It has become the consensus of the global industry that China is leading the development of new energy vehicles in the world. Driven by leading enterprises, China’s new energy vehicle industry has formed a certain scale of domestic industrial chain and supply chain.
IGBT Chips and modules are the core components of the electric vehicles control system
Recently, Dr. Wang Qingyu, Managing Director of Simgui, said at the China Semiconductor Materials Innovation and Development Conference 2023 that the rapid development of local new energy vehicles, especially pure electric vehicles, has brought good development opportunities for domestic power semiconductor and material manufacturers.
Also read: Top 15 Semiconductor manufacturers in China
Top 20 global semiconductor enterprises in 2022
In his speech, General Manager Wang Qingyu first introduced that by 2022, the domestic sales of pure electric vehicles reached 5.36 million. BYD is thriving, achieving sales of 1.86 million pure electric vehicles in China, with a market share of nearly one-third. “The reason why BYD is thriving is that in addition to having the first-class ability of electronic batteries, BYD is also the only car company in China that has the entire IGBT industry chain. It has a complete industry chain from chip design, wafer manufacturing, module design and vehicle applications. IGBT Chips and modules are the core components of the key electronic control system of electric vehicles.”
Initial IGBT industry chain and supply chain have formed in China
It is understood that the distribution of IGBTs in the world, the largest is Infineon, and its global market share is 30%. In China, 20 companies including BYD, CRRC Times, Silan Micro, China Resources Micro, and Yangjie have set foot in the IGBT field, initially forming an IGBT industry chain and supply chain, which has played an important role in supporting the rapid increase of domestic electric vehicles.
Specific to the material requirements of IGBT, General Manager Wang Qingyu briefly introduced that IGBT has been developed to the seventh generation. The characteristics of IGBT are firstly that it needs to withstand high voltage, which must reach more than 1200 volts. Secondly, it needs to have low loss, the device must be thin enough and the on-resistance can be small enough. These two characteristics of IGBT put forward high requirements on materials.
Future of Chinese silicon carbide suppliers market
Against the backdrop of rapid growth in demand for downstream applications in the fields of domestic new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, industrial control, and radio frequency communications, the technological level and market size of the silicon carbide industry chain have gradually grown.
It is reported that the production capacity of silicon carbide substrates manufactured in China is about 258,000 pieces/year to 400,000 pieces/year. In the next 2 to 5 years, it is expected to reach 4 million pieces/year to 4.2 million pieces/year. The new production capacity will increase by more than 10 times compared with the existing production capacity.
However, compared with international silicon carbide suppliers, the Chinese silicon carbide supply chain still needs to face multiple risks and pressures such as technological gaps and accelerated cost declines.
From the perspective of downstream application scenarios, domestic silicon carbide products are mainly diodes and MOS products used in the industrial market, and the main drive MOS is still being verified, and it faces fierce competition. With the intensive release of production capacity in the following two to three years, the supply and demand of the silicon carbide market will tend to balance.
Also read: Ultra-full electronic components package type – for diode, transistor, MOS tube
Conclusion
From the perspective of China’s increasingly strong new energy vehicle industry development, according to relevant estimates, domestic sales of new energy vehicles will increase to about 17 million by 2026, with an average annual compound growth rate of 30%. The development of local new energy vehicles has brought great opportunities for the development of domestic power semiconductors and materials.
