Due to the involvement of commercially sensitive information, Sanan Optoelectronics did not disclose the specific name of the new energy vehicle company. But the company stated that the silicon carbide chips provided to the demand side this time will mainly be used in new energy vehicle drive systems, which is expected to further enhance the company's product market share.
▲ Capacity Plan of San'an, Hunan
Hunan Sanan, as an important subsidiary of Sanan Optoelectronics, focuses on the research and industrialization of third-generation compound semiconductors such as silicon carbide and silicon-based gallium nitride. The company has made a huge investment, and it is expected that the annual supporting production capacity will reach 360000 pieces after the project is completed. As of the end of June 2022, the monthly production capacity of Hunan Sanan has reached 6000 pieces.
At present, the SiC process of Sanan Optoelectronics mainly focuses on 6-inch, while 8-inch SiC crystals are also being expanded in diameter. The company plans to increase the 8-inch production capacity of Hunan Sanan to 30000 pieces per month in the next 2-3 years.

The third-generation semiconductors, represented by gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC), have significant advantages such as wide bandgap, high breakdown electric field, and high thermal conductivity, meeting the modern industrial demand for high power, high voltage, and high frequency. SiC power devices are widely used in the power enhancement of new energy vehicles, which can significantly improve the performance of new energy vehicles, such as range, charging rate, and achieve lightweighting of vehicles. Therefore, SiC power devices have the highest proportion of applications in the field of new energy vehicles, followed by power equipment, photovoltaic power generation, and national defense and military industries.

According to Yole's calculations, the power device market in SiC devices will experience significant growth. It is expected to grow from 1.09 billion US dollars in 2021 to 6.297 billion US dollars in 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of about 34%. The new energy industry chain and charging infrastructure will become the fastest-growing sub sectors.
Tesla replaced the Si IGBT in the main drive inverter of its Model 3 model with SiC MOSFET in 2018, significantly improving the efficiency of new energy vehicle inverters and reducing the demand for battery capacity under the same range. Subsequently, car companies such as BYD, NIO, and Ideal have also adopted SiC MOSFETs in their high-end models, fully utilizing their advantages in charging speed, range, acceleration, and device size.

At present, the main market share of global SiC power devices is occupied by two leading companies, Wolfspeed from the United States and Rohm from Japan, with market shares of 27% and 22% respectively. The total market share of the top four companies in the industry reaches 73%. However, due to the high stability requirements and long verification cycles of SiC devices, domestic manufacturers have relatively slow entry progress and face significant challenges.
▲ Capacity expansion of domestic manufacturers
Despite facing challenges, domestic manufacturers are still actively expanding their production capacity. Shilanwei recently disclosed a fundraising plan, of which 750 million yuan will be used for the construction of SiC power device production lines, aiming to increase production capacity and produce SiC MOSFETs and SiC SBD chips. At the same time, Era Electric, Star Semiconductor, New Clean Energy, and others are actively expanding their production capacity. Era Electric has invested 460 million yuan to upgrade its existing silicon carbide production line and stated that its silicon carbide products have made significant progress in the validation of new energy vehicles.
At present, there are not many domestic manufacturers that can achieve mass shipment of automotive SiC main drive modules. Apart from Sanan Optoelectronics, Sida Semiconductor has already achieved this breakthrough. And Hongwei Technology and Shilanwei are also expected to achieve mass shipment of automotive SiC main drive modules in 2023. In addition, domestic manufacturers have also shown a positive expansion trend in the upstream links of the SiC industry chain, namely the SiC substrate and epitaxial wafer fields. For example, Tianyue Advanced has invested 2.5 billion yuan in expanding the production capacity of 6-inch conductive silicon carbide substrate materials, while Luxiao Technology has also raised 2.567 billion yuan through private placement, specifically for the research and production of large-sized silicon carbide substrate sheets and other projects. However, due to the relatively late start of domestic enterprises in this stage, the market is still mainly dominated by foreign manufacturers.