US trade war, the foreign epidemic situation, and the shutdown of Southeast Asian packaging factories in the past two years, foreign manufacturers who had held a wait-and-see attitude towards domestic manufacturers in the early years gradually opened their arms. Local customers are also open to communicating with domestic manufacturers. On the other hand, there is a deep bond between some foreign friends and European and American car manufacturers, and the supply capacity to other customers has declined. Due to insufficient supply, domestic benchmark customers will consider domestic semiconductors including domestic SiC.
The IDM model is a great advantage of Tyco Tianrun. Headquartered in Beijing, Tyco Tianrun has 4-inch and 6-inch SiC semiconductor process wafer production lines in Beijing and Hunan respectively. As an IDM company, Tyco Tianrun integrates design and process to achieve the best product structure and the best yield rate. Tyco Tianrun has opened up the road of continuous running-in with downstream customers, mining the pain points of users, and combining the natural advantages of SiC materials for independent innovation.
The Links: SKIIP 25AC12T4V25 LJ64AU34 POWER-IGBT