Standing in 2026, if one were to select a technology that represents China's "Strong-Nation Intelligent Manufacturing," silicon carbide (SiC) substrates would undoubtedly secure a place.
Recently, the program "Strong-Nation Intelligent Manufacturing" has been continuously broadcast on CCTV9 and CCTV10. The latest special documentary, "Synlight, Beyond Contention," focuses its lens on Synlight Semiconductor and the Chinese SiC substrate industry.
Why has an SiC material company entered the observation scope of CCTV? What have they seen? And why is Synlight Semiconductor worth being seen?
01. The First Sight: The Value of the SiC Sector
Nowadays, everyone is talking about data centers, AI chips, and computing power. However, "Strong-Nation Intelligent Manufacturing" turns its lens to the rows of SiC crystal growth furnaces in Synlight Semiconductor's production workshop, and then focuses on the SiC substrate wafers, which are as thin as mirrors and as hard as steel.
This is the first thing "Strong-Nation Intelligent Manufacturing" has seen—the value of the SiC sector. Because "one generation of materials, one generation of devices," the true support for the future of AI data centers and the entire new energy industry is often the "less conspicuous" underlying materials.
Amid the iterative upgrading of the semiconductor industry, SiC substrates are the core materials determining the direction of next-generation technology. If chips are the crown of modern industry, then SiC substrates are the diamonds embedded in the very center of the crown, the most difficult to obtain.
Such a seemingly ordinary thin SiC wafer will ultimately become an indispensable supporting force behind emerging industries such as new energy, 5G, AI, and AR. At the same time, it is also the strategic commanding height in a new round of global material competition, reshaping the energy structure, reshaping the industrial landscape, and reshaping the future lifestyle of humanity.
Synlight Semiconductor happens to stand on this high-quality sector that possesses both immense industrial value and core strategic value, which is also the core reason why the "Strong-Nation Intelligent Manufacturing" program focuses on observing Synlight Semiconductor.
02. The Second Sight: Long-term Persistence and Innovative Rise of China's SiC
The ultra-high industrial value and strategic status have made SiC a golden sector fiercely competed for globally. However, it is also a sector of ultra-high difficulty, because the preparation of SiC is one of the processes in the human manufacturing system that comes closest to the physical limits of difficulty.
The first test is powder preparation. High-purity SiC particles are synthesized using carbon powder and silicon powder of near-absolute purity at extreme high temperatures. This seemingly simple chemical reaction is the first life-or-death hurdle in the entire process. Even molecular-level contamination can cause the entire material to fail completely. It allows no errors, no compromises, and no concessions.
The second test is crystal growth, which is a globally recognized top-level challenge.
SiC crystal growth involves arranging carbon and silicon atoms layer by layer in perfect lattice order and slowly forming them in an ultra-high temperature environment of 2300°C. This is equivalent to covering a standard football field with fine sand, where not a single grain can be skewed, misplaced, or disordered. And 50,000 such football fields need to be covered at once. A slight temperature fluctuation, a minor airflow disturbance, or a millimeter of radial deviation will instantly reduce weeks of effort to nothing.
The third test is substrate preparation. The formed SiC ingots must undergo a series of precision processing steps such as cutting, grinding, and polishing until the surface is flat to the atomic level. If it were magnified to the size of a city, the undulation of the entire plane would not exceed the thickness of a coin.
Due to such stringent requirements for SiC preparation, in the early days, only a few manufacturers in the United States, Japan, and Europe crossed the threshold relying on decades of accumulation, and built high walls in technology, patents, equipment, and processes, monopolizing the SiC substrate market for a long time.
According to Zheng Qingchao, Chairman of Synlight Semiconductor, when they entered the SiC field, they found that China had neither technology nor equipment. The technology was strictly blocked by foreign countries, and even the equipment was subject to foreign embargoes. At that time, foreign countries unanimously believed that China could not manufacture SiC substrates.
Realizing the importance of SiC in future applications and technology, Synlight Semiconductor and Zheng Qingchao held their breath and made up their minds to successfully develop SiC substrates.
More than a decade ago in Baoding, China, almost no one was optimistic about, understood, or believed in Synlight Semiconductor's choice. However, Zheng Qingchao resolutely chose this most lonely and difficult path. He firmly believed that doing business must be in sync with national strategy and aligned with social development, and core technologies must be firmly held in the hands of the Chinese people themselves.
But the SiC path was destined not to be a smooth one. What awaited Zheng Qingchao and Synlight Semiconductor were repeated test failures, batch after batch of scrapped products, and the repeated trials of funding, patience, and conviction.
Due to the high technical threshold, long R&D cycle, and large capital investment of SiC technology, the R&D funds accumulated by Synlight Semiconductor were consumed bit by bit. However, from the moment they decided to set out, Synlight Semiconductor was prepared to fight a tough and protracted battle. Zheng Qingchao gritted his teeth and persisted at the time, "Even if we lose everything, we must develop the SiC substrates. We cannot let SiC become a technology that foreign countries use to choke China. We must break through."
