• The competitive advantage of automotive GaN components is becoming increasingly prominent.

Leveraging their exceptional material characteristics, SiC components are rapidly making inroads into sectors such as automotive, renewable energy, and power PFC. Similarly, GaN components are excelling in the field of rapid charging for terminal devices. Additionally, GaN components are gaining greater visibility in the automotive and networking sectors.

In traction inverters and onboard chargers for electric vehicles, SiC components have already become the mainstream alternative to Si components. Furthermore, the demand for SiC components in automotive DC/DC converters continues to rise. As for GaN components, their potential remains significant in onboard chargers for electric vehicles, and their competitive edge is increasingly evident in automotive electronic components, LiDAR, wireless communication modules, and audio systems. It is estimated that by 2025, in the GaN component application market share, the new energy vehicle sector will account for 21%, representing an approximately 9% growth from 2023.

• China’s Semiconductor Self-Sufficiency offer it’s domestic supply chain a chance to seize opportunities.

Considering China’s position as the world’s largest automobile market, domestic automakers in China are highly enthusiastic about adopting innovative technologies and applications. It is anticipated that the Chinese market will be a major driver of demand for automotive GaN components. On the other hand, in the context of ongoing tensions between China and the United States, semiconductor self-sufficiency has become China’s primary policy for breaking through technological barriers and sustaining technological development momentum. Compound semiconductor is a project actively promoted by both the Chinese government and private sector, making China’s GaN component supply chain even more worthy of attention.

Currently, China’s domestic major GaN substrate and epitaxy suppliers include Sino Nitride Group and Nanowin. Companies specializing in GaN epitaxy include SinoGaN, Enkris Semiconductor, Genettice, and Best Compound Semiconductor. IDM manufacturers in this field include Sanan Optoelectronics, Silan, Runxin, CorEnergy, Innoscience, and SMEI. As the demand for automotive GaN components in China continues to rise, these aforementioned companies may seize the opportunity.

According to TrendForce’s “2023 GaN Power Semiconductor Market Analysis Report – Part 1,” the global GaN power device market is projected to grow from $180 million in 2022 to $1.33 billion in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 65%.

The development of the GaN power device market is primarily driven by consumer electronics, with a focus on fast chargers as the core application. Other consumer electronic scenarios include Class D audio and wireless charging.

However, many manufacturers have already shifted their focus to the industrial market, with data centers being a key application. ChatGPT has sparked a wave of AI cloud server deployment, and GaN technology will help data centers reduce operating costs and improve server efficiency.

Simultaneously, the automotive market is also gaining attention, as OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers recognize the potential of GaN. It is expected that by around 2025, GaN will gradually penetrate low-power onboard chargers (OBC) and DC-DC converters. Looking further ahead to 2030, OEMs may consider incorporating GaN technology into traction inverters.

In terms of market competition, based on GaN power device business revenue, Power Integrations ranked first in 2022. The company has been leading the high-voltage market’s development since 2018, and its excellent GaN integrated solutions have gained wide market recognition. Other leading manufacturers include Navitas, Innosic, EPC, GaN Systems, and Transphorm.

Additionally, the industry paid attention to the acquisition of GaN Systems by Infineon. According to TrendForce’s statistics, the combined market share of both companies was approximately 15% in 2022.

Turning to the supply chain, as mentioned earlier, the development of the GaN power device market will be driven by consumer electronics for a long time. Therefore, the industry must pursue scale and low cost, necessitating the expansion of wafer sizes. Currently, mainstream GaN power wafers still rely on 6-inch silicon substrates, with only Innosic, X-FAB, and VIS offering 8-inch options. With a positive outlook for the long-term development of the GaN power market, several wafer manufacturers have announced plans to shift to 8-inch wafers in the coming years, including Infineon, STMicroelectronics, TSMC, and others.

Furthermore, Samsung recently announced its entry into the 8-inch market and plans to provide foundry services starting from 2025, a development worth industry attention.

(Photo credit: Navitas)

Looking at the development of the global SiC (silicon carbide) industry, IDMs in Europe and the United States occupy an absolute leading position, with the United States accounting for more than half of the market share in the substrate material sector. In order to ensure long-term and stable development of the SiC business, major manufacturers have also successively intervened in key upstream substrate materials in an effort to control the supply chain. Therefore, vertical integration has become an important trend in the development of the SiC industry. The global market value of SiC power semiconductors is estimated to be approximately US$1.589 billion in 2022 and will reach US$5.302 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of 35%.

Wolfspeed holds more than half the world’s SiC substrate market share and is first to move to 8-inch wafers

SiC substrates are characterized by difficult growth conditions, arduous processing, and high technical thresholds, which have become a key constraint on downstream production capacity. At present, only a few manufacturers such as Wolfspeed, ROHM, ON Semi, and STM have the ability to independently produce SiC crystals. From the perspective of SiC substrate market share in 2021, the leading players in order of market share are: Wolfspeed at 62%, II-VI at 14%, SiCrystal at 13%, SK Siltron at 5%, and TankeBlue at 4%.

Increasing the number of components on a single wafer is one of the main methods of further reducing the cost of SiC power components, so the industry is fully promoting 8-inch transformation. 8-inch SiC wafers have issues such as difficult material growth, laborious dicing, and losses during dicing. At this stage, yield rate is low. Therefore, 8-inch SiC wafers will not have much impact on the industry in the short term but, in the long run, with breakthroughs in material growth and process yield, the final chip cost of 8-inch wafers will inevitably present great advantages.

