On September 11, SICC held its 2026 semi-annual performance briefing. Zong Yanmin, Chairman and General Manager of the company, revealed at the meeting that the company's "Preparation of Diamond Single Crystals and Fine Processing of Substrate Surfaces" project has entered the sample stage.
The project focuses on research into single-crystal diamond growth and substrate processing. It adopts the MPCVD method to grow diamond single crystals and utilizes laser cutting and multi-step processing methods for substrate processing, meeting the application requirements for thermal management materials and diamond device development.
According to the 2026 semi-annual report released by SICC on August 19, the total investment for the aforementioned project is CNY 7 million, with CNY 609,400 invested during the reporting period and a cumulative investment of CNY 5,369,000. It is currently still in the R&D stage.
Adjustment in Project Quantity: Scaling Down from Two Diamond Projects to One
The number of diamond R&D projects at SICC has been adjusted.
In the 2025 semi-annual report, the company disclosed two diamond-related R&D projects simultaneously: the first was "Preparation of Diamond Single Crystals and Fine Processing of Substrate Surfaces" with a total investment of CNY 7 million; the second was "R&D and Application of Diamond Substrate Materials" with a total investment of approximately CNY 16,865,700, aiming to break through key technologies for growing large-size, high-quality diamond substrates and promote the application of diamond in high-power electronic devices, optical windows, and other fields. However, the latter did not appear in the 2026 semi-annual report.
Chronologically, SICC's layout in the diamond sector has been advancing for over two years. In April 2025, the company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Shanghai Tianyu Semiconductor, centrally announced five diamond-related patents, covering a diamond polycrystalline substrate with high thermal conductivity and good light transmittance and its application, a method for preparing a silicon carbide-diamond composite substrate, and a silicon carbide-diamond composite substrate and its application.
In March 2026, the company mentioned in its "2026 Action Plan for Improving Quality, Increasing Efficiency, and Rewarding Investors" that it had "achieved major breakthroughs in key technology fields such as diamond and gallium oxide products."
In May 2026, Shanghai Tianyu Semiconductor published the patent for "A Diamond Crystal, Its Growth and Deposition Device, and Growth Method." By actively adjusting the structure of the height between the surface and the edge of the molybdenum tray, it suppresses the "edge effect" during crystal growth, resulting in a total dislocation defect density of the crystal below 10⁵/cm² and an absolute stress value below 20 MPa.
Based on the patents, SICC's technological accumulation in the diamond field is concentrated in directions such as single-crystal growth, substrate processing, and silicon carbide-diamond composite substrates, which synergizes with its core silicon carbide business. Meanwhile, the "R&D and Application of Diamond Substrate Materials" project was no longer listed separately in the 2026 semi-annual report, which may indicate that the company is not rolling out comprehensively but rather focusing its efforts.
Comparison with Peers: Tianyu Takes a Different Path
In terms of investment scale, SICC's diamond layout has not yet entered the capacity construction stage. Financial data shows that in the first half of 2026, SICC's operating revenue was CNY 914 million, a year-on-year increase of 15.10%, but its net profit attributable to shareholders was -CNY 58,616,600, and the net cash flow from operating activities was -CNY 203 million. Against the backdrop where the core silicon carbide business still requires capacity ramp-up and depreciation pressures remain to be amortized, it is not surprising that the company maintains a strategy of "R&D investment without capacity construction" for diamond.
In contrast, the diamond thermal management layout of domestic superhard material enterprises has entered the production line and batch supply stage.
In recent years, Huanghe Whirlwind has established semiconductor thermal management as its strategic transformation direction, simultaneously advancing two technical routes for single-crystal and polycrystalline diamond. In February 2026, the country's first 8-inch diamond heat sink wafer production line was officially put into operation. The first phase involved an investment of CNY 360 million, equipped with 50 MPCVD units, planning an annual production of 20,000 large-size diamond heat sink wafers. The products cover 2 to 8 inches and include 0.1 to 1 mm diamond heat sink wafers. The company plans to invest CNY 2 billion over the next three years, gradually deploying 300 MPCVD units, ultimately forming an annual production capacity of 150,000 large-size diamond heat sink wafers.
In June 2026, Liliang Diamond announced a change in the use of raised funds, redirecting the CNY 1.028 billion originally intended for expanding lab-grown diamond production to the field of diamond functional materials (semiconductor thermal management).
Tianxuan Semiconductor, a subsidiary of SF Diamond, invested CNY 450 million to build a production line for 25,000 diamond thermal management wafers annually in Shaya, Xinjiang, which is expected to be put into operation in the first quarter of 2027.
Huifeng Diamond plans to invest CNY 1 billion in Baotou to build a CVD diamond project, with the first phase planning to install 500 MPCVD units.
Superhard material enterprises mostly start from their synthetic diamond capacity and extend to downstream products such as heat sink wafers and thermal management wafers. The logic is to leverage existing material capabilities to meet the new demands from AI servers, optical modules, IGBTs, and high-power lasers.
SICC's path is different—it is built upon the industrialization and customer capabilities of silicon carbide substrates. Silicon carbide substrates remain SICC's core business at present. According to an industry report released by Japan's Fuji Keizai in March 2026, in the global conductive silicon carbide substrate market in 2025, SICC achieved an overall market share of 27.6%, ranking first globally, with its 8-inch products reaching a market share of 51.3%.
Silicon carbide and diamond highly overlap in downstream applications; the company's accumulated customer resources, validation experience, and processing capabilities can be directly reused. The silicon carbide-diamond composite substrate is even a natural connection point between the two business lines.
From the perspective of material parameters, the thermal conductivity of silicon is about 150 W/(m·K), that of silicon carbide is about 370-490 W/(m·K), while diamond can reach 2000-2200 W/(m·K), which is four to five times that of silicon carbide. However, the industrialization of composite substrates still faces challenges such as thermal expansion coefficient mismatch, interfacial thermal resistance treatment, laser cutting yield, and cost, and has not yet reached the level of mass production.
Overall, SICC's diamond layout is still in the R&D and sample stage and has not yet entered capacity construction. The two paths start from different points but point to the same direction—given the continuous development of AI computing power, advanced packaging, and high-power devices, the thermal conductivity advantage of diamond is making it an important candidate material for thermal management of high-power chips.