TSMC, which dominates the world in the field of wafer foundry, issued a rare press release on February 20, announcing that it would cooperate with Italy France semiconductor, a major international power semiconductor IDM manufacturer, to develop gallium nitride; GaN) process technology. This move also symbolizes the future development of TSMC, which is not limited to smart phones, AI, high-speed computing and other fields. In the future, it will accelerate the layout of automotive electronics and electric vehicle applications through Gan technology; We look forward to cooperating with Italy France semiconductor to bring the application of Gan power electronics into industrial and automotive power conversion. According to the prediction of IHS Markit Market Research Report, the market of Gan power components is growing rapidly, with an annual CAGR of more than 30%. It is expected that the market scale will exceed US $1 billion by 2026. In addition to 5g communication market, automobile and industrial market are also the main driving forces of Gan power components.
Gan's business opportunities in vehicle power
For a long time, semiconductor materials are based on silicon (SI). However, silicon-based semiconductors are limited by the physical properties of silicon, and in the face of the trend of circuit miniaturization, they have reached the limit in terms of process or function matching. It is more and more difficult to meet the performance requirements of chip size reduction, complex circuit functions and high heat dissipation efficiency; In addition, more high-frequency, high-power and other related electronic applications in the future, as well as the need for more power-saving, lower operating cost and more functional semiconductor components. Therefore, in recent years, the so-called wide energy gap semiconductor materials (WBG) - gallium nitride (GAN), silicon carbide (SIC) and other new generation semiconductor materials came into being. Because the on resistance of GaN and SiC is much smaller than that of silicon-based materials, the on loss and switching loss are reduced, which can bring higher energy conversion efficiency. With the advantages of high frequency and high voltage, good conductivity and heat dissipation, and small component volume, it is suitable for power semiconductor applications. Compared with silicon-based components, Gan components have a ten fold faster switching speed and can operate at higher maximum temperatures. These powerful material essential characteristics make Gan widely applicable to automotive, industrial, telecommunications and specific consumer electronic applications with continuous growth in 100V and 650V voltage categories. In fact, Gan was first applied in the field of LED. In 1993, Xiuer Nakamura of Japan's Nichia chemical successfully developed high brightness blue LEDs with gallium nitride and indium gallium nitride (InGaN). In addition to LEDs, Gan RF components have the characteristics of high frequency, high power, wide bandwidth, low power consumption and small size, which can effectively save PCB space in 5g generation, especially the internal space of mobile phones, and achieve good power consumption control. The Chinese mainland is currently dominated by the US and Japan, and the US business Cree is the top. After Sumitomo Electric, Toshiba, Fujitsu and other Japanese businesses are catching up, mainland China's factories such as San an photoelectric, Hitt high tech and Huajin Chuangwei have made great progress in this area, but the technology gap is quite large compared with the international big factories. However, Gan's potential market in the future is in the field of vehicle electronics and electric vehicles. There are three major applications in vehicles related to power supply, namely charger, DC-DC converter and traction inverter. Among these three applications, traction inverter can benefit the most from Gan technology so far. Because the use of Gan components can reduce the weight of the car, improve energy efficiency, enable electric vehicles to travel longer distances, and use smaller batteries and cooling systems.
Transphorm and Infineon have Gan patents
Recently, Nagoya University, Osaka University, Panasonic and other schools in Japan have cooperated with enterprises to develop electric vehicles using Gan, which can greatly reduce the energy loss of electric equipment, reduce the power consumption by about 20%, and improve the endurance of electric vehicles. In addition, automotive electronics use Gan components to achieve higher efficiency, faster switching speed, miniaturization and lower cost. With the introduction of more and more high-power lidar and electric power distribution systems, for example, more and more automatic lidar and electric power distribution systems are required; If Gan can be used, it can meet the needs of high-efficiency distribution system. As far as laser radar is concerned, GaN technology can trigger laser signals more quickly than silicon MOSFET elements, enabling automatic driving vehicles to see farther, faster and clearer. In the field of Gan power, the market is mainly dominated by Infineon, EPC, Gan systems, transphorm, Navitas and indosecco (IDM), and its products are OEM by TSMC, Hanlei investment control and x-fab. As for the Chinese foundry, San'an optoelectronics and Haite hi tech have the ability to mass produce Gan power components. Among them, transphorm is the only Gan FET certified by JEDEC and aec-q101 in the industry with the largest patent right (IP) portfolio in the world (more than 1000 authorized and pending patents). Transphorm designs and manufactures 650V and 900vgan semiconductors with the highest efficiency and reliability for high-voltage power conversion applications. Transphorm's latest switching mode power supply has been adopted by large cs-25 aircraft manufacturers, such as Airbus a318-a321, A330, A340, A380 and Boeing B767 and B787 VIP aircraft. These power supplies use transphorm's Gan FET, and their overall system efficiency is 10% higher than that of competitive silicon-based power supply units (PSUs). Infineon, the global power semiconductor leader, is the only comprehensive supplier focusing on high-voltage power devices in the market, covering silicon, silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials. Infineon acquired American International Rectifier (IR) company with us $3 billion as early as 2014. Through this acquisition, Infineon obtained IR's Si substrate Gan power semiconductor manufacturing technology. In March 2015, Infineon and Panasonic reached an agreement to jointly develop Gan transistors using Panasonic's normally closed Si substrate, Gan devices packaged with Infineon's surface mount (SMD), and launch high-energy 600V Gan power elements. In 1919 Infineon published coolgan e-mode HEMT to support high-frequency applications, including enterprise and data center servers, telecommunications rectifiers, adapters, chargers and wireless charging facilities. In addition, coolgan has high durability. In terms of the failure rate of 100ppm (one millionth), the estimated service life of parts is about 55 years, exceeding the expected service life by 10 years. It is one of the most reliable and globally certified Gan solutions on the market. In addition, China Haite hi tech provides products and technical services to 100 customers, including 37 orders for gallium arsenide and six customers for gallium nitride; Among them, some products are shipped in batches and OEM to carry out mass production; The 5g base station product has passed the performance verification and is currently in the reliability verification stage; Gallium nitride power components have been mass produced on a small scale. Recently, Haite hi tech's share price also soared from RMB 10 in early February, showing the high expectation of the market for GaN.
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