The consumer electronics supply chain is facing mounting inventory levels with many resorting to price reductions trying to maintain market shares. But the supply of power semiconductors such as medium- to high-voltage MOSFETs, IGBTs and SiC power components and modules remain relatively tight, with the delivery lead time for automotive-grade IGBTs still extending to over 50 weeks.
Taiwan-based MOSFET provider, Pan Jit International, has optimized its IDM-like business model to stabilize its performance while adopting new strategies to respond to the progress in the EV industry. Company CSO Jasper Lee provides industry insight and technology development of power semiconductors in an exclusive interview with DIGITIMES Asia.
Q: Many semiconductor chipmakers or IDMs have continued adjusting their product portfolios. What changes have emerged from the supply chain?
A: Most changes are related to 8-inch wafer foundries, such as issues of uneven supplies of related raw materials. Several 8-inch fabs have realigned their production lines in the past two months, allocating more of their capacity to produce split-gate trench (SGT) MOSFETs from the previous focus of power management ICs (PMICs).
Meanwhile, demand for related power semiconductors has been declining in the second half of 2022, a scenario far from what we saw in 2018.
But we believe there will be significant MOSFET demand for industrial control and automotive (including electric vehicles) applications in 2023. The business opportunities related to EV power components were originally to come, particularly from China, in 2021 but were delayed due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the pandemic impacts easing in 2022, we expect such demand will gradually emerge in 2023.
At Pan Jit, we have been focusing on developing high-end products, with many new items likely to enter volume production in the second half of 2022. Despite the headwinds facing the consumer electronics market, we believe that demand for power semiconductor components, including the third type semiconductors such as silicon carbide (SiC) diodes and silicon-based super junction MOSFETs (SJ-MOSs), will outpace supply.
Our relations with 8-inch foundry houses have been close as we have been placing 7,000-8,000 wafer start orders for MOSFET chips per month in 2021-2022. This year, we have been striving to develop new products, raising our new demand for 8-inch foundry capacity from 1,000 starts a month to 2,000-2,500 starts recently.
We have continued improving our product mix, reducing the shipment ratios for consumer electronics products, while ramping up those for automotive and industrial control applications. For example, our sales of power components to the automotive electronic peripheral sector grew by a CAGR of 25% from 2018-2021.
Q: Pan Jit is one of the few Taiwan-based power component makers developing insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) products in-house. What are the prospects for IGBT products?
A: The unique part of our self-sufficiency in developing IGBT technology is that we focus on producing IGBTs on 8-inch fabs, optimizing the backside grinding and backside metallization (BGBM) process. We will probably be the "sole" maker among the power semiconductor firms in Taiwan and China that have purchased such equipment as ion implanters and laser annealing machines. In many countries, including the US and Japan, purchasing such equipment requires registration, and China-based makers do not have access to such equipment.
We plan to begin sampling BGBM IGBT products in the fourth quarter of 2022 before entering mass production in the first quarter of 2023. We will let 8-inch fabs handle the related front-end processes, and Pan Jit will be responsible for the backend processes at its plant in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan.
Some of our self-developed BGBM IGBT products will have a thickness of only 50-60 microns. Those products are comparable to the sixth-generation IGBT products produced by the industry leaders such as Infineon Technologies. Our initial output for BGBM IGBTs will reach 10,000 wafers a month.
In 2024, we plan to roll out a new low-voltage 40V automotive-grade SGT MOSFET chip, built using a 0.11-micron process, which is not yet available at any power semiconductor makers in Taiwan.
Q: Which market segments will Pan Jit initially target for its newly developed IGBT products?
A: We will ship those chips mainly for applications including industrial power supply, uninterruptible power supply system (UPS), machine tools, and industrial motors, initially. Since the vehicle-grade products will take a long time for verification, we have been talking with the 8-inch foundry partners on how to ensure the quality of the planned launch of the 40V automotive SGT MOSFETs in 2024 meets the verification requirements. We are confident that we can secure related SGT MOSFET orders from Tier-1 clients and will strive to enter mass production in 2024.
We also noticed that China-based solar power providers have been using IGBTs to produce inverter modules needed for their solar power systems, indicating that the solar power sector is also a potential market for IGBT chips.
Q: How could Pan Jit make a breakthrough in the IGBT market where international IDMs have dominated the segment for a long time, and Chinese makers are playing catch up?
A: Indeed, IDMs have been the leaders in the IGBT market, accounting for 70-80% of the market share. In order to thrive in the segment, the product quality of our IGBTs must be on par with those rolled out by the top-three IDMs, or we need to boast the capability of producing IGBTs at a quality comparable to Infineon's 6th-generation IGBT products fabricated at 8-inch fabs.
As a matter of fact, our IGBTs can be co-packed with fast recovery diodes (FRDs) for charging pile applications. In addition to applying to solar power inverters, our IGBTs can also be used for applications in automobiles, industrial motors, welding machines, energy storage systems, and UPS. The production of discrete IGBT components is just the beginning. We can also produce IGBT modules that provide a better cooling effect for use in EV, powertrain, traction inverter, HTC heater, OBC, DC-DC converter, and DC-AC inverter applications.
And I think the supply and demand of IBGTs will reach a balance in 2023, with demand from the solar power inverter and EV charging pile sectors remaining robust. Pan Jit has signed flexible supply contracts with a number of clients and is committing continued investment in our 8-inch fab in Kaohsiung for the further advancement of IGBT and super junction MOSFET (SJ-MOS) product developments.
Q: What are your production and supply strategies for new IGBTs, SiC products and SJ-MOSs?
A: We have enhanced our portfolios to include high-voltage SJ-MOSs and 650/1200V IGBTs. We have also secured related orders from many primary clients, including some solar power providers in eastern China.
Meanwhile, we have built up a supply chain for the third type of semiconductors such as SiC products, and we have also secured capacity support from two foundry fabs, supporting 4-inch and 6-inch wafer production, respectively. Besides, the 4-inch fab will likely migrate to 6-inch production shortly.
We have already approached some makers in the Hsinchu Science Park (HSP) to supply them with our GaN products. Pan Jit will focus on producing GaN chips with a voltage higher than 1,700V for charging applications, with plans to roll out products with voltages below 2,000V.
We know that Infineon has maintained a gross margin of 50-60% for producing IBGT products, and we aim to maintain a gross margin of at least 45%.
Pan Jit CSO Jasper Lee
Photo: Michael Lee, DIGITIMES Asia, August 2022
Article translated by Steve Shen
