Semiconductor technology: Small as well as deep

There are two main driving forces for the development of IC, one is the logic process driven by Moore dividend, the other is the characteristic process driven by market segmentation. At the beginning of this year, Huahong Group delivered the first batch of power device products of Phase I Wuxi Project (Huahong No. 7 Plant), marking the successful mass production of the advanced 12-inch power device platform in mainland China. Before that, Jita Semiconductor characteristic process production line officially moved into the first lithography machine, Xiamen Shilan 12-inch characteristic process production line capped and put into production. On the one hand, the world's top ten foundries all have their own layout of special processes, so the competitive pressure cannot be underestimated. On the other hand, the long tail effect of characteristic technology is obvious, the market is fragmented and the capacity is large, which brings development opportunities for semiconductor enterprises.

There is no shortage of competition among strong players

Compared with the logical process based on line width, the competitive ability of featured process is more comprehensive, including multiple dimensions such as process, product, service and platform. Lu Penghao, an analyst at CCID Consulting, said the competition for specialty processes will be the maturity and stability of the processes, the diversity of process platforms and the richness of product categories. Industry insiders Wang Xiaolong said that the main features of the process competition manufacturers of technical experience, service ability and specialized development ability.

Old IDM manufacturers are often superior in product design capabilities. For example, Infineon's IGBT has achieved 650V, which is used in power grids, high-speed rail vehicles and other fields, with higher voltage blocking ability and stability. However, many domestic IGBT manufacturers find it difficult to achieve the same voltage blocking capability, focusing on the consumer electronics field below 650V but with low added value. Similarly, for wafer foundries, the ability to produce components with the same performance at lower linewidths determines the process capability of the manufacturer. Although the characteristic process does not pursue the line width, the lower the line width, the more the cost of mass production can be controlled.

In the Topology Industry Research report of the top ten wafer foundrers in 2019, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., LTD., and Samsung, which ranked No. 12, have all made a layout for the feature process. Grid Chip and United Power, which ranked third and fourth, stopped further development of process nodes at 7nm node and 12nm node, respectively, because they were unable to catch up with the pace of advanced processes, and turned their attention to characteristic processes. High tower, Eastern High Technology and World Advanced focus on characteristic processes. At present, high tower RF-SOI, RF-CMOS and other RF components, as well as BCD and CIS have progressed to 65nm process.

"Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and other big factories also pay attention to the special process, because of its large size, even if a relatively small proportion of resources into the special process, it can not be underestimated. There is never a lack of competition for domestic manufacturers to make specialty crafts." Wang Xiaolong said.

Eight inches to twelve inches

From 6 inches to 8 inches, from 8 inches to 12 inches, is the general direction of wafer foundry. In 2019, SK Hynix's second plant in Wuxi was completed and put into operation, which is expected to produce 180,000 12-inch wafers per month upon completion. The 12-inch production line of Huahong No. 7 plant has a planned monthly capacity of 40,000 chips, which meet the needs of middle and high-end chips in emerging application fields such as mobile communication, Internet of Things, smart home, artificial intelligence and new energy vehicles. The 12-inch chip production line of Yuexin Semiconductor is put into operation, using 130nm~180nm platform process, focusing on the "product differentiation process", targeting high-end analog chips, automotive electronics, biomedical detection, 5G front-end modules and other products.

In addition to investing in plants, some manufacturers have acquired 12-inch capacity through acquisitions. United Electric won approval to acquire all of Fujitsu's shares in a 12-inch wafer joint venture with Fujitsu Semiconductor, which is expected to increase the 12-inch monthly production of United Electric by more than 20 percent.

Semiconductor industry expert Great Kang told reporters that the characteristic process at the present stage to 8 inches, 12 inches is a minority, mostly mature process, and subgeneration, IDM and non-silicon materials, China has advantages in 8 inches OEM, but IDM competitors are old international factories, advantages are difficult to break through. In non - silicon material, Chinese manufacturers started late.

As the process moves into the 90nm to 55nm range, 12 inches is more efficient than 8 inches, but the challenge is not small. According to Wang, 12-inch wafers started with the 90nm process. Compared with 8 inches, 12 inches is more efficient and can effectively reduce production costs in large quantities. However, the 12-inch production line has higher requirements for process specifications and higher requirements for raw materials. Lu also said that the overall cost of 12-inch featured technology is about 80% of that of 8-inch technology, but most of the 12-inch technology is new equipment, and the initial investment is very large. If the production capacity does not climb smoothly, it may fall into long-term losses.

At this stage, the advantage of 8 inches is still clear, and will coexist with 12 inches for a long time. According to Mokang, 8-inch has the advantages that the equipment depreciation period has passed, the process is relatively mature and stable, and the equipment software upgrade is less controlled by the original factory. At the same time, 8-inch features are starting to move below 90nm, with Samsung's 8-inch solutions including a 65nm eFlash and a 70nm display driver IC. In the future, 12 inch, 8 inch capacity will continue to increase, long-term coexistence.

The long tail creates market opportunities

According to the data, the driving forces of the featured processes in 2020 are mixed-signal chips, RF ics, automotive electronics, MEMS sensors, MCUS, image sensors and smart card ics. It is reported that eNVM is the major revenue source of Huahong Hongli in 2018, mainly including smart card chip and MCU two categories of applications. At the same time, the deployment of 5G cellular networks will significantly increase the demand for RF technology.

New technologies and terminals, such as 5G, the Internet of Things and multi-camera phones, will continue to inject momentum into the specialty craft market. According to Wang, the big change in the specialty technology market in recent years is that the demand for wafers continues to rise, such as RF communications, power devices, MEMS, CIS, fingerprint and facial recognition products. Silicon carbide high power device is an important breaking point in the characteristic technology market, the technology is basically mature, and the market is rapidly rising to the critical point. Future market flashpoints will be the commercial demand of 5G for radio-frequency chips, the demand of sensors and Bluetooth chips in the Internet of Things, the demand of power devices and sensors in new energy vehicles, and the demand of image sensors in smartphones and machine vision, Lv said.

"Specialty technologies and products are broader, there are many long-tail and fragmented markets, and there is no absolute standard of process. No single fab can eat all specialty products. So there is room for domestic players." Wang Xiaolong said.

In recent years, the domestic production capacity construction, also in the plant facilities and equipment formed an advantage. "Due to the age and outdated equipment of foreign large factories, many newly built Chinese factories have advantages in the competition of emerging characteristic technologies." "He said.

As a large semiconductor market in the world, China provides a market opportunity for the development of characteristic technology. Lu Penghao said that most domestic enterprises focus on low-end technology, resulting in serious product homogeneity.

But our country is a global large integrated circuit market, and the characteristic technology products and market application combine closely. Application enterprises should interact closely with characteristic technology enterprises in the early stage of product development, and strengthen the collaborative innovation between the overall machine and characteristic technology enterprises.