Samsung buys Aixtron MOCVD equipment for GaN, SiC production
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Update time : 2023-08-15 12:06:45
Samsung Electronics and its domestic foundry counterparts DB Hitek and Key Foundry will purchase metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) equipment from Germany's Aixtron to enter the GaN (gallium nitride) and SiC (silicon carbide) chip manufacturing services market.
ZDNet Korea recently cited industry sources as saying that AIXTRON CEO Felix Grawert made a low-key visit to South Korea in mid-July this year and held meetings with the three major foundries to discuss matters related to equipment supply agreements. All three plan to enter the GaN and SiC foundry market.
Among them, sources revealed that Samsung has decided to buy Aixtron's latest MOCVD equipment for processing GaN and SiC wafers, the scale of investment is expected to reach at least 700 billion -800 billion won (540 million - 620 million U.S. dollars).
MOCVD equipment is one of the core equipment for producing GaN chips. Currently, only a few companies are technically capable of producing such equipment, with AIXTRON being the largest supplier with 75% of the global market, followed by Veeco (USA) with a 10%-15% share.
Compared to conventional silicon semiconductors, GaN offers higher temperature and voltage resistance as well as higher energy efficiency. GaN demand is expected to grow rapidly in IT, communications and automotive applications in the future.
Samsung, DB Hitek and Key Foundry expect to commercialize 8-inch GaN foundry services from 2025 to 2026, industry sources said. They are now in the research and sample production phase and only need a small amount of equipment. However, they will have to make significant equipment investments based on future volume production plans.
Industry sources pointed out that at the beginning of 2023, Samsung invested about 100 billion-200 billion won to buy 8-inch GaN and SiC manufacturing equipment, but the total investment in GaN production alone is expected to reach a scale of 1 trillion won.
Currently, GaN and SiC foundries rely heavily on AIXTRON equipment support. Although the MOCVD machine unit price of up to 20 billion won, but the South Korean semiconductor foundry is still active in this field of investment.
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