Technical information

Global acceleration of silicon carbide production capacity expansion

Benefiting from the strong demand in the downstream application market, the silicon carbide industry is in a period of rapid growth. According to TrendForce Consulting's forecast, the SiC power component market size is expected to reach US$5.33 billion by 2026, and its mainstream applications still rely heavily on electric vehicles and renewable energy. Recently, there have been new developments in the silicon carbide market that has attracted much attention, involving companies such as Mitsubishi Electric, Mersen, and Core Guangdong Energy. Mitsubishi Electric SiC factory expected to start construction in April According to a recent report by Nikkei, Mitsubishi Electric will start construction of a new 8-inch SiC factory in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, in April this year and plans to put it into operation in April 2026. In March 2023, Mitsubishi Electric announced that it plans to invest approximately 100 billion yen (equivalent to approximately RMB 4.856 billion) within five years to build an 8-inch SiC factory and strengthen related production facilities. The plant is scheduled to be put into operation in April 2026. It is understood that the new factory has six floors and a total construction area of approximately 42,000 square meters. It will be mainly responsible for the front-end process of 8-inch SiC wafers. Mitsubishi Electric will introduce automatic conveying systems in the entire process section to create a production line with high production efficiency, and plans to gradually increase production capacity, aiming to increase SiC production capacity by five times in fiscal 2026 (compared to fiscal 2022). In May 2023, Mitsubishi Electric and Coherent signed a memorandum of understanding. Coherent will supply 8-inch n-type 4HSiC substrates to Mitsubishi Electric's new factory. Both parties are committed to expanding the production scale of 8-inch SiC devices. Xin Yueneng SiC chip manufacturing project accelerates phase one production capacity ramp-up Recently, according to Shao Yonghua, director of the Core Guangdong Energy Wafer Factory, the entire factory is currently expanding production and is expected to achieve a planned annual production capacity of 240,000 6-inch automotive-grade SiC chips by the end of this year. The reserved 8-inch production line is right next door to the 6-inch production line. Once completed, it will have the ability to produce 240,000 8-inch automotive-grade SiC chips per year. According to previous news, the Xinyue Energy Silicon Carbide (SiC) chip manufacturing project is a major project of Guangdong's "Strengthening Core Project", with a total investment of 7.5 billion yuan, covering an area of 150 acres, a first-phase investment of 3.5 billion yuan, and an annual output of 240,000 yuan. A production line for 6-inch SiC chips will be built in the second phase to build a production line with an annual output of 240,000 8-inch SiC chips. The products include IGBT, SiC SBD/JBS, SiC MOSFET and other power devices, which are mainly used in new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, smart grids, etc. field. In November 2022, the project's dust-free workshop was officially opened. It has now achieved a monthly production capacity of 10,000 pieces. Automotive-grade and industrial-grade chips have been successfully taped out and samples have been sent, and automotive regulation certification is about to be completed. Up to now, Xinyueeng has signed tape-out contracts with more than 40 customers, covering most SiC chip design companies across the country. Mersen ramps up SiC substrate project On March 12, Mersen, a European supplier of graphite materials and silicon carbide substrates, announced that the company had received investment from the French government and will be used to expand the production capacity of the SiC substrate project. The amount of this subsidy may exceed 12 million euros (approximately RMB 94 million) and comes from the "France 2023 Plan" - an important European joint interest project in microelectronics and communication technology. Mersen said they plan to use this to advance the research and development and industrial production stages of p-SiC substrates. p-SiC is a low-resistivity polycrystalline SiC substrate that can be combined with single-crystal SiC active layers to help Improve yield and transistor performance for SiC device manufacturers. Mersen expects to invest 85 million euros (approximately RMB 670 million) from 2023 to 2025, employ 80 to 100 employees, promote the production capacity construction of the Gennevilliers factory in France, and reach 400,000 pieces by 2027 Potential manufacturing capacity of substrate (150mm). In addition, Mersen will supply silicon carbide substrates to Soitec. In November 2021, Mersen and Soitec reached a strategic partnership. With their respective experience in substrates and materials, the ultra-low resistivity polycrystalline SiC substrate jointly developed by the two parties will be used in SiC designed with Soitec Smart SiC? technology. Power electronic components. Reposted from: International Electronic Commerce, automatically translated by Google

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Memory surges, boosting global IC sales in 2024

