SK Hynix shares in Tyco Tianrun SiC wafers are favored by international companies

Benefiting from the development of new energy vehicles, 5G, photovoltaic equipment and other fields, silicon carbide (SiC) investment has become a hot spot.

"Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" reporter learned that SK Hynix Wuxi Investment Company has bought a stake in SiC wafer manufacturer Tyco Tianrun, participated in its D-round financing, SK Hynix Wuxi is a subsidiary of SK Hynix.

This is SK Hynix's first investment in silicon carbide related projects in China. For this financing, the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" reporter further contacted to interview Tyco Tianrun, but as of the press release there was no response.

A reporter from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily learned from industry sources that SK Group had a production plan for SiC wafers before, which planned to increase from 30, 000 wafers this year to 600000 in 2025.

In fact, SK Group has made a lot of moves in the field of silicon carbide in recent years. In January, SK Group invested 26.8 billion won in Yes Power echnologies, a South Korean company that produces SiC power semiconductors, to acquire a 33.6% stake in the company.

Silicon carbide is one of the representatives of the third generation semiconductor materials. compared with the previous two generations of semiconductor materials, silicon carbide has the advantage of wider band gap, which ensures that it can break down higher electric field strength, and is suitable for the preparation of high-voltage and high-frequency power devices. it is an ideal material for electric vehicles, 5G base stations, satellites and other emerging fields.

According to IHSMarkit data, the market size of silicon carbide power devices is about $390 million in 2018. Driven by the huge demand for new energy vehicles, the market size of silicon carbide power devices is expected to exceed $10 billion by 2027.

According to the forecast of Yole, thanks to the large demand of 5G base station construction and radar downstream market, the market size of semi-insulating silicon carbide substrate for gallium nitride epitaxy has achieved rapid growth, and the market shipment of semi-insulating silicon carbide substrate (equivalent to 4 inches) will grow from 165800 in 2020 to 438400 in 2025, with a compound growth rate of 21.50%.

From a domestic point of view, enterprises in the field of silicon carbide include Shandong Tianyue Advanced and CRRC Times Electric, both of which are listed in Science and Technology Innovation Board. In addition, Jingsheng mechanical and electrical, basic semiconductors and drive technology have also recently received financing to strengthen the field of silicon carbide.

In the field of silicon carbide device foundry, domestic enterprises include CRRC Times Electric, China Resources Micro (688396.SH) and Tyco Tianrun, among which Tyco Tianrun has a complete semiconductor process wafer in Beijing, which can realize the manufacturing process of semiconductor power devices on 4x6-inch SiC wafers. At present, Tyco Tianrun's silicon carbide device 650V hand 2Amur100A 1200V hand 2Amur50A 1700V Accord 5A-50AMagi 3300V hand 0.6Amur50A and other series of products have been put into mass production, and other products have been put into mass production, and now Tyco Tianrun's silicon carbide devices have been put into mass production.

In the research and development and mass production of SiC epitaxy, Hantiancheng's products have entered the international market, while, SiC IDM mainly includes Tyco Tianyun, Century Jinguang, basic Semiconductors, 15 CLP, 13 CLP, and so on. From the perspective of industrial chain, SiC substrate is the core difficulty of silicon carbide devices, which involves Shandong Tianyue and so on.

From the point of view of the international market, the more developed regions of silicon carbide include the United States, Japan and Europe, of which the United States CREE accounts for more than 60% of the silicon carbide wafer market.