Infineon announced on August 8th that the first phase of its new factory in Malaysia has officially commenced operations. This is an efficient 8-inch silicon carbide power semiconductor wafer fabrication facility, with the first phase investment amounting to a staggering 2 billion euros. The focus is on the production of silicon carbide power semiconductors, while also covering some gallium nitride epitaxy production.

Entering the second half of 2024, 8-inch silicon carbide production lines invested in from various parts of the world over the past few years have also begun to be gradually implemented. In addition to Infineon, recent progress on 8-inch silicon carbide production lines has also been reported by companies such as San'an Semiconductor and ON Semiconductor.

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Major 8-inch production lines are being rolled out one after another.

The factory that Infineon has started production in is the first phase of the third factory area in Kulim. Following the completion of the first phase, there will be an expansion of the second phase, with an even higher investment amount of 5 billion euros. Once the second phase is completed, it will become the world's largest and most efficient 8-inch silicon carbide power semiconductor wafer fabrication facility.

Infineon disclosed on its official website that the third factory area in Kulim has already received design orders with a total value of approximately 5 billion euros and has received prepayments of about 1 billion euros from new and existing customers. These design orders are said to come from six major car manufacturers in the automotive industry, as well as customers from different fields such as renewable energy and industry.

Additionally, the third factory area of Infineon's Kulim factory will be closely connected with Infineon's production base in Villach, Austria, which is Infineon's global competency center for power semiconductors. Infineon has increased the production capacity of Villach factory in silicon carbide and gallium nitride power semiconductors in 2023. The two production bases form a "virtual collaborative factory" focused on wide bandgap technology, allowing for the sharing of technology and processes, and thus achieving rapid mass production and smooth and efficient operation.

In May of this year, Xinglian Integrated Circuit announced that the 8-inch silicon carbide wafer engineering batch had been successfully rolled out, becoming the first wafer factory in China to start 8-inch SiC manufacturing. After the production line was established, the mass production pace will also be accelerated. Xinglian Integrated Circuit revealed on the investor interaction platform in July that it currently has an 8-inch silicon carbide experimental line, which has achieved the engineering batch pass, and the construction progress of the mass production line is going smoothly. It is expected to start sending samples to customers in the fourth quarter of this year, and to enter mass production in 2025.

The 8-inch SiC power device chip manufacturing production line project of Shilan Jihong Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Shilan Microelectronics, also officially started in June. This production line will mainly produce SiC MOSFETs, with a planned investment of 12 billion yuan and a total production capacity of 60,000 wafers per month, expected to achieve preliminary pass in the third quarter of 2025.

Another major domestic silicon carbide manufacturer, San'an Semiconductor, held the equipment entry ceremony for the chip second factory M6B building on July 24th. M6B is an important part of San'an's layout in the silicon carbide industry, and the equipment entry also indicates that the second phase of San'an's SiC project is not far from being operational. M6B is expected to light up and officially start mass production of 8-inch silicon carbide chips in December this year.

San'an's silicon carbide project has a total investment of 16 billion yuan, aiming to create a 6-inch/8-inch compatible silicon carbide full industry chain vertical integration mass production platform. After the project is completed, it will have the manufacturing capability of producing 360,000 6-inch silicon carbide wafers and 480,000 8-inch silicon carbide wafers annually.Automotive companies venturing into the silicon carbide (SiC) market are also noteworthy disruptors. Li Yunfei, General Manager of Brand and Public Relations at BYD, previously revealed that BYD's new SiC factory will become the largest in the industry. The factory is set to commence production in the second half of this year, with a production capacity that ranks first globally, ten times that of the second-largest. This could potentially have a significant impact on the global SiC market.

Onsemi also plans to introduce 8-inch SiC wafers by the end of this year. According to Onsemi's roadmap, this year will see the qualification of 8-inch SiC, including the full industry chain from substrates to wafer fabrication, with formal production scheduled for 2025.

Wolfspeed, currently the only company mass-producing 8-inch SiC substrates and wafers, announced earlier this year that its 8-inch wafer production line utilization rate has reached 20%. It is projected that by the end of 2024, its substrate capacity will be able to support a 25% utilization rate for the SiC wafer production line.

SiC continues to expand in the automotive market, with domestic manufacturers stepping up their efforts.

According to the latest 2024 power SiC market report from Yole, in 2023, the overall size of the power SiC market was approximately $2.7 billion, with automotive applications accounting for as much as 77%, industrial applications 21%, and other applications such as consumer electronics, communications, data centers, defense, and medical combined for less than 3%.

With the development of electric vehicles, Yole predicts that the share of automotive applications in the power SiC market still has room for growth. It is expected that by 2029, the power SiC market size will reach $10.4 billion, with automotive applications increasing their share to 82%, and the combined share of industrial and other applications dropping to less than 20%. This also proves the importance of the automotive market for power SiC.

Due to the high reliability requirements in the automotive sector, automotive-grade SiC MOSFETs and similar devices have traditionally been dominated by major overseas manufacturers such as Infineon, STMicroelectronics, Onsemi, and ROHM. As a leading country in the development of electric vehicles, although the related industry chain started somewhat behind, in recent years we have seen many local power SiC manufacturers entering the automotive market and launching automotive-grade products.

According to statistics from the Electronic Enthusiast Network at the beginning of this year, over 15 local SiC manufacturers introduced new automotive-grade SiC MOSFET products within the year 2023. For instance, one of the leading domestic analog chip companies, Naxinwei, also announced its entry into the SiC field, launching a full series of 1200V voltage-resistant SiC MOSFET products, including four specifications of Rdson (Vgs=18V) 14/22/40/60mΩ.

Zhanxin Electronics announced in June this year that its third-generation 1200V SiC MOSFET process platform has officially entered mass production. This process platform will be implemented at Zhanxin Electronics' automotive-grade SiC wafer factory located in Yiwu, Zhejiang. At the same time, its 1200V 13.5mΩ SiC MOSFET product (IV3Q12013T4Z), developed based on the third-generation process platform for application in vehicle electric drive systems, has also passed the automotive-grade reliability (AEC-Q101) test certification.

In summary, the automotive industry's increasing demand for SiC technology is driving innovation and competition in the market, with domestic manufacturers playing a growing role in the development and production of automotive-grade SiC components.In the past two years, we have seen several domestic manufacturers in China launch automotive-grade SiC MOSFET products. However, the journey from MOSFET to modules and then to vehicles, and from On-Board Chargers (OBC) to electric drive systems, requires a certain process. At present, the pace of cooperation between domestic manufacturers and local automotive companies is also relatively fast. With the increase in local silicon carbide production capacity and the gradual maturation of products, it is anticipated that domestic silicon carbide manufacturers will find their own place in the vast electric vehicle industry as they achieve large-scale and stable supply in the future.