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Specializing in R&D and manufacturing of semi-semiconductor materials cutting, grinding, polishing equipment and automation equipment

China's opportunity for semiconductor materials

Editor:TDG-NISSIN PRECISION MACHINERY CO.,Ltd. │ Release Time:2019-05-26 


Source: The content comes from "Dongguan Securities", thank you。


Foreword:

 

A few days ago, the "2019 China's third-generation semiconductor materials industry evolution and investment value research" white paper was released during the 2019 World Semiconductor Conference. According to the report, in the 2018, under the dual driving forces of 5G, new energy vehicles, green lighting and other emerging fields, and the strong support of national policies, China's third-generation semiconductor materials market continued to maintain rapid growth, and the overall market size has reached 597 million yuan. , an increase of 47.3%.


It is expected that the scale of China's third-generation semiconductor materials market will maintain an average growth rate of more than 20% in the next three years, and will reach 1.19 billion yuan by 2021. The third-generation semiconductor materials have superior performance and energy band structure, and are widely used in the manufacture of RF devices, optoelectronic devices, power devices, etc., and have gradually penetrated into emerging markets such as 5G communications and new energy vehicles, and are considered to be important developments in the semiconductor industry. direction.


Currently, 70-80% of the world's third-generation semiconductor material silicon carbide production comes from the United States. Under the background of continuous trade friction between China and the United States, the third-generation semiconductor material localization replacement process is expected to accelerate.



Analyst: Li Longhai


Semiconductor materials: high technical barriers, high-end dependence on imports


A semiconductor material refers to a material having a conductivity between a metal and an insulator. The conductivity of the semiconductor material is between ohms/cm. Generally, the electrical conductivity increases with increasing temperature. Semiconductor materials are important materials for making transistors, integrated circuits, power electronics, and optoelectronic devices.。


The semiconductor materials market can be divided into wafer materials and packaging materials market。Among them, the wafer material mainly includes silicon wafer, photomask, photoresist, photoresist auxiliary equipment, wet process, sputtering target, polishing liquid, and other materials. The packaging materials mainly include laminated substrates, lead frames, bonding wires, molding compounds, underfills, liquid sealants, die bonding materials, solder balls, wafer level packaging media, and thermal interface materials。



Semiconductor material self-sufficiency rate is low


In the field of semiconductor materials, due to the high technical barriers of high-end products and the lack of long-term R&D investment and accumulation of domestic enterprises, China's semiconductor materials are mostly in the middle and low-end areas in the international division of labor. The high-end products market is mainly monopolized by a few international companies such as Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. For example, the market share of the top six companies in the global market for silicon wafers is over 90%, the market share of the top five companies in the global market for photoresists is over 80%, and the market share of the top six companies in the global market for high-purity reagents is 80%. Above, the market share of the top seven companies in the global market for CMP materials is 90%。


Most domestic products have a low self-sufficiency rate of less than 30%, and most of them are packaging materials with lower technical barriers. The proportion of localization in wafer manufacturing materials is lower, mainly relying on imports. In addition, domestic semiconductor materials companies are concentrated in production lines below 6 inches. At present, a few manufacturers have begun to enter domestic 8-inch and 12-inch production lines.。


Large silicon wafer:Silicon wafers, also known as silicon wafers, are the most important semiconductor materials, including polished wafers, annealed sheets, epitaxial wafers, segment spacers, and silicon-on-insulator wafers. Among them, polished wafers are the largest amount of products, and other wafer products are also used. They are all produced by secondary processing on the basis of polished sheets. Market sales of silicon wafers account for 32% to 40% of total semiconductor material market sales。


The diameter of the silicon wafer is mainly 3 inches, 4 inches, 6 inches, 8 inches, 12 inches (300 mm), and has been developed to 18 inches (450 mm). The larger the diameter, the more integrated circuit chips can be fabricated on a single wafer by one process cycle, and the lower the cost per chip. Therefore, larger diameter silicon wafers are the development direction of various technologies for silicon wafers. But the larger the size of the silicon wafer, the higher the requirements for microelectronic process design, materials and technology。



Silicon wafers have extremely high technical barriers, and the global market is in an oligopolistic pattern. Japan's Shin-Etsu and SUMCO (combined by Mitsubishi Silicon Materials and Sumitomo Materials Sitix Division) have occupied a major market share, with each party accounting for about 30% each. Other major companies include Siltroni (a subsidiary of German chemical company Wacker), South Korea's LGSiltron, the US MEMC and Taiwan's Sino-US Silicon Crystals SAS. The above six suppliers together account for more than 90% of the global market share。



At present, domestic 8-inch wafer manufacturers only have a few manufacturers such as New Materials and Jinrui, which are far from satisfying the domestic market. 12-inch silicon wafers are basically imported, which can be said to be a missing in the domestic semiconductor industry chain. ring。


Shanghai Xinyang, a shareholder of Shanghai Xinyang (holding 27.56%), achieved the localization of 300mm semiconductor wafers. Since the second quarter of 2017, the company has sold test pieces such as film, film, and film, and provided positive film certification to wafer manufacturing companies such as SMIC, Shanghai Hualiwei and Wuhan Xinxin。


At the end of the first quarter of 2018, Shanghai Xinsheng 300mm wafers were certified by Shanghai Huali Microelectronics Co., Ltd. and began to be sold. On December 20, 2018, Shanghai Xinyang revealed on the interactive platform that Shanghai Xinsheng Company's large silicon wafers have passed SMIC certification. Shanghai Xinsheng will have a monthly production capacity of 100,000 pieces by the end of 2018. By the end of 2020, it will achieve a monthly production capacity of 300,000 pieces, and will eventually reach a production capacity of 1 million pieces。


At present, the mainstream wafer product is 12 inches. According to SUMCO's forecast, the total demand for 300mm will increase from 6 million pieces per month in 2018 to 7.2 million pieces per month in 2021, with a compound growth rate of about 6%. From 2013-2018, global wafer shipments (used in semiconductor manufacturing) grew steadily. Global wafer shipments in 2008 were 12,733 million square feet, up 7.82% year-on-year.。



Ultra-clean high purity reagent:Also known as wet chemical, it refers to a chemical reagent whose main component purity is greater than 99.99%, and the impurity ions and the number of particles meet the strict requirements. Mainly using upstream sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, ammonia water, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, acetone, ethanol, isopropanol, etc. as raw materials, after pretreatment, filtration, purification and other processes to produce high purity products. It is mainly used for cleaning and etching of chips in the semiconductor field, and also plays an important role in the cleaning of silicon wafers. Its purity and cleanliness have a significant impact on the yield, electrical performance and reliability of integrated circuits。


SEMI (International Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Association) specializes in the development and specification of the internationally harmonized standard for ultra-clean and high-purity reagents - the SEMI standard. According to the classification of SEMI grades, G1 grades belong to low-end products, G2 grades belong to medium-to-low-end products, G3 grades belong to medium-to-high-end products, and G4 and G5 grades belong to high-end products. As the requirements for integrated circuit fabrication increase, the requirements for the purity of wet electronic chemicals required in the process continue to increase. For the field of semiconductor materials, the technical level of wet electronic chemicals in the 12-inch process is generally above the G3 level。


Ultra-clean high-purity reagents for semiconductors, the world's major companies include BASF, Ashley Chemical, Arch Chemistry, Kanto Chemical, Mitsubishi Chemical, Kyoto Chemical, Sumitomo Chemical, and Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Taiwan Xinlin Technology, Korea Dongyou Fine Chemicals, etc., these companies account for more than 85% of the global market share。




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