general situation
AIXTRON (Germany) and VEECO (USA) produce almost 90% of the mainstream MOCVD equipment in the world.
1, production efficiency and cost overview
MOCVD technology is quite mature in the world. The mainstream equipment has increased from 6-8 pieces in 2003, 12 pieces in 2004, 15 pieces in 2005 and 2 1-24 pieces in 2006 to 42, 45 and 49 pieces (49 pieces of 2-inch substrates can be installed at a time).
With the continuous expansion of epitaxial furnace capacity, the unit production cost of LED epitaxial wafer production enterprises has dropped rapidly and greatly. At present, the minimum requirement of mass production enterprises for single batch capacity is more than 30 pieces.
At present, the domestic equipment is all 6-chip machines, and the production efficiency and production cost are far from each other.
2. Overview of price and output value
The price of MOCVD equipment is as high as1~ 20 million yuan. Depending on the model, the 6-chip machine is about 700,000 US dollars, and the 9-chip machine is 654,380,000 US dollars. Together with related supporting equipment and facilities, an LED production line needs to invest more than 40 million yuan.
If the newly purchased equipment is a 45-chip machine to produce blue-light chips, the annual output is about 49,000 chips, the income is 48 million yuan, and the input and output are basically 1: 1.
3. The production process is complex, with many parameters, and the key is the excellent rate and uniformity.
The growth process of epitaxial wafer is complex and has many parameters, so it takes a long time to train professional operators.
A simplest GaN blue LED single quantum well structure, its growth process includes: high temperature baking, buffer layer, recrystallization, n-GaN, well layer, stacking and p-GaN. There are dozens of process steps, and there are more than 20 process parameters to be adjusted in each step. There is a subtle relationship between the parameters, and the process editor needs to adjust each parameter one by one according to the process requirements and calculate if necessary. How to automatically check the parameters according to the process needs and reduce the workload of technicians is a new topic worth studying.
The relationship between each epitaxial wafer, production batch and system can ensure good uniformity and yield, especially when chip manufacturers expand production, it is particularly critical to keep the yield and uniformity unchanged.
4, 4 inch MOCVD equipment will become the mainstream.
At present, the epitaxial manufacturers in Taiwan Province Province have the technical ability to produce 4-inch and 6-inch, but for cost reasons, most manufacturers in Taiwan Province Province still take 2-inch MOVCD equipment as the main production line; Most European, American and Korean manufacturers are already using 4-inch MOVCD equipment.
The market predicts that once the material cost of 4-inch epitaxial wafer collapses sharply (the current cost price of 4-inch epitaxial wafer is about 4 times that of 2-inch epitaxial wafer), 2-inch MOCVD equipment will be gradually replaced by 4-inch epitaxial wafer.
Ai Siqiang and SemiLEDs jointly developed a 6-inch blue LED chip in May 2009. On the structure of 6x6-inch AIX 2800G4 HT MOCVD reactor, the output is increased by about 30% (compared with the traditional 42x2-inch structure), which not only has good uniformity, but also reduces the edge effect. But at present, most of the difficulties still lie in the high price of 6-inch substrate and the challenge of epitaxial wafer cutting technology.
I. MOCVD equipment market situation
1. Overview of equipment suppliers
At present, there are two major MOCVD equipment suppliers in the world:
(1) Germany Ai Siqiang Company (Germany Ai Siqiang Company)
According to a recent analysis report of Gartner Dataquest, in 2008, the global share of MOCVD composite semiconductor equipment of Astrong Company reached 72%.
At present, Aixtron's most advanced and unique planetary turntable technology is applied to large G4 2800HT 42*2 "and Thomas Swan( 1999 was acquired by Aixtron) CCS Crius 30 * 2”MOCVD system, which makes Aixtron's MOCVD equipment recognized as the most perfect combination of technology and commercial value in the world.
② VEECO Company of America
American Veeco precision instruments co., ltd. accounts for more than 20%, among which the sales volume of the main model K465 exceeds 100 sets, and so far the global sales volume of K-series MOCVD products exceeds 200 sets. 80% of the top LED enterprises in the world have adopted the MOCVD of K465 model. So far, VEECO has gained a lot in China, and the cumulative shipment of MOCVD has reached 85 units.
VEECO's MOCVD mainly has the following advantages:
The first is the mass production machine, which can effectively improve the time of mass production and reduce the time and times of cleaning and maintenance. Because the opening cleaning process needs to be cleaned after cooling at a temperature as high as 1000 degrees Celsius, and then heated to 1000 degrees Celsius, it takes a lot of time.
Second, the degree of automation is high, reducing manual operation. For example, it can be imported automatically, and the sapphire can be replaced automatically after the manipulator is produced, which belongs to mass production design.
Third, protect equipment investment and prevent backwardness. Avoid the elimination of old equipment due to the emergence of new equipment in the future. Through planning and full communication with customers, new equipment is linked with old equipment to improve product yield.
Since the beginning of this year, due to the shortage of MOCVD machines, VEECO has gained a relatively favorable market position during this period, especially in China market. China's growth is nearly 80% higher than last year. It is understood that VEECO has begun to increase production capacity through outsourcing, and the current production capacity is catching up with the industry leader AIXTRON. Therefore, the bottleneck of insufficient supply of MOCVD machines is expected to be solved next year.
③ Other manufacturers
It mainly includes Nissin (Japan Sansuo) and Nissin Electric, and the market is basically limited to Japan. In addition, the equipment synthesized by Niya Company and Toyota Company is mainly developed by themselves, and its GaN-MOCVD equipment is not sold in the market, and is only for personal use.
