Silicon carbide (SiC) is embracing a "multi-vertical bloom" of development opportunities. From automotive and charging piles to photovoltaic (PV)/energy storage systems (ESS) and AI data centers (AIDC), the growth space is continuously expanding, offering domestic SiC companies new windows for development.
Founder Microelectronics has achieved phased progress in these multiple fields. As a sample case of a SiC company diversifying applications from the automotive sector, what has Founder Micro done right? And what insights can be drawn?
Recently, Hangjia Shuo San Ban Semiconductor interviewed Wu You, Sales Director at Founder Micro, seeking answers from frontline practices.
01 Charging Pile SiC Demand Exceeds500 Million Units? Founder Micro Partners with Half of Top Tier Enterprises
In 2026, shipments from leading SiC device companies generally saw rapid growth, with charging piles emerging as one of the most notable incremental tracks. Founder Micro is a representative SiC vendor in the charging direction.
Wu You revealed to Hangjia Shuo San Ban Semiconductor that SiC devices have made significant progress in the charging pile field over the past two years, and the overall market situation this year has further improved. "Our company's advancement in the charging pile sector has been very smooth. We have already achieved mass shipments and expect to double our growth this year," he stated.
Discussing the demand drivers for SiC devices in the charging pile sector, Wu You analyzed that this is primarily due to newly introduced national policies on charging infrastructure construction and energy efficiency regulations. He predicted that as new charging piles continue to be built and renovations of existing older piles gradually unfold, the charging module market could unlock potential demand on the scale of tens of millions of units, bringing new growth space for SiC devices.
According to calculations by Hangjia Shuo San Ban Semiconductor based on relevant policy plans, the increment in this round of charging piles may reach10 million units.
On one hand, the "Three-Year Doubling" action plan proposed by six departments including the National Development and Reform Commission states that the total number of charging facilities nationwide will reach 28 million by the end of 2027. Based on data from the National Energy Administration (total of 20.092 million at the end of 2025), approximately 7.908 million new charging piles are needed between 2026 and 2027.
On the other hand, the mandatory national standard GB 46519—2025 "Energy Efficiency Limits and Grades for Electric Vehicle Power Supply Equipment" will come into effect on November 1, 2026, requiring the accelerated elimination of low-efficiency charging piles below 50kW. Estimating based on National Energy Administration data from 2024, approximately 2.65 million such devices nationwide face update and renovation needs.
SiC devices are poised to be key beneficiaries of this energy efficiency upgrade. GB 46519—2025 stipulates that Level 3 energy efficiency DC charging piles must achieve an overall pile efficiency of 94.5%, while Level 1 requires 96.5%. Traditional silicon-based IGBT solutions have limited room for efficiency improvement, whereas SiC MOSFETs can help push overall pile efficiency beyond 97%, better meeting high energy efficiency demands.
So, how large is the actual SiC demand for charging piles?
Currently, the mainstream power range for newly built public DC fast-charging piles is concentrated between 160kW and 240kW, extending towards higher power segments. Taking a 160kW charging pile as an example, it typically requires four 40kW charging modules. These modules adopt a three-phase Vienna PFC + LLC topology, corresponding to an annual SiC device usage that can reach 560 million units.
Of course, this is an ideal calculation scenario; actual implementation is affected by various factors. Even so, this round of charging pile demand still provides stable shipment support for many SiC companies. Wu You mentioned that charging piles will be a fundamental base with a large volume in the SiC market.
However, the rapid pace of this round of charging pile construction and the concentrated release of demand have to some extent caused a shortage in SiC device supply. Recently, during visits and surveys for the "2026 Silicon Carbide (SiC) Device and Module Industry Research White Paper," some charging module enterprises reported that products from certain SiC device companies failed to meet their delivery requirements.
According to feedback from SiC companies, wafers typically take 2–3 months from production to output, and the device packaging cycle for some companies has also extended to about 2 months. Therefore, if charging pile companies do not coordinate early with SiC manufacturers to lock in quantities and make forecasts, even with cooperation, the capacity ramp-up speed of SiC companies struggles to keep up with the sharp increase in demand from charging piles.
Consequently, when selecting SiC devices in the early stages, charging pile manufacturers often prioritized price. Now, however, stable capacity delivery capability has become more critical.
Founder Micro possesses independent automotive-grade wafer capacity, and its supply chain assurance capability has become one of the important factors for charging pile companies choosing to cooperate with them. Wu You revealed that Founder Micro has currently established cooperation with more than half of the top domestic charging pile manufacturers and achieved mass shipments.
