Spy on the current situation of the silicon wafer market: Where are the development opportunities for domestic large silicon wafers?

“Currently the third-generation semiconductors are very hot, but they are far less important than silicon wafers. This is the largest material in integrated circuits, accounting for 35-38%, and more than 90% of chips and sensors are based on single-semiconductor chips. It supports the development and innovation of the entire semiconductor industry and the Electronic product market.” On September 15, 2021, the 2nd China (Shanghai) Free Trade Zone Lingang New Area hosted by Lingang Group and undertaken by ASPENCORE At the Semiconductor Industry Development Summit Forum, Li Wei, chairman of Shanghai Xinsheng Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd., emphasized in his speech titled “Starting from Lingang – The Development Status of Large Silicon Wafers in China”. “Silicon-based materials are an indispensable foundation for the electronic information industry chain, and the independent and controllable supply of semiconductor wafers is a matter of national security.”

Li Wei, Chairman of Shanghai Xinsheng Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd.

Global Silicon Wafer Market Preview

In the entire semiconductor industry chain, silicon wafers are at the most upstream, running through the entire front-end and back-end processes of chip manufacturing. Without silicon wafers, the semiconductor industry will directly restrict the output and quality of silicon wafers, the source of water, for the entire semiconductor industry and downstream. The development of communication, automobile, computer and many other industries. Li Wei compared silicon wafers to the food of the semiconductor industry at the meeting. In terms of the global trend of silicon wafer size update and iteration, since the financial crisis in 2008, 300mm silicon wafers have occupied the mainstream, and the corresponding process starts from 0.13μm to the most advanced 3nm and 2nm. .

Renewal iteration and large-scale upgrade of semiconductor silicon wafers

Since 2020, trends such as big data/new energy/automation/artificial intelligence have opened up a new generation of electronic product updates, supporting the explosive growth of silicon wafer demand. The recent wave of car core shortages in the market has spread to the home appliance market. The demand for silicon wafers has benefited from the technological innovation of semiconductor products and the increase in end-use consumer electronics. The global silicon wafer market has entered a new round of growth.

The global shipment of 300mm silicon wafers in 2020 is about 6 million pieces/month. Although the shipment of 200mm silicon wafers ranks second, its share is far behind that of 300mm silicon wafers. Although the global semiconductor wafer market declined slightly in 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has regained growth in 2020. Strong demand in the first quarter of 2021 is expected to set a new shipment record for the global silicon wafer market in FY21.

The demand for 300mm silicon wafers is growing strongly, and the supply is in short supply

Affected by factors such as the 5G mobile phone replacement wave and the explosion of data traffic, memory chips have become one of the important driving forces for the growth of 300mm silicon wafer demand; in addition, high-end logic chips such as CPU and GPU in electronic equipment mostly rely on 300mm wafer manufacturing. In the context of the continuous improvement of the end market, the demand for 300mm silicon wafers continues to increase.

At present, the global capacity utilization rate of 300mm silicon wafers remains at a high level. According to SUMCO’s forecast, the capacity utilization rate in 2023 will exceed 100%. The shortage of 300mm silicon wafers may continue.

200mm silicon wafer ushered in golden opportunity again

Since 8-inch wafer manufacturing has a relatively mature special process, it has unique advantages in the fields of new energy vehicles, Internet of Vehicles and industrial interconnection. Under the trend of rising terminal demand in the industry chain, the expansion of 8-inch wafer fabs will increase the demand for 8-inch silicon wafers.

Although silicon wafers are the basic raw material for semiconductor manufacturing, due to the high technical barriers of silicon wafers, the market concentration of silicon wafers is relatively high. At present, the global semiconductor wafer market presents an oligopolistic pattern. None of the world’s top five silicon wafer suppliers, Japan Shin-Etsu, Japan Shenggao, Taiwan Global Wafer, German Siltron, and South Korea’s SK Siltron, are from mainland China. China to set up joint ventures. However, this phenomenon has now been broken by local Chinese suppliers such as Shanghai Silicon Industry Group, which accounts for about 2.2%. Domestic large silicon wafers have ushered in important development opportunities.

Status of domestic large silicon wafer market

What is the current situation of the domestic silicon wafer market?