The demand outlook for the whole year of 2024 is still unclear, so the original manufacturers believe that continued production reduction is still necessary. International Electronic Business News on the 6th: The global IC industry will undergo major changes. According to research firm TechInsights, global IC sales will grow by 24% in 2024, which is 8% more than the previous forecast of 16% growth. It is reported that the main driver of this major change is memory. TechInsights predicts that global memory product sales will surge by 71% in 2024, much higher than the previous forecast of 41%. This is due to much stronger than expected memory pricing due to limited supply and improving demand. The report points out that from an inventory perspective, electronic OEM inventories continue to trend downward, with the inventory-to-shipment ratio falling below the historical average in the fourth quarter of 2023, indicating a return to healthy levels. Bank inventories are declining, but the inventory-to-bills ratio remains above historical norms, although it is approaching healthier levels. In addition, according to TrendForce research, the current storage market is gradually recovering. In the fourth quarter of 2023, global DRAM industry revenue reached US$17.46 billion, a quarterly increase of 29.6%. At the same time, the revenue of global DRAM manufacturers including Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron and others increased year-on-year in this quarter. Among the three major DRAM manufacturers, Samsung had the highest growth rate, with revenue reaching US$7.95 billion, a quarterly increase of more than 50%. This was mainly due to the increase in 1alpha nm DDR5 shipments, which caused server DRAM shipments to increase by more than 60%. SK hynix benefited from the price advantages of HBM and DDR5, as well as profits from high-capacity server DRAM modules. Its average sales unit price increased by 17~19% quarterly, and its revenue in the fourth quarter reached US$5.56 billion. Quarterly growth of 20.2%. Micron's sales volume and price are both rising. The proportion of DDR5 and HBM is relatively low, so the revenue growth rate is relatively moderate. In the fourth quarter, revenue reached US$3.35 billion, a quarterly increase of 8.9%. Looking back on the past, DRAM began to fall in the fourth quarter of 2021, falling for eight consecutive quarters, and began to rise in the fourth quarter of 2023; NAND Flash began to fall in the third quarter of 2022, falling for four consecutive quarters, and by the third quarter of 2023 The quarter started to rise again. Some people in the industry believe that the recent round of price increases is the market's recovery after a cold winter, but there is still some way to go before returning to the normal price level before the plunge. TrendForce said that DRAM contract prices will increase by approximately 13% to 18% in the first quarter of 2024, with Mobile DRAM continuing to lead the increase. It is currently observed that since the demand outlook for 2024 is still unclear, the original manufacturers believe that continuous production reduction is still necessary to maintain the supply and demand balance of the memory industry. Reposted from: International Electronic Commerce, automatically translated by Google

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Yinwujie, @Future|The 2024 China International Audio Industry Conference (GAS) will be held on March 27-28!

With the theme of "Sound without Boundaries, @Future", the conference will lead the new audio trend and jointly build a new audio future. February 29, 2024 - The 2024 China International Audio Industry Conference (GAS) will be held at the Zhangjiang Science Hall in Shanghai from March 27 to 28, 2024. This conference is hosted by the China Electronic Audio Industry Association and hosted by Shanghai International Exhibition Center Co., Ltd. With the theme of "Sound without Boundaries, @Future", the conference will lead the new audio trend and jointly build a new audio future. In December 2023, seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Administration of Radio and Television, the State Intellectual Property Office, and China Central Radio and Television jointly issued the "On Accelerating the Promotion of the Audiovisual Electronics Industry" "Guiding Opinions on High-Quality Development", the seven departments attach great importance to issues such as continuing to promote high-quality development of the audio-visual electronics industry and better creating cooperation throughout the industry chain, and have put forward guiding opinions aimed at improving the core competitiveness of the industry. Yinwujie,@Future--a global feast of audio technology, leading the industry innovation trend GAS 2024 will build a platform for global electronics industry exchanges and cooperation to jointly promote the innovation and development of the electronics industry. The conference includes two keynote forums and ten sub-forums, accompanied by themed exhibitions, night talks around the fire, acoustic lecture hall, new product releases, industry top 100 releases, expert interviews, entrepreneur salons, and business negotiations. Promote exchanges and cooperation between enterprises in different industries in the audio field. At that time, simultaneous online live broadcast participation and global connections will be achieved to achieve zero-distance online and offline interaction. 2 main forums - exploring new trends in the audio field and leading the trend of industrial innovation and cooperation Leading audio companies such as Huawei, iFlytek, Sannuo, Edifier, Harman, StarLight Alliance, and Bluetooth Technology Alliance gathered at GAS 2024 to focus on hot topics in the industry, share the latest audio technology in multiple dimensions and in-depth, and explore audio Technology frontiers and trends. Roundtable leaders discussed speech synthesis and speech recognition in the era of large models, and jointly opened a new future for audio and AI. 10 sub-forums - focusing on subdivisions and jointly building an audio industry ecosystem GAS 2024 has 10 sub-forums including smart car audio I&II, smart headphones and wearables, 3D audio, electroacoustic components and chips, smart home and conference systems, assistive hearing equipment I&II&III, and sound and music technology. FAW, Xiaomi Motors, Jikrypton, Goertek, Guoguang, Tencent Music, Institute of Acoustics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Himalaya... Top experts and industry leaders shared the latest research results, technological breakthroughs and application practices. Yinwujie, @Future: Gathering of elites, gathering of guests Hundreds of distinguished guests in the audio field, hundreds of audio companies, and more than a thousand industry elites gathered in Zhangjiang, and nearly 10,000 audio people were connected simultaneously online and globally to witness the 2024 audio event. We look forward to meeting you at the 2024 China International Audio Industry Conference (GAS) at Shanghai Zhangjiang Science Hall on March 27-28, 2023, and working together to cross boundaries and build a new chapter of diverse cooperation and exchanges in the audio field. Follow the WeChat public account [Sound and Light World] to learn more about the conference. Reposted from: International Electronic Commerce, automatically translated by Google

