The third generation semiconductor is hot enough to meet the "subversive" technology in the post-Moore era. These three tracks deserve the most attention.

Unlike the previous power semiconductor branches that continue to lead the rise in semiconductors, the third-generation semiconductors have been at the forefront of the plate growth list since the strengthening of the semiconductor sector in mid-May. Today, after two days of adjustment, the plate rose again by 2.16%, and the plate index approached its previous high. In terms of individual stocks, Zhiguang shares rose by the daily limit, match Microelectronics, Fuman Electronics, and easy things went up.

On the news side, it is reported that global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment rose 51% year-on-year to $23.5 billion in the first quarter of 2021, according to data released by the semiconductor industry international group SEMI on June 3.

Subversive technology in the post-Moore era

In recent years, with the rapid development of 5G communications, new energy vehicles, photovoltaic and other industries, the development of China's semiconductor industry has ushered in key nodes and major opportunities, and the demand for the third generation semiconductors is facing a sharp increase.

In the past few decades, "Moore's Law" has been leading the development of the semiconductor industry. However, with the gradual evolution of the semiconductor process to now, with each step forward, the complexity of the process technology shows an exponential increase. As far as semiconductor materials are concerned, as the process of the first and second generation semiconductor materials is close to the physical limit, the cost of technical research and development is increasing sharply, and the renewal of manufacturing nodes is becoming more and more difficult. From the perspective of economic benefits, Moore's Law is gradually failing.

In this context, the semiconductor industry has sought breakthroughs in new materials and devices. Large semiconductor companies such as TSMC, Intel and Samsung have begun to look for new ways to continue their rapid growth. The era of "surpassing Moore's Law" has come.

It is worth noting that prior to this, Liu he presided over the 18th meeting of the National leading Group on Science and Technology system Reform and Innovation system Construction, which discussed the potential subversive technology of integrated circuits facing the post-Moore era.

Pan Yan, an analyst at Tianfeng Securities, pointed out that surpassing Moore's Law ushered in the best part of the post-Moore era. The basic point of the development of technology beyond Moore's Law is to develop a characteristic process that does not depend on the continuous reduction of feature size, so as to expand the function of integrated circuit chips. Second, the chips and components with different functions are assembled and packaged together to achieve heterogeneous integration. On this basis, Pan believes that advanced packaging technology has a bright future.

Three tracks take the lead in the market

At present, from the perspective of the competition pattern of the third generation semiconductor materials, the overall outline shows an increasingly clear situation. In foreign countries, mainly American Cree and II-VI companies, in China, there are Shandong Tianyue, Tiankeheda, Hebei Tongguang and so on.

Silicon carbide substrate materials are divided into semi-insulating type and conductive type. Semi-insulating silicon carbide has high resistivity and narrow process window, so it is mainly used in radio frequency devices in radar and 5G communication field. Conductive silicon carbide has low resistivity and is mainly used in power electronic power devices.

Data show that by the end of 2020, there are 29 third-generation semiconductor materials enterprises in China, of which East China has the largest number of third-generation semiconductor materials enterprises, accounting for more than 50%. It is reported that driven by the rapid development of downstream applications such as 5G, new energy vehicles, energy Internet, rail transit and strong support from national policies, China's third-generation semiconductor substrate market continued to maintain rapid growth in 2020, with the market size reaching 997 million yuan, an increase of 26.8% over the same period last year.

According to this, some people in the industry estimate that in the next three years, the market size of China's third-generation semiconductor substrate materials will still maintain an average growth rate of more than 20%, and will exceed 2 billion yuan to reach 2.001 billion yuan by 2023.

For the future development of the industry, Tianfeng Securities Research News believes that there are three development tracks worthy of attention. First of all, to seize the new opportunities brought by the "new infrastructure" to the third generation semiconductor materials, the four key areas of 5G infrastructure, new energy vehicle charging piles, UHV and rail transit will bring more market space to the third generation semiconductors.

Secondly, as the world will usher in the third-generation semiconductor expansion boom in the future, in order to match the growing market demand, the third-generation semiconductor enterprises can adjust their business areas, expand capacity supply, integrate mergers and acquisitions and other ways, strengthen the layout in the field of third-generation semiconductor materials.

Finally, as the third generation semiconductor materials have gradually entered the mainstream supply chain of various automobile groups, SiC substrate, as a key material, will become the layout hot spot of the third generation semiconductor materials. Therefore, the third generation semiconductor enterprises can focus on the more mature teams and enterprises in the field of layout SiC substrates in order to seize the market opportunity.