“In terms of international territory, Shanghai Silicon Industry Group’s 8-inch silicon wafer is 26 years behind the earliest 8-inch silicon wafer in the world, and the 12-inch wafer is slightly better, but there is also a 16-year gap, so this industry is generally a supplementary lesson. Industry. China’s semiconductor market is the third major, from the United States to Japan, Japan to South Korea and Taiwan, and now to mainland China. This is the third industry transfer. And I deeply believe that after the third industry transfer, it will not be transferred to foreign countries. Go, mainland China is a big enough market.” Chairman Li Wei said. In addition, he pointed out, “Now the 300mm wafer manufacturing plant does not need a new team. The old team and the old factory are constantly being built.”

The large domestic silicon wafer market once received frenzied investment, and local governments and investment institutions in the country actively participated in the silicon wafer investment plan. After this round of frenzied investment, many silicon wafer factories did not actually land in the end, thus entering a cooling-off period.

Li Wei summarizes the current situation of the domestic large silicon wafer market as follows:

.Domestic 12-inch/8-inch development is characterized by small and scattered, lacking international competitiveness.

.Although the number of 12-inch supply-side silicon wafer manufacturers has increased, at present, only Shanghai Xinsheng has achieved large-scale supply of positive wafers for 12-inch large wafers. Other manufacturers have begun to send samples, certification, and sales of test wafers. And end-customer two-factor authentication, still need a long way.

.8 inches is currently in short supply in the market. Domestic manufacturers mainly focus on power semiconductors, and the market competition is fierce.

Development opportunities for domestic large silicon wafers

With the help of the national policy Dongfeng, one of the three key tasks of the national “02 special project”, focusing on promoting the progress of large silicon wafers; in September 2014, the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund was established; in 2015, the Shanghai Municipal Government held two special meetings and decided to initiate The establishment of a silicon industry group, so these have become the industrial background for the establishment of the silicon industry group.

ENN Technology was founded in 2001. In 2014, the Shanghai Municipal Government decided to set up Shanghai Xinsheng in Lingang, which was built in full accordance with national requirements. On this basis, an industrial group was established to enable the integration of industry and capital. On this basis, the acquisition and integration of (company name) and equity participation of a French company that will be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in 2020. Therefore, the silicon industry group is now a multinational silicon wafer enterprise spanning Europe and Asia. The main production capacity is still in Shanghai. We are now the largest and most technologically advanced semiconductor enterprise in mainland China.

Development Memorabilia of Silicon Industry Group

Rooted in Lingang, Shanghai Xinsheng has become the only 300mm domestic large silicon wafer factory that supplies positive wafers in large quantities. Since the establishment of Xinsheng in Lingang in 2014, construction started in 2015, the first crystal rod was produced in 2016, and the first piece was sold in Huahong in 2016. We started to pass the certification in 2018, and 2019 was a very fruitful year for us. We basically passed almost 10 certifications in ZTE International and Hua Hong. We shipped 1 million units in 2019, 3 million units by June this year, and almost 3.4 million units sold today.

“But why do many new factories die as a result of making a silicon wafer?” Li Wei said, “The core technology of 300mm large silicon wafers is a process of challenging the limit!” Then, he continued to say that first of all, more than 400 Kilograms of crystals, if you make 14nm node silicon wafers, you need to control 19nm particles, and the particles are as big as a dime. It is very difficult to control several particles on the entire silicon wafer, and the flatness requirements are very high. , the requirements for metal impurities are very high. Generally speaking, this process is a process that challenges the limits of human craftsmanship.

At the conference, Li Wei also announced the three-step development strategy of Xinsheng based in Lingang New Area:

The first strategic goal: a production capacity of 250,000 pieces/month has been built. In 2021-2022, the production capacity will reach 300,000 pieces/month, covering 28nm and above process nodes, taking into account the 20-14nm process nodes;

The strategic goal of the second step: starting from 2023, it will gradually expand to 600,000 pieces/month, and the planned new 300,000 pieces/month will reach production capacity. The scale gap with the five major international companies will further expand the domestic and international market share;

The third strategic goal: to build a world-class semiconductor wafer industry base and achieve the monthly production capacity target of 1 million wafers.

Xinao Technology has successfully solved the supply problem of SOI materials in my country. The silicon industry group has vigorously cooperated within the group to jointly develop 300mm SOI technology, solved the embargo problem of NPS top silicon and high-resistance substrates, and ensured the supply of 300mm SOI substrates. Achieve autonomy and control! In addition, since the acquisition of Okmetic by Silicon Industry Group, Okmetic’s performance has grown significantly, and it has become a profit ballast for a listed company of Silicon Industry Group. Okmetic has completed three production expansion projects to further consolidate its business capabilities and strengthen its high-end polishing wafers for MEMS and MEMS. The market advantage of SOI silicon wafers.