Relying on the tenacity of "persisting for another 1,000 times after 1,000 failures, and starting over 10,000 times after 10,000 scrappings," Synlight Semiconductor has broken through from 2 inches to 4 inches, 6 inches, 8 inches, and then to 10 inches and 12 inches, gradually growing into one of the few enterprises in the world capable of stable mass production of high-quality SiC substrates.
Since then, Synlight Semiconductor has progressed from following the industry to running alongside in technology, and then to leading in standards. With top-tier industry technical capabilities and ultra-high yield rates, it has secured its position in the first echelon of global high-quality SiC supply.
This long-term persistence has not only upheld the industrial height of domestic SiC but also opened up alternative supply chains for downstream power device manufacturers, continuously reducing the cost of SiC devices, and accelerating the popularization in fields such as new energy vehicles (NEVs) and energy storage inverters.
Synlight Semiconductor under the lens of "Strong-Nation Intelligent Manufacturing" is a microcosm of the domestic SiC industry's independent research, stepping from the laboratory to industrial mass production step by step. By focusing the lens on this Baoding enterprise, "Strong-Nation Intelligent Manufacturing" pays attention not only to Synlight Semiconductor but also to the long-term persistence and innovative breakthroughs of domestic forces in the underlying material sector of China's intelligent manufacturing.
03. The Third Sight: The Forward Direction of China's SiC
As China's SiC has gone through long-term persistence and achieved an innovative rise, the next test is to shift from "whether it can be made" to "how to go further, stand firmer, and be believed by the world."
Zheng Xiangguang, Director and Deputy General Manager of Synlight Semiconductor, said that the predecessors spent more than a decade breaking through foreign technological monopolies and achieving a new industrial height for China's SiC. "For me, this is not only a career but also a heavy responsibility and inheritance."
Standing at this new industrial height, Synlight Semiconductor has not stopped but has set a new goal to continue making China's SiC bigger and stronger.
Zheng Xiangguang stated that what Synlight Semiconductor wants to achieve is not only to bring Chinese manufacturing to the whole world but also to build a solid Chinese brand.
Supporting this vision is the corporate core of Synlight Semiconductor. They hope to use the spirit of "customer first, seeking truth and pragmatism, working together with one heart, and pursuing excellence" to drive a new leap in the third-generation semiconductor industry in China and even globally. This unique corporate culture of Synlight Semiconductor also illuminates the future path of semiconductors.
In the future, Synlight Semiconductor is committed to shaping its brand into a power of belief—making the industry believe that no matter how the technological waves change, Synlight will always be the one defining the trend. At the same time, it wants downstream customers to believe that no matter what challenges they face, Synlight is a partner worthy of trust and reliance. Zheng Xiangguang said, "We will use our technical strength to help customers achieve every breakthrough, and let the whole world believe that Synlight represents technology, quality, innovation, and responsibility."
This belief is not an empty slogan. Currently, Synlight Semiconductor continues to achieve breakthroughs in next-generation SiC substrate technology and is moving towards industrialization.
For example, its low-resistance substrates (N-type) have overcome difficulties such as high dislocation and SF density accompanying high doping, and the mass production defect control level is consistent with that of normal substrates. At the same time, the visible light absorption rate of optical substrates is ≤0.2%, the 8-inch TTV reaches 0.5μm, and the mass production TTV for 12-inch is expected to be ≤0.5μm in 2028. In addition, the stress and defects of 12-inch substrates are comparable to those of 8-inch, with TSD (XRT) ≤100 ea/cm². In the more cutting-edge P-type substrates, they have also solved problems such as the difficulty of stable doping in the aluminum-doped PVT method and the nucleation of defects induced by high aluminum. They have successfully pioneered the mass production of p-type substrates using the PVT method, achieving indicators of EPD < 1000 cm-2, TSD (XRT) < 100 cm-2, and zero MPD defects. Simultaneous breakthroughs in multiple key material routes have laid a solid underlying material foundation for applications such as power electronics, optoelectronics, AI+AR, and ultra-high voltage IGBTs.
Synlight Semiconductor under the lens of "Strong-Nation Intelligent Manufacturing" is a sample for observing the next step of China's SiC. Focusing on Synlight is not just about recording an enterprise, but also about seeing how China's SiC will develop in the future and how Synlight will participate with what kind of thinking.
04. Summary by ASiC
"Strong-Nation Intelligent Manufacturing" records not only the story of an SiC enterprise's 14-year persistence and growth but also a side observation and record of the long breakthrough process of China's SiC substrate industry.
In the process of Chinese manufacturing moving towards Chinese intelligent manufacturing, China's SiC industry, represented by Synlight, still needs to continue deep cultivation, moving from technological breakthroughs to brand building, being based domestically and going global, and leaping towards an "intelligent manufacturing power."