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Under the craze of artificial intelligence, Chinese companies are looking for optimal solutions for development in application implementation

Artificial intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly the most "hot" topic at the moment. With the emergence of ChatGPT, generative AI based on large models has taken mankind a big step towards the era of artificial intelligence. OpenAI, the development company of ChatGPT, has become the most dazzling star company in the field of artificial intelligence, receiving an investment of at least US$13 billion from Microsoft. After the artificial intelligence processor chip giant Nvidia's stock price surged nearly 240% in 2023, the good momentum continued into 2024, and its market value once again reached a record high. At the same time, through technology accumulation, Chinese companies have also launched AI technology products in the past year and embraced large models. The "Boao Forum for Asia Innovation Report" pointed out that in 2023, China has become the country that produces the largest number of AI large model patents. Accelerating the implementation of artificial intelligence applications is an industry consensus "The future of large models lies in industry applications", which has been agreed upon in the industry. After a year of rapid development, AI technology has entered the practical stage and is effectively changing people's production and life. In China, Huawei used the Pangu weather model to predict the path of Typhoon "Mawa"; Honor, OPPO, vivo and other manufacturers have announced the launch of large-scale AI models with 7 billion parameters on mobile phones; Lenovo has released more than 10 AI PCs; and Including Baidu, Alibaba, iFlytek, etc., they have also embedded large models into APPs, covering life scenes such as office, learning, entertainment, and medical care. iSoftStone is an early participant in the large model track, and is an in-depth partner of Huawei Cloud, Alibaba, Baidu, Microsoft, Tencent and other companies in developing large models. Generally speaking, enterprises entering the AI track mainly have several modes: self-developed large models, ecological cooperation, and acquisition/investment. Enterprises can adopt one or more modes based on their own business needs, resource status, and market positioning. iSoftStone positions itself as an enabler of large model technology applications. We do not make general basic large models, but focus on the implementation of large models in industry and enterprise customer scenarios. To this end, iSoftStone has created a model-as-a-service platform, iSoftStone Tianxuan 2.0 MaaS, to help enterprises quickly implement large models. iSoftStone’s other products have also played a role in different scenarios. In July last year, Huawei released the Ascend AI cloud service. iSoftStone joins hands with Shengteng AI to launch an integrated platform for iSoftStone training and promotion. The platform supports diverse functions such as video input, voice interaction, Vincent pictures, Vincent videos, and multi-modal fusion search. It can be applied to automation of collateral registration, There are more than 150 intelligent automation scenarios such as intelligent inspection, bill assistant, and intelligent contract management. Relying on iSoftStone's AI robot Shengteng all-in-one machine, the Shenzhen Airport International Express Customs Supervision Center realizes automated processing of intelligent scanning and identification of aviation documents for customers' air import and export express shipments, automatic data entry, and data confirmation. Based on the Baidu Intelligent Cloud Qianfan platform, iSoftStone launched the intelligent recruitment system "Wutong·Recruitment", which includes modules such as intelligent resume analysis, intelligent job release, intelligent job matching, intelligent generation of exclusive interview questions, and intelligent talent pool, providing corporate HR Provide more convenient and intelligent support. Enterprises are moving toward AI, and the "intelligent co-pilot" model has become a new favorite It is worth mentioning that in order to deeply integrate AI into business processes, the "intelligent co-pilot" model has become a new choice for many companies to move towards artificial intelligence. "Intelligent co-pilot" or "Copilot" refers to the working mode in which AI and people collaborate together. According to iSoftStone, in the "intelligent co-pilot" mode, the goal of the machine is to enhance human capabilities. This mode not only improves the intelligence and accuracy of the model, but also enables users to get more precision and personality during use. advice and assistance. "Intelligent co-pilot" also represents a harmonious relationship between AI and people to a certain extent, that is, AI serves people and brings wisdom and convenience. iSoftStone has created iSoftStone Tianxuan AI Copilot. Through this product form, it provides enterprises with digital experts in marketing, research and development, etc. in the value chain field, and provides enterprises with digital employees in recruitment, legal affairs, operations, data analysis, etc. in the management field. , to help enterprises quickly implement large-model scenario applications. Under the trend of AI, Chinese enterprises accelerate intelligent transformation Data shows that as of January 2024, there were 1.5718 million domestic artificial intelligence-related companies, and the number of related company registrations has continued to grow positively. The development momentum of the domestic artificial intelligence industry is good. CCID Research Institute predicts that China’s generative artificial intelligence market size is expected to exceed 10 trillion yuan in 2024. The state is also further supporting and regulating the development of the AI industry in terms of policies. In January, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the "Guidelines for the Construction of a National Comprehensive Standardization System for the Artificial Intelligence Industry" (Draft for Comments), accelerating the formation of a standard system that promotes the high-quality development of the AI industry. iSoftStone clearly sees that with the continuous iteration of digital technology, especially the explosive development of "generative artificial intelligence" represented by generative AI and large models, the all-round penetration and breakthrough application of digital technology will It has a profound impact on all industries in society. Only by accelerating intelligent transformation can enterprises face future global competition, that is, using intelligence to build future-oriented enterprises. AI is developing towards a new stage of comprehensive application. In the next one or two years, the commercialization of China's large models will accelerate, and the industry and capital market have enthusiastic expectations for the development of AI. Reposted from: International Electronic Commerce, automatically translated by Google