However, capacity assurance alone is insufficient to win over top-tier customers. Entering the supply chains of mainstream charging pile manufacturers relies on other key supports behind the scenes.
In terms of reliability, Founder Micro extends its experience in reliability verification of automotive-grade devices to the charging pile sector. Wu You stated that reliability is the foundation for SiC device companies to stand firm in the market, but Founder Micro does not simply copy automotive-grade devices to the charging pile field; instead, targeted design tailored to application scenarios is required.
It is reported that the reliability test duration for SiC products provided by Founder Micro for charging piles reaches 3,000 hours, approximately three times the 1,000-hour requirement in the automotive AEC-Q101 standard, ensuring long-term stable operation of devices in charging pile scenarios.
Facing increasingly fierce competition in the charging pile market, cost reduction is also a realistic need that SiC device manufacturers must address. Wu You emphasized that cost reduction should not sacrifice product performance and reliability but should be achieved through technical optimization. He stated that Founder Micro works with customers to sort out parameter redundancies in designs under the premise of guaranteeing product quality, enhancing cost-effectiveness through optimized design.
02 PV and ESS Open Growth Space; Founder Micro Accelerates Domestic Substitution
Building on steady progress in the automotive and charging pile markets, Founder Micro has made new strides in energy storage and PV scenarios, becoming an important incremental direction for its SiC business layout.
Besides the charging pile market, the energy storage market is also a field where SiC demand grows relatively quickly. However, there is a certain hierarchical differentiation within the energy storage market, with residential energy storage showing more prominent incremental SiC demand.
Wu You believes this is partly because the shipment volume in the residential storage market is large, and residential storage vendors' business growth has been quite rapid this year. On the other hand, residential storage shares certain similarities with the charging pile market, allowing for faster introduction of SiC products, thus resulting in a more obvious release of market demand.
In terms of customer cooperation, Founder Micro's progress in residential and commercial/industrial energy storage is currently smooth, with cooperating customers mainly being industry-leading manufacturers. From current shipment conditions, top-tier customers still occupy a large proportion, while they are also continuously expanding to small and medium-sized customers.
According to research, the process of introducing SiC technology in the PV field is advancing, but the overall introduction speed is not as fast as in the charging pile and residential storage markets. Nevertheless, SiC companies remain optimistic about the PV market prospects.
Wu You analyzed that at the current stage, SiC devices have been mass-introduced in the boost (Boost) DC-DC stage of PV inverters, while SiC technology application in the DC-AC stage remains relatively scarce, with gradual promotion expected in the future.
He believes that in the PV market, localization of SiC is a long-term trend, and the demand for cost reduction is an important driving force. Currently, prices of SiC products from overseas manufacturers remain relatively high, while competition in the PV industry intensifies and product prices continue to decline, increasing cost-reduction pressure on PV companies. Domestic devices with greater cost-performance advantages are expected to gain more application opportunities.
Wu You told Hangjia Shuo San Ban Semiconductor that Founder Micro has reached cooperation with multiple top PV customers. Some customers have entered the mass shipment phase, while others have completed related product testing with good results and will gradually proceed to mass production.
Based on experience dealing with PV companies, Founder Micro believes that domestic substitution in the PV field cannot be achieved solely by relying on price advantages.
Wu You explained that since PV products operate in complex environments and failures can affect the operation of entire equipment sets, customers have high requirements for product reliability. Some standards are even higher than those in the automotive sector, and multiple specialized test requirements are proposed for different application scenarios. For example, while the AEC-Q101 related reliability test requirement is 1,000 hours, some of Founder Micro's customers have conducted actual tests lasting up to 2,000 hours on their products, reflecting the high technical and verification thresholds in the PV field.
Beyond product performance, customers also attach great importance to long-term product stability and supply assurance capabilities. Especially for PV products targeting overseas markets, some customers require products to remain stable for three to five years, without arbitrary changes to design or adjustments to chip layouts. Therefore, PV companies usually undergo multiple rounds of factory audits when selecting suppliers, comprehensively evaluating product reliability, quality management, future product iteration planning, as well as supply chain and internal process management capabilities.
Wu You revealed that for several top customers introduced by Founder Micro this year, the process from audit to promoting cooperation took roughly six months to a year, with reliability always being the core consideration factor for PV companies.
He believes that the introduction cycle for domestic SiC in the PV field is longer, supplier entry barriers are higher, and the number of companies able to enter customer supply chains is relatively limited. In this context, IDM companies with certain scale and supply chain integration capabilities hold greater advantages.
