The combination of 55th Institute and Hongqi has indeed made the industry focus on Chinese made chips, but based on the actual situation, it may still take some time for Chinese made chips to become the main driver.
1. Bottlenecks in chip manufacturing
Although industry insiders know that the manufacturing process of SiC power devices is not significantly different from that of Si based power devices. However, the yield of SiC power devices is much lower than that of Si based power devices, mainly due to the following reasons:
① Related to the quality of the substrate and epitaxy;
② The doping of SiC can only be achieved by injecting high-energy particles through an ion implantation machine, which can damage the lattice structure and therefore requires high-temperature annealing for recovery. However, the annealing temperature of SiC is around 1600 ℃, which is very difficult to ensure that the device structure on the wafer is not damaged, as well as to achieve high ion activation rate and accurate P-type region;
③ MOSFET controls whether the source and drain are conductive by applying voltage to the gate, and the quality of the gate oxide layer is particularly critical. Defects in the gate oxide layer can affect channel mobility, leading to MOSFET threshold drift and increased leakage.
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2. A certain vehicle certification cycle
At present, the process of silicon carbide products on board is similar to that of IGBT, which involves conducting bench tests (system level testing) first, followed by DV and PV tests, as well as winter and summer tests, followed by on board testing. There is no specific testing for SiC in the market, nor certification for epitaxial and substrate certification. As long as the module has passed AQG324 and the chip has passed AEC-Q101, it is considered that the risk is controllable. Although many domestic enterprises have passed the vehicle certification, the real certification for the vehicle itself is only mass production certification.
How long does it take for the silicon carbide product to get on the car? Taking ET7 as an example, starting from the project approval in June 2020, it will take approximately 1.5 to 2 years to complete the Q1 SOP in 2022. DV and PV testing takes 3-6 months, with preliminary design taking about 3 months, and winter and summer testing taking about 3-6 months after installation. There is some overlap during this period, and it takes a total of 0.5-1 years to ramp up production, upgrade and organize production lines, and stock up with suppliers. Therefore, truly mass production and installation require a research and development cycle of 1.5-2 years. At present, the product of 55th Institute is still in the A-sample stage, and it will need to go through a long verification cycle in order to truly achieve mass production.
A good start
Even though mass production still takes some time as mentioned earlier, we are still pleased with the collision between 55th Institute and Hongqi. This means that Chinese made chips have the technical capabilities for main drive applications, which is only one step away from true mass production.
According to research, the substrate used by the 55th Institute is made in China produced by Tianke Heda, Tianyue, and Shuoko. This means that the leading enterprises in China‘s manufacturing substrate also have the technical level of main drive applications. Even though the technological iteration and yield improvement of Chinese made silicon carbide are still relatively slow, this news undoubtedly injects a strong shot into the development of China‘s made silicon carbide industry chain. Let us see a huge market opportunity for Chinese manufacturing substitution.
In the future, with the release and expansion of new energy vehicle silicon carbide models, the problem of "lack of cores" in automobiles is expected to be alleviated, and the safety of the automotive electronics industry chain supply chain can be guaranteed. This has also been the original intention and mission of the 55th Institute.
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