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Innoscience is the world's first company to achieve mass production of 8-inch silicon-based gallium nitride wafers, and is also the only company in the world that can provide silicon-based gallium nitride semiconductor products with a full voltage spectrum on an industrial scale. According to Frost & Sullivan, the company ranked first among all gallium nitride power semiconductor companies in the world in 2023, with a market share of 33.7%.

Regarding TSMC's withdrawal from the gallium nitride (GaN) wafer foundry business, Luo Weiwei shared several views with the reporter of the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily. She believes that "GaN wafers are not suitable for the foundry model. The structure of traditional semiconductor power devices is too simple and there is not much demand for foundry. Therefore, this model cannot provide sufficient return on investment (ROI) and lacks sufficient sharing and cooperation with customers."

In Luo Weiwei's view, GaN devices require deep collaboration with design and application, and directly connecting to the market through the IDM model (vertically integrated manufacturing) is a more suitable production method at present. TSMC's abandonment of GaN foundry business is a differentiated choice in the industry.

It is understood that Innoscience adopts the IDM business model. It has independent control over multiple links in the industry chain, including R&D, design, manufacturing, packaging and testing. Relying on the two major production bases in Suzhou and Zhuhai, by the end of 2024, the company's monthly production capacity of gallium nitride has reached 13,000 wafers, with a yield rate of over 95%.

Wu Jingang, CEO of Innoscience, said that the 6-inch foundry model is difficult to meet customers' design-in requirements in terms of cost, performance-price ratio and technology iteration speed. "No major manufacturer will make a big investment in the 6-inch field, because 6-inch is just a verification. Only when it reaches 8 inches and has a certain output scale will it be feasible."

Many industry insiders said that there are still major obstacles to the industrialization of 12-inch GaN wafers. Luo Weiwei believes that the main obstacle to the industrialization of 12-inch GaN wafers is that there are currently no MOCVD manufacturers in the market that have publicly announced that they have launched solutions that support 12-inch GaN epitaxy.

It is understood that MOCVD is the core equipment for the growth of gallium nitride epitaxial layers. Its importance is reflected in all aspects of GaN material growth, device performance, mass production feasibility and industrial competitiveness.

Secondly, the transition from 6 inches to 8 inches has become exponentially more difficult, and the technical challenges from 8 inches to 12 inches are even greater. Only when sufficient scale and efficiency are achieved on the 8-inch platform can 12 inches be attempted.

The reporter of "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" noticed that Infineon has not yet publicly disclosed the production of its 8-inch gallium nitride wafers.

GaN market demand increases significantly

In recent years, the application of GaN power devices in the market has seen rapid growth. Yole predicts that the global GaN power device market will grow from approximately US$500 million in 2023 to US$2.2 billion in 2029, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43%. TrendForce is more optimistic, predicting that the market size will exceed US$4.376 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 49%, with the main driving force(10.310, 0.02, 0.19%) coming from electric vehicles, data centers, motor drives and other scenarios.

Innoscience's 2024 financial report shows that the company has made major breakthroughs in the fields of new energy vehicles, AI and humanoid robots(17.010, 0.28, 1.67%) The number of automotive-grade chips delivered increased by 986.7% year-on-year, and the number of AI and data center chips delivered increased by 669.8% year-on-year, achieving rapid growth.

In terms of humanoid robots, Innoscience has launched a full range of 150V/100V gallium nitride products, covering various applications such as joint and dexterous hand motor drives, smart power conversion and battery tubes. Among them, 100W joint motor drive products have been mass-produced.

Luo Weiwei told the reporter of "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" that in the short term, the areas with faster business growth are mainly concentrated in consumer electronics. The reason is that the verification cycle of consumer products is shorter and the technical requirements are relatively low, so the market promotion and customer acceptance are faster.

In the long run, the industrial sector has a larger market space, especially as the technology matures and large-scale production is carried out, the competitiveness of GaN in industrial scenarios will gradually emerge. For example, high-frequency, high-voltage GaN devices have great potential for application in industrial power supplies, robots, artificial intelligence data centers and other fields.

Regarding the future research and development direction, Wu Jingang revealed that Innoscience will focus on automotive and industrial scenarios with 1200V devices as a breakthrough point to form differentiated competition with silicon carbide. Among them, automotive-specific gallium nitride devices are one of the key research and development directions of Innoscience. In particular, high-voltage bidirectional conduction GaN devices, Innoscience has begun to send samples to downstream customers this year, and the current customer feedback is good.

The second is the high-voltage part , which involves increasing research on low-voltage and high-frequency GaN power devices, with a high-frequency target of 8-10 MHz, targeting the GPU power supply market. The third is the research on 100V GaN power devices , targeting the 48V to 12V conversion of AI data centers, new energy vehicles, and robotics.

In terms of production capacity , Innoscience is expanding production and plans to reach a monthly production capacity of 20,000 wafers by the end of 2025, with the goal of producing 70,000 GaN wafers per month by 2028. Regarding the capacity construction, Wu Jingang said that at present, the clean room and conventional systems are ready, and only additional equipment is needed.

At the same time, according to Luo Weiwei's prediction, 12-inch gallium nitride wafers are expected to be industrialized after 2030.