Leading chip manufacturers including San’an Optoelectronics (San’an Opto) and HC SemiTek Corp. (HC SemiTek) have been turning from 2 inch to 4 inch epitaxial wafers, which industry insiders anticipated to be the upcoming trend in 2014.

San’an Opto has already completed a 30 percent transition from 2 inch wafers to 4 inch and will strive to reach 70 percent and up in 2014, said Li Xuetan, Chairman Secretary. HC SemiTek revealed that the company plans for their factory located in the Zhangjiagang Economic and Technological Development Zone of Jiangsu province to solely produce 4 inch wafers in an interview by a research institution. More than two thirds of the factory’s 48 planned MOCVD units have already been installed during the first stage of the plan. The remainder is estimated to arrive and be installed during the first half of 2014.

Li believes that the cost of 4 inch wafers can be lower if 2 inch and 4 inch wafers have the same yield rate. This will allow the cost of 4 inch wafers to drop 20-30 percent compared to 2 inch wafers.

HC SemiTek believes that 4 inch wafer production will lessen fragmentation problems for epitaxial wafers. Several technical problems, such as epitaxial wafers warping during photoetching and thinning, still need to be resolved. Over the past year, the company has already done R&D and technique improvements for 4 inch wafers at their Wuhan factory in China, both of which currently have a mature solution. The Zhangjiagang factory has already begun mass production for 4 inch wafers.
The price of 4 inch sapphire substrate is high as it needs to be imported. Therefore, 2 inch wafers are still the mainstream domestically, but industry insiders believe that 4 inch wafers are becoming the upcoming trend.

The price of 4 inch sapphire substrate is believed to be four times that of 2 inch. Drop in price of 4 inch substrate in the future will be beneficial for company to lower costs.

Source: AASTOCKS