In terms of equipment performance, the equipment produced by Riya Company is superior to the equipment produced by AIXTRON and EMCORE (acquired by VEECO) in terms of materials and device performance.
According to the production capacity, in 2006, the main distribution of GaN MOCVD equipment in the global market was: 48% in Taiwan Province Province of China, 65,438+05% in the United States, 65,438+05% in Japan, 65,438+065,438+0% in South Korea, 7% in Chinese mainland and 4% in the European Union. Although the main manufacturers of MOCVD are Europe and America, the two largest companies, Ai Siqiang and VEECO, are pure equipment manufacturers and will not pose a threat to epitaxial wafer manufacturers.
2. Difficulties in localization (briefing by 48 institutions in April 2008)
MOCVD equipment is the key equipment for making LED epitaxial wafer, and the level of LED epitaxial wafer determines the level of the whole LED industry. China officially implemented the "National Semiconductor Lighting Project" in 2003, and included the localization of MOCVD equipment in the "Tenth Five-Year Plan", "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" and "863 Plan". With the support of national policies, China has made initial achievements in the localization of MOCVD equipment during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period. The 48th Research Institute of China Electronics Science and Technology Corporation successfully developed the MOCVD equipment (6 * 2 ") for GaN production through the measures of digestion, absorption and re-innovation of key technologies, which filled the domestic blank and broke the equipment bottleneck that has long restricted the development of China's led industry. At the same time, the Institute of Semiconductors of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanchang University, Qingdao Jiesheng Electric Appliances and other units have also successfully developed research MOCVD equipment. However, the domestic MOCVD equipment still has the following problems:
(1) Domestic MOCVD equipment is still in the stage of technical tracking, and the level of equipment industrialization cannot meet the production needs.
At present, the maximum capacity of MOCVD equipment developed in China is 6 pieces (48 GaN-MOCVD). However, as of June 5438+February, 2007, among the latest MOCVD equipment imported from abroad, Ai Siqiang has imported 42 planetary reactors (AIX2800G4 HT) and 30 CCS reactors (CRIUS). Due to the gap in production capacity, the production cost of small batch MOCVD equipment epitaxial wafers is high, which greatly reduces the cost performance of the equipment, making the domestic equipment lag behind just after development. The minimum requirement of batch production enterprises for single batch capacity is more than 30 pieces.
(2) High equipment cost and high application risk. Most manufacturers tend to buy imported equipment with mature technology.
MOCVD equipment is expensive, and the price of producing MOCVD equipment is as high as1000 ~ 20 million yuan. Manufacturers are very cautious about purchasing this kind of equipment, and are more willing to purchase imported equipment with mature technology and perfect after-sales service, which makes the promotion of domestic MOCVD equipment in an embarrassing situation.
(3) Independent innovation needs to be strengthened, and domestic MOCVD equipment faces patent barriers.
At present, the research and development of MOCVD equipment in China is still in the stage of "digestion and absorption", while the mainstream foreign commercial models have established strict patent protection. For example, AstraZeneca's planetary reactor, Thomas Sow's CCS (Tightly Coupled spray head Reactor), VEECO's turbo-disk reactor and Japanese SANSO's dual/multi-beam airflow (TF) reactor are all unique patented technologies, and the industrialization of domestic MOCVD equipment is facing the test of patent barriers.
3. The number and growth of MOCVD equipment in China
The demand for high-brightness LED is strong, and the LED manufacturers in Taiwan Province Province are expanding their production.
Statistics in 2007 show that the number of MOCVD equipment in Taiwan Province Province is 365,438+00, and that in Chinese mainland is about 55. By the end of 2008, 126 sets had been added in these two areas.
At the end of 2008, the number of sets in the Mainland increased to 87, an increase of 58%. Due to the installation and debugging of some manufacturers' equipment and technical exploration in 2008, the real production capacity was released in 2009.
According to incomplete statistics, there will be more than 100 MOCVD equipment in Chinese mainland in 2009. In terms of figures, manufacturers in Taiwan Province Province are ahead of the mainland in expanding production capacity. Jingdian, Yuan Tan and Taigu have successively purchased more MOCVD equipment this year. It is estimated that the total number of MOCVD machines will reach 180- 190 by the end of this year.
Jingdian expects to introduce another 30 MOCVD machines next year, which will be completed in the second quarter at the earliest. By then, the total number of MOCVD machines of Crystal Electric will reach 2 10-220. Initially, it is planned to expand 30 MOCVD equipment in Yuan Tan next year. However, due to the full machine order, it is decided to expand 12 machines in the first stage, and the number of production machines in Yuan Tan will reach 45. Taigu also decided to expand 10 MOCVD machines next year, bringing the total number of MOCVD machines to 37.
At present, Guangzhou GaGa has 38 MOCVD machines. Recently, the directors have also made a cash capital increase, and it is expected to issue1200,000 new shares. Based on the tentative 30 yuan, the amount per share will be raised to 3.6 billion yuan. It is expected that this fund will be used to expand the production capacity of blue/green LEDs. It is estimated that GaGaGa will expand 38-39 MOCVD machines, bringing the total number of production machines to 76-77.
A few days ago, Ago Ronda has approved the establishment of a new factory in Hou Li. It is estimated that the total number of MOCVD machines will be 15-20 by the end of this year, and the production scale of 150-200 MOCVD machines will be gradually completed by 201year. Chi Mei Dian/Chi Li has 37 MOCVD machines in mass production, and it is estimated that the total number of machines will be expanded to 47 next year.