On November 13, domestic silicon carbide substrate manufacturer Tianyue Advanced unveiled the industry's first 300mm (12-inch) silicon carbide substrate at the Semicon Europe 2024 exhibition in Munich, Germany. This marks a significant step forward for Tianyue Advanced into the era of ultra-large silicon carbide substrates.
Tianyue Advanced stated that the 300mm silicon carbide substrate material can further increase the usable area for chip manufacturing on a single wafer, significantly boosting the yield of qualified chips. Under the same production conditions, this greatly enhances production efficiency, reduces unit costs, and provides the potential for large-scale application of silicon carbide materials.
Silicon Carbide Substrate Market: 12-inch Emerging, 8-inch Accelerating Penetration
The global silicon carbide substrate market is highly competitive, with international players like Wolfspeed, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, and ON Semiconductor dominating the industry. In China, Tianyue Advanced has successfully developed the largest 12-inch silicon carbide substrates and has achieved stable mass production of 8-inch substrates. Other companies like Rokem Crystal, Tongguang Crystal, and Tianqi Heada also have 8-inch silicon carbide substrate production capabilities, while some other domestic companies are actively pursuing R&D in this field.
Industry experts believe that the 8-inch silicon carbide substrate will be the turning point for decreasing marginal costs, making it the mainstream size in the future. Currently, 8-inch silicon carbide substrates are only supplied in small quantities, with a market share of less than 2%. However, TrendForce predicts that this share will grow to around 15% by 2026.
Recently, there have been several developments in the domestic 8-inch silicon carbide market: Tianqi Heada has commenced construction on the second phase of its third-generation semiconductor silicon carbide substrate industrialization base, and Jingcheng Shares has developed an 8-inch resistance-method silicon carbide single crystal furnace.
On November 12, Tianqi Heada officially began construction on the second phase of its silicon carbide substrate industrial base. The company plans to purchase crystal growth, crystal processing, and wafer processing equipment, and to establish a 6-8 inch silicon carbide substrate production line, along with a research and development center. Upon completion, the annual production capacity is expected to reach approximately 371,000 conductive silicon carbide substrates, including 236,000 six-inch and 135,000 eight-inch substrates.
Jingcheng Shares successfully developed an 8-inch resistance-method silicon carbide single crystal furnace, overcoming the bottleneck of "blind box growth" in silicon carbide production and achieving visualized and monitorable crystal growth. Jingcheng Shares' 8-inch silicon carbide crystal growth equipment has completed validation and is now in the process of mass delivery. The company is also actively working on developing epitaxial and cutting equipment for silicon carbide to further expand its product line.
The Goal for Silicon Carbide Substrates: Towards Ultra-Large Sizes
With the rapid development of new energy vehicles, photovoltaic energy storage, 5G communications, and high-voltage smart grids, the demand for silicon carbide-based devices capable of high power, high voltage, and high frequency is growing exponentially. Silicon carbide substrates, as a key upstream material, are becoming increasingly crucial. Experts point out that larger silicon carbide substrates mean a greater surface area, which translates into the ability to manufacture more chips on a single substrate, thus improving production efficiency. Larger substrates also reduce edge waste, which helps lower the cost per chip.
In terms of silicon carbide substrate sizes, 4-inch substrates are primarily used for manufacturing gallium nitride RF devices, while 6-inch substrates are the mainstream specification for conductive silicon carbide in the market. For 8-inch substrates, industry leaders such as Wolfspeed and Infineon have successfully developed and built production lines. Compared to 6-inch substrates, 8-inch substrates offer higher efficiency and lower costs. While 12-inch substrates are not yet widely used, they are expected to become an important direction for the development of silicon carbide substrates as technology advances and costs decrease.
Silicon carbide substrates are steadily moving towards larger sizes; however, the production technology for larger substrates is more challenging, requiring advanced production equipment and technical support, which means more R&D investment and production costs. Therefore, companies need to continue their efforts to expand capacity and improve product quality.
As silicon carbide materials see widespread adoption in new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, 5G communications, and other fields, market demand will continue to grow, providing ample growth opportunities for silicon carbide substrate companies.
