Samsung Electronics and its domestic foundry peers DB Hitek and Key Foundry reportedly are set to procure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) equipment from Germany's Aixtron to facilitate their foray into the GaN and SiC chips manufacturing service market.
ZD Net Korea, citing industry sources, recently reported that Aixtron CEO Felix Grawert paid a low-key visit to South Korea in mid-July this year and held meetings with the three foundries to discuss matters associated with equipment supply agreements. The three are all planning to enter the GaN and SiC foundry market.
Among them, the sources disclosed, Samsung has decided to purchase Aixtron's latest MOCVD equipment for processing GaN and SiC wafers, with the investment scale estimated to reach at least KRW700–800 billion (US$540–620 million).
MOCVD equipment is among core facilities for producing GaN chips. Currently, only a few companies are technologically capable of producing such equipment, and Aixtron is the largest supplier with a 75% share of the global market, followed by the US-based Veeco as the distant second with a share of 10-15%.
Compared to conventional silicon semiconductors, GaN offers higher resistance to high temperatures and voltages, as well as greater energy efficiency. It is expected that GaN demand for IT, communications and automotive applications will grow rapidly in the future.
Industry insiders said Samsung, DB Hitek and Key Foundry are slated to commercialize 8-inch GaN foundry services by 2025-2026. They are now in the research and sample production stages, requiring only a small amount of equipment. However, they have to carry out substantial equipment investments in line with their future mass production plans.
In early 2023, Samsung invested around KRW100–200 billion in buying 8-inch GaN and SiC manufacturing equipment, but its total investment in GaN production alone is estimated to reach the scale of one trillion Korean won, insiders noted.
Currently, GaN and SiC foundry fabs heavily rely on the support of Aixtron equipment. Despite the unit price for MOCVD machine running up to KRW20 billion, South Korean semiconductor foundries are still actively proceeding with investments in this area.
Article translated by Willis Ke
