China silicon carbide mechanical seal 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.

By 2027, solar photovoltaic (PV) will overtake coal as the world's largest installed capacity. The cumulative installed capacity of solar PV nearly triples in our forecast, growing by nearly 1,500 gigawatts over this period, and will surpass natural gas by 2026 and coal by 2027.

Defect-free epitaxial growth occurs when one crystal lattice has nearly identical lattice constants to another. Growth happens when lattice sites of the two lattices at the interface region are approximately matched, which is possible with a small lattice mismatch (less than 0.1%). This approximate matching is achieved even with elastic strain at the interface, where each atom is slightly displaced from its original position in the boundary layer. While a small amount of strain is tolerable for thin layers and even desirable for quantum well lasers, the strain energy stored in the crystal is generally lowered by the formation of misfit dislocations, which involve a missing row of atoms in one lattice.

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.

Carbon-based materials such as graphite, carbon fibers, and carbon/carbon (C/C) composites are known for their high specific strength, high specific modulus, and excellent thermal properties, making them suitable for a wide range of high-temperature applications. These materials are widely utilized in aerospace, chemical engineering, and energy storage. However, their susceptibility to oxidation and corrosion in high-temperature environments, along with poor scratch resistance, restricts their further application.

There are many types of gallium nitride (GaN), with silicon-based GaN being the most discussed. This technology involves growing GaN materials directly on a silicon substrate.