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Weekly News | Supply chain trends in Semiconductor industry #137
发布日期:2024-10-12

01

Company Trend (September 24)

Resonac & Soitec jointly develop 8-inch SiC

On September 24 , Japan Resonac (formerly Showa Denko K.K.) announced on its website that it has signed an agreement with French Soitec to jointly develop a 200 mm (8-inch) SiC bonded substrate for power semiconductors. The collaboration between them aims to increase the productivity of 8-inch SiC wafers and diversify the supply chain in their SiC epi-wafer business.


Resonac provides high-quality SiC single crystal substrates, while Soitec uses its SmartSiC™ technology to convert these single crystal wafers into bonded substrates. Soitecs SmartSiC™ technology bonds the processed surface to a polycrystalline SiC wafer as a support substrate, and then splits the single crystal substrate into thin films, enabling the production of multiple high-quality SiC wafers out of one SiC single-crystal substrate, which not only increases yield but also reduces cost. The material cost goes down 2/3 compared to single crystal SiC substrate, and the CO2 emissions from SiC wafer manufacturing drops up to 70%, providing environmental and cost advantages.


The goal of the two companies is to increase the productivity of 8-inch SiC wafers and diversify the supply chain of SiC epi-wafers business.


Comments:

The cooperation between Resonac (formerly Showa Denko K.K.) and Soitec marks an important step ahead in 8-inch SiC wafer production. Compared to 6-inch wafer, 8-inch SiC wafer almost has doubled usable area, with an 80-90% increase in chip yield, which means a huge benefit increase for automotive and industrial customers, and it is recognized as a development trend by the industry. The cooperation between Resonac and Soitec is expected to further expanding SiC in downstream applications such as new energy vehicles and photovoltaic power storage.

At present, domestic and foreign SiC manufacturers are actively seeking to develop 8-inch SiC wafers, and all large enterprises are expanding their capacities and making progress in technology R&D and other aspects, in which capacity construction can allow relevant enterprises to have an "entry ticket” to the 8-inch SiC market applications, and their technology breakthroughs will bring quality improvement and cost reduction efficiency and will be the only way for enterprises to transfer to 8-inch SiC successfully.


02

Company Trend (September 26)

SK hynix takes lead in mass production of 12-layer HBM3E

On September 26, SK hynix announced that it had become the first chip manufacturer to mass produce 12-layer HBM3E chip, with the largest capacity of 36 GB among existing HBM products. The company will offer its products to customers within the year, showing its overwhelming technical strength again within just six months after delivering 8-layer HBM3E to its customers in March this year. The new product has increased the speed of memory operations to 9.6 Gbps, the highest memory speed, capacity and stability available today, and is capable of supporting high-speed data processing for complex applications such as the big language model Llama 3 70B.


SK hynix not only increased the storage capacity of individual chips through technological innovation, but also realized the overall thickness same to that of existing 8-layer products by manufacturing each DRAM chip 40% thinner than before and using through-silicon vias (TSVs), and also increased the capacity by 50% at the same time. In addition, by applying its core technology advanced MR-MUF process, the company improved the thermal performance of its products by 10%, and enhanced the control of warping problems to ensure the stability and reliability of its products.


Comments:

The mass production plan of SK hynix is expected to meet the increasing demand of AI enterprises and further consolidate SK hynix’s leadership in the AI storage market. With the rapid development of AI applications, the market demand for high bandwidth memory will continue to grow, SK hynix’s HBM3E products not only meet the needs of current AI enterprises, but also provide a solid technical foundation for the expansion of future AI applications. It is expected that HBM3E 12H will become the preferred solution for future systems, to meet the needs of the systems for greater storage. SK hynix’s HBM3E12H not only represents the progress in technology but also indicates the intensifier AI market competition. For developers and enterprises, to follow the technical progress and introduce efficient AI tools and platform to meet the challenges from market change should be taken as their main strategy.


03

Company Trend (September 24)

Samsung launches vehicle-mounted PCle 4.0 SSD based on 8th-generation V-NAND

On September 24, Samsung Electronics announced that it has successfully developed the first PCIe 4.0 automotive SSD - AM9C1 based on the eighth-generation vertical NAND (V-NAND). According to Samsung, the new auto SSD, AM9C1, relying on its industry edge-cutting speed and higher reliability, is an optimal solution for on-device AI capabilities in automotive applications.


The SSD demonstrates high performance in terms of energy efficiency and data processing. Compared to previous AM991, AM9C1’s energy efficiency increases by 50%, with a read speed of up to 4,400MB/s and a write speed of up to 400MB/s, respectively. Using Samsung’s 5nm control technology, AM9C1 also allows users to switch from its original triple-level cell (TLC) state to SLC mode to further increase read/write speeds up to up to 4,700MB/s and 1,400MB/s, respectively.


Through intensified board-level tests, the new auto SSD satisfies the automotive semiconductor quality standard AEC-Q1003 Grade 2, ensuring stable performance over a wide temperature range from -40°C to 105°C, suitable for various harsh auto environment. In addition, Samsung also plans to launch AM9C1 with various capacities, ranging from 128GB to 2TB, to meet the market demand for large-capacity storage of vehicles.


Comments:

With the popularity of intelligent networked cars, it is a natural trend to develop more advanced auto storage devices. The release of AM9C1 indicates that the auto electronics industry has taken an important step forward to a more efficient and reliable direction. At present, the industry is also exploring a wider range of application scenarios, such as autonomous driving and big data analysis, which all raise higher requirements for auto data processing capabilities.