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Industry: AI chips won’t suddenly replace all other automotive chips

NVIDIA, the leader in AI chips, has released three consumer-grade graphics cards for personal computers, which not only improve performance, but are also designed specifically for generative AI. In addition, the company also announced that it will cooperate with Acer, Asus, Lenovo, HP, MSI and other manufacturers to launch a variety of laptops equipped with the company's AI chips. Nvidia said that these AI PCs will perform 20-60 times better than ordinary computers. AMD, another major manufacturer, also released the Radeon RX 7600XT graphics card and Ryzen 8000 series processors for PCs at CES. Not only the PC market, but also the recent integration of AI and automobiles has attracted much attention. Volkswagen brought a disguised car of the new Golf GTI to this exhibition. Car companies also joined the AI camp, and Volkswagen brought a disguised car of the new Golf GTI. Manufacturers in other industry chain links are also optimistic about the development of AI. Huang Chongren, chairman of Power Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., recently stated that the industry boom will only begin to truly improve in 2024, and electric vehicles, AI PCs, and AI applications will see leapfrog growth. In addition, some MOSFET manufacturers have recently stated that they expect sales to resume growth in 2024 and are optimistic that artificial intelligence AI PC will revitalize the PC market. Since AI PC adds a neural network processor, the power requirements will increase. Although the number of MOSFETs used will not necessarily increase, the unit price of the product will increase. At the same time, some people in the industry view the development of AI rationally, believing that AI is not a "panacea" and that various chips must have a reasonable division of labor and cooperation to achieve the best performance of the product. For example, in the automotive field, NXP Chief Technology Officer Lars Reger recently stated that artificial intelligence alone is not enough to ensure further innovation in automotive chips, because manufacturing cars is not like manufacturing artificial intelligence chatbots. Reger said the automotive industry's adoption of more creative electronic capabilities will be relatively slow and incremental, rather than disruptive. High safety standards in cars mean AI chips won't suddenly replace all other car chips, such as sensors, processors and microcontrollers. Instead, they will be gradually integrated to enhance existing functionality. Reposted from: International Electronic Commerce, automatically translated by Google

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