China Schott glass wafers Manufacturers, Suppliers, Factory

While there is currently an oversupply of memory semiconductors due to a sluggish global economy, analog chips for automotive and industrial applications remain in short supply. Lead times for these analog chips can be as long as 40 weeks, compared to around 20 weeks for memory stocks.

Every country is aware of the importance of chips and is now accelerating the construction of its own chip manufacturing supply chain ecosystem to prevent another chip shortage problem. But the advanced foundries without next-gen chip designers would be the same as “Fabs without Chips”.

AlN, as third-generation semiconductor material, is not only an important blue light and ultraviolet light material, but also an important packaging, dielectric isolation and insulation material for electronic devices and integrated circuits, especially suitable for high-temperature and high-power devices. In addition, AlN and GaN have a good thermal match and chemical compatibility, AlN used as GaN epitaxial substrate, can significantly reduce the defect density in GaN devices, improve device performance.

SiC's own characteristics determine its single crystal growth is more difficult. Due to the absence of Si:C=1:1 liquid phase at atmospheric pressure, the more mature growth process adopted by the mainstream of the semiconductor industry can not be used to grow the more mature growth method-straight pulling method, the descending crucible method and other methods for growth. After theoretical calculations, only when the pressure is greater than 105 atm and the temperature is higher than 3200 ℃, can we get the stoichiometric ratio of Si:C = 1:1 solution. pvt method is currently one of the more mainstream methods.

Currently, many semiconductor devices employ mesa device structures, which are predominantly created through two types of etching: wet etching and dry etching. While the simple and rapid wet etching plays a significant role in semiconductor device fabrication, it has inherent drawbacks such as isotropic etching and poor uniformity, which result in limited control when transferring small-sized patterns. Dry etching, however, with its high anisotropy, good uniformity, and repeatability, has become prominent in semiconductor device fabrication processes. The term “dry etching” broadly refers to any non-wet etching technology used for removing surface materials and transferring micro and nano patterns, including laser etching, plasma etching, and chemical vapor etching. The dry etching discussed in this text specifically pertains to the narrow application of processes using plasma discharge—either physical or chemical—to modify material surfaces.

Within the silicon carbide (SiC) industry chain, substrate suppliers hold significant leverage, primarily due to value distribution. SiC substrates account for 47% of the total value, followed by epitaxial layers at 23%, while device design and manufacturing constitute the remaining 30%. This inverted value chain stems from the high technological barriers inherent to substrate and epitaxial layer production. Three major challenges plague SiC substrate growth: stringent growth conditions, slow growth rates, and demanding crystallographic requirements. These complexities contribute to increased processing difficulty, ultimately resulting in low product yields and high costs. Furthermore, the epitaxial layer’s thickness and doping concentration are critical parameters directly impacting the final device performance.