SiC MOSFET market highly competitive, STM comes out on top

With the successful application of high-quality 6H-SiC and 4H-SiC epitaxial layer growth technology in the 1990s, the research and development of various SiC power components entered a period of rapid development, leading to their current ubiquity in sectors such as the automotive and industrial fields. From the perspective of competition patterns in the SiC power component market, as Tesla’s first SiC supplier, STM took first place in 2021 with a market share of 41%, Infineon took second place with 22%, followed by Wolfspeed, ROHM, ON Semi and other manufacturers.

TrendForce indicates, from the perspective of SiC MOSFET technology, trench structure’s powerful cost and performance advantages will see it become the mainstream technology in the future. Infineon and ROHM have been working on this a long time and these two companies have successively introduced this structure to the market as core products. STM, Wolfspeed, and On Semi still employ planar structures at this stage but their next generation products will also move to trench structures.

（Image credit: Pixabay）

With the continuous deterioration of the global environment and the exhaustion of fossil fuel energy, countries around the world are looking for new energy sources suitable for human survival and development. The construction of photovoltaic energy storage projects is an important measure to implement energy transformation. Third-generation semiconductors have the characteristics of high frequency, high power, high voltage resistance, high temperature resistance, and radiation resistance, which can promote highly efficient, highly reliably, and low cost of photovoltaic energy storage inverters and the green and low-carbon development of energy.

SiC will be widely used in high-power string/central inverters, while GaN is more suitable for household micro-inverters

As the photovoltaic industry enters the era of “large components, large inverters, large-span brackets, and large strings,” the voltage level of photovoltaic power plants has increased from 1000V to over 1500V and high-voltage SiC power components will be used extensively in string and centralized inverters. For residential micro-inverters with a power of up to 5kW, GaN power components have more advantages. Not only can they significantly improve overall conversion efficiency, effectively reduce the levelized cost of energy (LCOE), but also allow users to easily build smaller, lighter, and more reliable inverters.

Key SiC substrates are crucial to the development of third-generation semiconductors and major manufacturers are competing to get to market

SiC substrate is regarded as the core raw material of third-generation semiconductors. Its crystal growth is slow and process technology complex. Mass production is not easy. Conductive substrates can produce SiC power electronic components while semi-insulating substrates can be used for the fabrication of GaN microwave radio frequency components. In addition, due to the high difficulty of substrate preparation, its value is relatively high. The cost of SiC substrate accounts for approximately 50% of the total cost of components which demonstrates its importance in the industrial chain.

At present, the supply of the global SiC market is firmly in the hands of substrate manufacturers. Wolfspeed, II-VI and SiCrystal (subsidiary of ROHM) together account for nearly 90% of shipments. IDM manufacturers such as Infineon, STM, and Onsemi are actively developing upstream SiC substrates and expect to take full advantage of the supply chain to strengthen their competitiveness. Everyone wants to get a piece of the pie, so the battle for SiC substrates will become more and more fierce, but the wait will not be long to see where the industry eventually goes in coming years.

（Image credit: Pixabay ）

Some of the advantages of third-generation semiconductors SiC and GaN include their ability to operate under high voltages, high temperatures （for SiC）, and high frequencies（for GaN）. Not only do these advantages allow manufacturers to significantly reduce the physical sizes of chips, but peripheral circuit designs can also be simplified as a result, thereby further reducing the sizes of modules, peripheral components, and cooling systems. That is why SiC and GaN have become important strategic focuses of the global semiconductor industry.

As part of its ongoing goal of semiconductor independence, China has been accelerating the development of third-generation semiconductors in recent years

From the perspective of substrate development, countries find it difficult to procure SiC substrates due to the lack of production capacities worldwide. Hence, the ability to control the supply of SiC substrates equals having more influence in the semiconductor industry. The current ranking of geographical regions that control the supply of SiC substrates is, in order, the US （Cree and II-VI）, Japan （Rohm）, and Europe （STM）.

It should be pointed out that China’s overall standing in the third-generation semiconductor industry is hindered by its insufficient supply of substrates. Hence, Chinese companies are slightly lagging behind other global companies in this industry. At the moment, both TankeBlue and Shanxi Shuoke have successfully developed 8-inch SiC wafers, though their scale of mass production is yet to catch up to global leader Cree.

Despite the vast majority of GaN substrate suppliers being Japanese and European companies, Chinese companies have been making an aggressive push to enter this market. Regarding substrates, Nanowin, Sino Nitride, and Eta Research are all currently investing in R&D and mass production, though their current focuses are limited to 2-inch and 4-inch wafers. Regarding epitaxy, Enkris, GLC, and Genettice have been similarly making progress on R&D and mass production.

Furthermore, Chinese companies are farther ahead in the development and manufacturing strategies for GaN substrates compared to SiC substrates. For the GaN RF segment, Chinese companies span the entire supply chain, including IDM（CETC, Aofengyuan, Chengchang, Dynax, Innoscience, Bofang Jiaxin）, foundries（HiWafer and San’an）, and fabless IC design companies（GaXtrem）.

（Cover image source: TSMC）