The third generation semiconductor material is a strategic and basic industry supporting the economic and social development and national security, and is the top priority of the national new material development plan“ During the period of the 14th five year plan, China will vigorously support the development of the third generation semiconductor industry in education, scientific research, development, financing and application, with a view to achieving rapid industrial development. Under the dual drive of application upgrading and policy driven, the third generation semiconductor industry in China will usher in a boom of development.

The industrial development environment is becoming better and better

Moore's law has been leading the development of semiconductor industry for the past few decades. But with the development of semiconductor technology to today, the complexity of technology increases exponentially in every generation. As for semiconductor materials, with the first and second generation semiconductor materials technology approaching the physical limit, the technology research and development costs increase dramatically and the updating of manufacturing nodes is becoming more and more difficult. From the economic benefits, Moore's law is gradually failing. Semiconductor industry has been seeking breakthroughs in new materials and devices. Semiconductor factories such as TSMC, Intel and Samsung have begun to find new ways to continue the rapid growth, and the era of "surpassing Moore's law" has come. The "transcendental Moore law" characterized by new principles, new materials, new structures and new processes brings new opportunities for the development of semiconductor industry, while the third generation semiconductor is an important development direction of "transcendental Moore law". Compared with the first and second generation semiconductor materials, the third generation semiconductor materials have the characteristics of high frequency, high power, high temperature resistance, high radiation resistance and excellent photoelectric performance, which is more suitable for manufacturing microwave RF devices, optoelectronic devices and power electronic devices, which is an important direction of the development of semiconductor industry in the future.

Source: CCID Consultants

The arrival of "new infrastructure" tuyere also brings new opportunities for the development of the third generation semiconductor industry. On April 20, 2020, the national development and Reform Commission officially defined the scope of "new infrastructure", and the development of "new infrastructure" not only conforms to the future economic and social development trend, but also meets the current social and economic development stage and transformation demand of China. It will become a new engine of social and economic development while making up the short board. As the cornerstone of digital economy and the important support of transformation and upgrading, the new infrastructure construction led by the new generation of information technology has become the key element of China's pursuit of high-quality development. Among them, the key core of 5G infrastructure, new energy vehicle charging pile, UHV and rail transit are closely related to the development of the third generation semiconductor technology: RF semiconductor with GaN as the core supports the construction of 5G base station; The power semiconductor with SiC as the core supports the construction of new energy vehicle charging pile, UHV and rail transit system. In the future, the third generation semiconductor materials led by GaN and SiC will be the core materials supporting the "new infrastructure". Therefore, with the help of "new infrastructure", the third generation semiconductor material industry in China will usher in a huge development opportunity.

In policy orientation, the introduction of a number of new policies greatly contributed to the development of the third generation semiconductor material industry. In recent years, the State Council, Ministry of industry and information technology and other departments have issued a series of favorable policies to support the development of the third generation semiconductor material industry. In 2016, the State Council issued the 13th five year plan for national science and technology innovation, and launched a number of major projects facing 2030, among which the third generation semiconductor was listed as one of the important directions of "key new material research and development and application" in the national science and technology innovation 2030 major project. In february2017, the National Expert Advisory Committee on the development of new materials industry was established. As an important grasp of strategic emerging industries and energy conservation and emission reduction, the third generation semiconductor technology and industry has been paid attention by the central government, local governments and enterprises at all levels.

Meanwhile, many regions have issued relevant policies to vigorously support the rapid development of the third generation semiconductor material industry. With the State Council, Ministry of industry and information technology and other departments issued a series of favorable policies to support the development of the third generation semiconductor materials. In order to promote the rapid and orderly development of the third generation semiconductor material industry, local government institutions have also issued relevant policies, which include cluster cultivation, scientific research reward, talent cultivation, project investment promotion, etc The production incentive and other aspects include Shenzhen, Beijing, Changsha, Zhejiang, Chengdu and Guangzhou.

Market size will exceed 2 billion yuan in 2023

At present, the regional pattern of the third generation semiconductor industry in China has gradually formed. In order to promote the rapid development of the third generation semiconductor material industry, local governments have set up innovation centers and industrial parks, which are guided by application and industrialization demand, and grasp the core links of industrial technology to promote the linkage development of upstream and downstream industries. From the perspective of the number of enterprises in each province (municipality directly under the central government and autonomous region), Beijing is the most, Zhejiang ranks second, Jiangsu, Shandong and Guangdong are the third.

In terms of enterprise layout, the distribution of the third generation semiconductor material enterprises in China has obvious industrial agglomeration effect. By the end of 2020, there are 29 third generation semiconductor material enterprises in China, of which the number of third generation semiconductor material enterprises in East China is the largest, accounting for more than 50%.

It is reported that, driven by the rapid development of 5G, new energy vehicles, energy Internet, rail transit and other downstream applications and the support of national policies, the third generation semiconductor substrate material market in China will continue to maintain a high-speed growth in 2020, with a market scale of 997 million yuan, an increase of 26.8% year on year. It is expected that the market scale of the third generation semiconductor substrate materials in China will still maintain an average growth rate of more than 20% in the next three years. By 2023, it will exceed 2 billion yuan, reaching RMB 200000.

From the product structure, the new energy vehicle charging pile market will become an important driving force for the growth of the third generation semiconductor SiC substrate market. It is expected that by 2023, the market size of SiC substrate will reach 1.175 billion yuan. With the advent of fast charging products and the rapid development of 5G, GaN substrate materials, as the core materials for fast charging and key materials of 5G base station, will also occupy a larger proportion in the third generation semiconductor material market. It is expected that the market size of GaN substrate will reach 826million yuan by 2023.

From the application field, the breakthrough of the third generation semiconductor material market industrialization will be the semiconductor lighting industry in the optoelectronic field. In the next three years, the key driving force of the third generation semiconductor market share expansion is still mainly from the rapid development of LED market, so the photoelectric field is still the largest application market of the third generation semiconductor materials in China.

Three track grasp the market opportunity

Nowadays, the third generation semiconductor materials have shown extremely important strategic application value. For enterprises, in the future, in the process of layout, we need to seize the main market, so as to grasp the market opportunity.

In the next few years, three development tracks deserve attention. First, grasp the new opportunities brought by "new infrastructure" for the third generation semiconductor materials. 5G infrastructure, new energy vehicle charging pile, UHV and rail transit four key areas will bring greater market space for the third generation semiconductor.

Secondly, due to the third generation semiconductor expansion boom in the future, in order to match the growing market demand, the third generation semiconductor enterprises can strengthen the distribution in the third generation semiconductor material field by adjusting business areas, expanding capacity supply, and integrating M & A.

Finally, as the third generation semiconductor materials have gradually entered the mainstream supply chain of automobile groups, SiC substrate as the key material will become the hot spot of the third generation semiconductor material layout. Therefore, the third generation semiconductor enterprises can focus on the well-known teams and enterprises in the field of SiC substrate layout to grasp the market opportunities.