Under the background of the development of AI technology, the intelligence of auto SSD is also increasing. By combining with AI technology, the future auto system can realize more intelligent data prediction and management and optimize driving safety and convenience. For example, using deep learning technology, it is possible to analyze the data of auto sensors in real time, identify potential hazards in advance, and make response in time, all of which are inseparable from efficient storage devices.


04

Company Trend (September 23)

TSMC approved its NT$ 240bn capital increase in US fab

On September 23, the Department of Investment Review of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan approved five major investment plans, among which TSMC will inject additional US$7.5bn (more than NT$240bn) to finance its new fab in Arizona, engaged in manufacturing, sales, testing and aided IC design of IC and other semiconductor devices. According to the officials, TSMC invested in a 12-inch wafer fab in Arizona, USA, and increased investment capital due to the need of operating funds, and this is the largest case among the five cases passed yesterday.


The increased capital will be used to expand its 12-inch wafer fab to meet the growing demand for advanced chips, especially used for the production of more advanced chips of 5nm and smaller process nodes. The capital increase is part of TSMCs wafer fab construction plan in Arizona. It is expected that the fab will create a large number of direct and indirect jobs for the locals and may enhance the position of the USA in the global semiconductor supply chain. Prior to this, TSMC has injected additional capital to finance the fab several times, showing its long-term commitment to the US market and maintaining its leading position in technology.


Comments:

TSMCs strategic action not only helps the company to better serve its global customers, especially those who have strong demand for high-performance computing and AI applications, but also responds to the US governments initiative to promote the backflow of semiconductor manufacturing. By building a production base with advanced process nodes in the USA, TSMC can reduce its dependence on a single region, enhance the resilience of its supply chain, and lay a solid foundation for its technological competitiveness and market expansion in the future.

In addition, TSMCs capital increase plan also reflects the development trend of the global semiconductor industry, that is, seeking to develop smaller process nodes and diversify geographical locations of fabs and supply chains. With the development of 5G, AI, autonomous driving and other technologies, the demand for high-performance and low-power chips is increasing, and TSMCs advanced process node will play a key role in this trend.


05

Domestic News (September 23)

Hwatsing completed verification of first 12-inch ultra-precision wafer thinning machine

According to the news of SEMI, Hwatsing Technology Co., Ltd. announced in the evening that since the company launched its mass produced Versatile-GP300 machine, a new generation of 12-inch ultra-precision wafer thinning machine in 2023, it has actively promoted the introduction of clients and sent the machine to clients with different processes such as storage, advanced packaging and CIS for verification. Recently, Hwatsing completed the verification of the first 12-inch ultra-precision wafer thinning machine Versatile-GP300.


According to the announcement, the Versatile-GP300 machine boasts the advantages of high precision, high rigidity, and flexible process development through an innovative layout, integrated ultra-precision grinding, polishing and cleaning units, advanced thickness deviation and surface defect control technology, and a variety of system function expansion options. The machine can meet the wafer thinning needs of IC, advanced packaging and other manufacturing processes. The verified and accepted machine has been applied to the clients advanced technology, broke through the accuracy limitation of traditional thinning machines, realized the stability and controllability of the whole process of the thinning process, and the core technical indicators of the machine have reached the domestic leading and international advanced level.


According to Hwatsing, the acceptance of the 12-inch ultra-precision wafer thinning machine shows that its performance has been recognized by clients, which meets their needs for mass production, and helps to consolidate and enhances the companys core competitiveness.


06

Domestic News (September 23)

National Light Quantum unveiled the worlds first vacuum noise chip

According to the official Wechat account of Beijing Yizhuang, recently, Beijing National Light Quantum Technology Co., Ltd. (National Light Quantum) successfully released the worlds first random number chip-vacuum noise chip, which can effectively resist side channel attacks such as power ripple attacks, making a landmark breakthrough in the field of information security.


It is reported that the vacuum noise chip introduced by National Light Quantum can cope with power ripple attacks very well, the key of which lies in the unique physical characteristics of vacuum noise. Different from the traditional scheme based on thermal noise or partial quantum noise, the generation process of random numbers of the vacuum noise chip is based on the quantum essence in vacuum, and its noise source is stable and difficult to be manipulated by external factors. Even in the face of extremely complex power ripple attacks, due to the weak correlation between its generation mechanism and power factors, it is difficult for attackers to influence the quality and randomness of random numbers via the fluctuation of power supply.


The vacuum noise chip released by National Light Quantum skillfully integrated the cutting-edge physical principle to chip design, providing a more reliable random number source for encryption algorithm, greatly enhancing the security of data encryption, and offering security technical support for key areas that require extremely high information security, such as finance, communication and national defense.


07

Domestic News (September 25)

Zhejiang Solartron starts CPI film project

Recently, according to the official Wechat account of Ningbo Solartron Technology Co., Ltd. (Solartron) , Solartron plans to invest RMB302mn through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Zhejiang Solartron, to build a colorless polyimide film project with a capacity of 1 million square meters per year, and the construction period is 24 months. The project aims to produce colorless polyimide film (CPI film), which is mainly used in flexible display structural components such as screen cover. The project is conducive to the companys expansion of business scale and optimization of product structure.


It is learned that CPI film (colorless polyimide film) can be used as an important material in flexible display structures of fordable screen due to its good optical properties, mechanical properties, chemical stability, bending resistance and high light transmittance.


According to data, Solartron, relying on the companys national R&D platform and strong technical strength, has been actively seeking development in the field of CPI films. At present, the company has mastered the key technologies from monomer polymerization to film processing, and its products meet the key indicators such as tensile strength, elongation at break, high permeability and low fog.

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