Although the "door" for PV is narrower, once customer verification is passed and mass introduction is achieved, strong cooperation stickiness is often established between suppliers and customers. This not only secures relatively stable orders but also allows companies to further consolidate their market position by leveraging long-term accumulated customer trust, product verification experience, and supply chain synergy advantages.
03 AIDC Becomes Second Growth Pole; Founder Micro Accelerates Domestic and Overseas Layout
AI Data Centers (AIDC) are becoming a new track for SiC companies to compete in. The industry generally holds optimistic views on the growth prospects of this market, even regarding it as the second growth pole of the SiC industry.
At this year's Greater Bay Area Chip Expo, Liu Ren, Vice President of Technology at Founder Micro, stated that the current penetration rate of SiC in the AI data center field has approached 20% and is expected to enter a phase of exponential growth starting this year.
Founder Micro is also accelerating its business layout in the AIDC field.
Wu You told Hangjia Shuo San Ban Semiconductor that AIDC is one of the key directions for the company's future expansion. Besides related power supply applications, they are also actively exploring markets such as Solid-State Transformers (SST) and Solid-State Circuit Breakers (SSCB).
It is reported that focusing on applications such as SST, PSU, and HVDC, Founder Micro has achieved product introduction in some top-tier manufacturers. Related SiC devices have also completed verification with multiple leading AI data center customers, locking in substantial order shares for next year.
Product reliability and R&D capabilities have become key factors enabling Founder Micro to take the lead in entering the AIDC market.
Wu You stated that AIDC power supplies have high requirements for product lifespan and reliability. Building on the foundation of automotive-grade product R&D and quality management, Founder Micro conducted further product design optimizations for AIDC applications. They simulated application scenarios using their own laboratories and even purchased customer-used power supply equipment for reproduction testing to verify product performance in actual applications.
"Our products must first guarantee quality; quality is always the top priority," said Wu You. Founder Micro hopes to extend the reliability foundation accumulated in the automotive sector to the AIDC market and further raise verification standards and optimize product designs to meet customers' requirements for long-term stable operation.
Meanwhile, the IDM model is also expected to serve as an important support for Founder Micro's expansion into the AIDC market. Unlike some highly standardized power devices, the design and manufacturing processes of analog power devices are closely linked, requiring collaborative optimization between R&D and production phases. Through the synergy of design, process, and manufacturing, companies can respond to customer needs more quickly and form advantages in performance optimization, quality control, and product iteration.
Regarding competition in the AIDC market, Wu You believes Founder Micro's strategy is to establish strategic partnerships with top customers and form an industrial ecosystem, rather than merely engaging in simple product transactions. To this end, Founder Micro actively communicates with top manufacturers during the initial stages of product design, conducting joint positioning and solution development around terminal needs.
It is reported that to better match the long-term development needs of AIDC customers, Founder Micro adopts a "pre-research one generation, develop one generation, mass produce one generation" three-generation product layout in its R&D planning. This helps enhance synergy with customers in aspects such as product definition, performance optimization, and iterative upgrades, pushing both parties from single-product cooperation toward deepened long-term strategic cooperation.
As the AIDC market accelerates, Founder Micro is simultaneously advancing domestic customer introduction and overseas market expansion. Wu You stated that this year, multiple domestic customers have begun accepting and introducing Founder Micro's domestic SiC products. As more companies initiate product verification and supplier onboarding, domestic market demand is expected to continue releasing, retaining significant growth space for the next three years.
At the same time, overseas markets have become an important direction for Founder Micro's AIDC business expansion. Wu You revealed that they are currently exploring cooperation opportunities with customers in Europe and Taiwan, China. He believes that compared to the traditional automotive market, AIDC is still in the stage of power architecture iteration and supply chain system construction. Domestic and foreign customers' choices of suppliers are not yet fully fixed, providing domestic SiC companies with opportunities to participate in market competition simultaneously.
Hangjia Shuo Summary
SiC applications are embracing a multi-vertical bloom of development opportunities, with industry growth space continuously expanding. At the same time, different application scenarios pose higher challenges to the comprehensive capabilities of SiC companies.
Currently, an increasing number of SiC companies have preliminarily explored diversified application markets. Using Founder Micro as a sample, we can see that for SiC companies to achieve cross-sector breakthroughs, they need to continuously enhance product and technical strength, while also relying on accumulations in customer collaboration, supply chain construction, and market development. It is hoped that upstream and downstream players in the industry chain will work together in the future to introduce SiC into more application scenarios and open up broader market spaces.