Source: Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily Author: Song Ziqiao

    At the crossroads of the third generation of semiconductors, Infineon, the leading manufacturer of automotive chips, stepped on the accelerator.

    When Tesla announced on the investment day that the next generation of drive units will reduce silicon carbide (SiC) by 75%, several concept stocks such as Tianyue Advanced, Dongni Electronics, Jingsheng Electromechanical, and Qianzhao Optoelectronics responded with "diving". However, when Tesla "uses his lips" to break the plate, the auto chip manufacturers are still using real gold and silver to increase the price.

    On the same day of Tesla‘s Investor Day (March 2), Infineon announced on its official website that it would buy GaN Systems for US $830 million (5.7 billion yuan). The two companies have signed a final agreement.

    GaN Systems is a gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductor manufacturer with a wide range of transistor product portfolio, which can meet the needs of many industries, including consumer electronics, renewable energy systems, industrial motors and automotive electronics. At present, it also supplies GaN power devices to Infineon‘s competitors.

    Infineon said that the planned acquisition of GaN Systems will significantly accelerate the GaN roadmap based on its unparalleled R&D resources, application understanding and customer projects. Through this acquisition, Infineon will master all relevant power technologies, whether silicon, silicon carbide or gallium nitride, and further consolidate Infineon‘s leadership in the field of power systems.

     Silicon carbide and gallium nitride are known as the third generation of semiconductor "duo". They are wide bandgap semiconductor materials with a bandgap width of 2.0-6.0eV, which are breakthrough materials for manufacturing high-voltage and high-power power electronic devices.

    From the perspective of application scenarios, silicon carbide is applicable to the high-voltage field. Due to its excellent performance under high temperature, high voltage, high frequency and other conditions, it has been widely used in power conversion devices such as AC-DC converters, and is regarded as an important component material for new energy vehicles. With more and more new energy vehicle brands adopting the high-pressure fast charging route, the process of silicon carbide getting on the vehicle is obviously faster than that of gallium nitride.

    Gallium nitride is applicable to the high-frequency field, with the advantages of low conduction loss and high current density, which can significantly reduce the power loss and heat dissipation load. Its three major application fields are the photoelectric field (semiconductor lighting, photovoltaic power generation), radio frequency communication, high-frequency power devices, corresponding to consumer electronics, communications, computers, aerospace, defense and military industries, and is regarded as the core chip used to manufacture the future 5G base station, It is widely used in cellular base station power amplifier, military radar, satellite transmitter and general RF amplifier.

    Star products such as Xiaomi‘s GaN charger, and GaN devices manufactured by San‘an Integrated (San‘an Optoelectronics) for Huawei are applied to the PA for Huawei‘s self-developed base stations.

    However, gallium nitride devices can be used in the fields of on-board chargers, DC-DC converters, etc. of new energy vehicles, which can save 70% energy while making the charging efficiency of new energy vehicles reach 98% and increase the range by 5%. In recent years, the application process of gallium nitride for new energy vehicles is accelerating.

    Toyota, BMW and other old car manufacturers have entered the Bureau; Anshi Semiconductor, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wentai Technology, has announced in-depth cooperation with United Auto Electronics Co., Ltd. (UAES), a leading enterprise in the domestic automobile industry, in the field of gallium nitride; Nano and micro semiconductors have also been equipped with GaN on-board chargers.

    According to Yole‘s prediction, the GaN power device market will grow from US $46 million in 2020 to US $1.1 billion in 2026, with an average annual compound growth rate of 70%. Among them, from 2022, gallium nitride is expected to penetrate into applications such as on-board charger (OBC) and DC/DC converter in a small amount. Therefore, the agency predicts that by 2026, the value of the automobile and mobile market will exceed $155 million, with a compound annual growth rate of 185%.

    However, like silicon carbide, gallium nitride also faces the problems of high cost of raw materials (mainly gallium nitride substrate and gallium nitride epitaxial wafer) and serious import dependence.

    From the perspective of the industrial chain, the upstream of GaN mainly includes equipment and raw materials. The enterprises engaged in film deposition equipment include Micro-Company and Northern Huachuang, and the enterprises engaged in substrate include Tianke Heda and Shandong Tianyue, etc; The midstream is a manufacturing link. The main players in the mainland include a few enterprises such as San‘an Optoelectronics and Haite High tech, and the overseas leaders include Sumitomo Corporation (40% of the market), Qorvo (20% of the market), CREE (24% of the market). Taiwan, China has Wenmao and Huanyu; Downstream is the application link.