Global acceleration of silicon carbide production capacity expansion
Benefiting from the strong demand in the downstream application market, the silicon carbide industry is in a period of rapid growth.
According to TrendForce Consulting's forecast, the SiC power component market size is expected to reach US$5.33 billion by 2026, and its mainstream applications still rely heavily on electric vehicles and renewable energy.
Recently, there have been new developments in the silicon carbide market that has attracted much attention, involving companies such as Mitsubishi Electric, Mersen, and Core Guangdong Energy.
Mitsubishi Electric SiC factory expected to start construction in April
According to a recent report by Nikkei, Mitsubishi Electric will start construction of a new 8-inch SiC factory in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, in April this year and plans to put it into operation in April 2026.
In March 2023, Mitsubishi Electric announced that it plans to invest approximately 100 billion yen (equivalent to approximately RMB 4.856 billion) within five years to build an 8-inch SiC factory and strengthen related production facilities. The plant is scheduled to be put into operation in April 2026.
It is understood that the new factory has six floors and a total construction area of approximately 42,000 square meters. It will be mainly responsible for the front-end process of 8-inch SiC wafers. Mitsubishi Electric will introduce automatic conveying systems in the entire process section to create a production line with high production efficiency, and plans to gradually increase production capacity, aiming to increase SiC production capacity by five times in fiscal 2026 (compared to fiscal 2022).
In May 2023, Mitsubishi Electric and Coherent signed a memorandum of understanding. Coherent will supply 8-inch n-type 4HSiC substrates to Mitsubishi Electric's new factory. Both parties are committed to expanding the production scale of 8-inch SiC devices.
Xin Yueneng SiC chip manufacturing project accelerates phase one production capacity ramp-up
Recently, according to Shao Yonghua, director of the Core Guangdong Energy Wafer Factory, the entire factory is currently expanding production and is expected to achieve a planned annual production capacity of 240,000 6-inch automotive-grade SiC chips by the end of this year. The reserved 8-inch production line is right next door to the 6-inch production line. Once completed, it will have the ability to produce 240,000 8-inch automotive-grade SiC chips per year.
According to previous news, the Xinyue Energy Silicon Carbide (SiC) chip manufacturing project is a major project of Guangdong's "Strengthening Core Project", with a total investment of 7.5 billion yuan, covering an area of 150 acres, a first-phase investment of 3.5 billion yuan, and an annual output of 240,000 yuan. A production line for 6-inch SiC chips will be built in the second phase to build a production line with an annual output of 240,000 8-inch SiC chips. The products include IGBT, SiC SBD/JBS, SiC MOSFET and other power devices, which are mainly used in new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, smart grids, etc. field.
In November 2022, the project's dust-free workshop was officially opened. It has now achieved a monthly production capacity of 10,000 pieces. Automotive-grade and industrial-grade chips have been successfully taped out and samples have been sent, and automotive regulation certification is about to be completed. Up to now, Xinyueeng has signed tape-out contracts with more than 40 customers, covering most SiC chip design companies across the country.
Mersen ramps up SiC substrate project
On March 12, Mersen, a European supplier of graphite materials and silicon carbide substrates, announced that the company had received investment from the French government and will be used to expand the production capacity of the SiC substrate project. The amount of this subsidy may exceed 12 million euros (approximately RMB 94 million) and comes from the "France 2023 Plan" - an important European joint interest project in microelectronics and communication technology.
Mersen said they plan to use this to advance the research and development and industrial production stages of p-SiC substrates. p-SiC is a low-resistivity polycrystalline SiC substrate that can be combined with single-crystal SiC active layers to help Improve yield and transistor performance for SiC device manufacturers.
Mersen expects to invest 85 million euros (approximately RMB 670 million) from 2023 to 2025, employ 80 to 100 employees, promote the production capacity construction of the Gennevilliers factory in France, and reach 400,000 pieces by 2027 Potential manufacturing capacity of substrate (150mm).
In addition, Mersen will supply silicon carbide substrates to Soitec. In November 2021, Mersen and Soitec reached a strategic partnership. With their respective experience in substrates and materials, the ultra-low resistivity polycrystalline SiC substrate jointly developed by the two parties will be used in SiC designed with Soitec Smart SiC? technology. Power electronic components.
Reposted from: International Electronic Commerce, automatically translated by Google
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