On October 15, YOFC Advanced Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (YASC) held a technology conference in Shenzhen themed "Beyond the Peak: A Four-Year Technological Long March". The company unveiled a range of innovative achievements, including the latest generation of main drive-level SiC MOSFETs, trench gate technology platform, embedded PCB modules, and diffusion soldering power modules, marking a new milestone in its technological long march.
As an invited media outlet, "Hangjia Shuo Sandaiban" attended the conference. Through full participation in the sessions and interview exchanges, we noted that the highlights of this conference lie not only in the technology itself but also in the answers provided by YASC, as a domestic full-chain Silicon Carbide manufacturer, to three major questions:
What achievements has YASC made during its four-year technological long march?
What are the innovations in the technologies released this time?
In which markets will YASC focus its efforts in the next stage?
01. Four Key Breakthroughs Achieved by YASC in Its Four-Year Long March
According to Li Gang, Vice President of the Strategic Operations Center at YASC, during this four-year technological long march, YASC has achieved a leap from nothing to something. It has now grown into an enterprise with full-chain capabilities ranging from epitaxial growth, device and module design, wafer fabrication to module packaging and testing, becoming an undeniable force in the domestic Silicon Carbide industry.
Observations from "Hangjia Shuo Sandaiban" reveal that over the past four years, YASC's development achievements are specifically reflected in four aspects: product delivery, capacity building, process breakthroughs, and quality assurance.
In terms of product delivery, YASC has achieved scaled shipments across multiple fields. Among them, consumer and industrial devices have been shipped in large volumes. Data center-related products are now in regular supply, with customer-side application verification underway; in the automotive sector, its automotive-grade SiC MOSFETs and modules have also entered the introduction and verification stage.
In terms of capacity building, YASC has established a dual-base layout in Wuhu and Wuhan. The Wuhan base broke ground in September 2023 and achieved production line completion in just 21 months, setting the "YASC speed"; it currently has an annual capacity of 420,000 wafers and epitaxial wafers.
Beyond capacity building, another major move by YASC is its intelligent transformation. According to Xiao Caipeng, Senior Director of Intelligent Manufacturing at YASC, the Wuhan base has become the first intelligent wafer fab in the Silicon Carbide industry to reach the A3 level. By September 2026, the A3 online rate will exceed 98%, and the dispatch rate will exceed 90%. Through automation and intelligent management, the yield level and delivery speed of the YASC Wuhan base have been significantly improved: the CP yield of 5mm×5mm SiC MOSFETs reaches 98%, and the production cycle is shortened to 40 days, providing reliable support for product delivery and introduction.
In terms of process breakthroughs, key parameters of YASC's Silicon Carbide products continue to be optimized. The Pitch Size of its SiC MOSFETs has shrunk from 5.8μm in 2023 to 2.8μm in 2026, with plans to further shrink it to 2.0μm by 2028; the specific on-resistance (Rsp@175℃) of SiC MOSFETs has dropped from 7mΩ.cm² in the first-generation product (PG1) to 3.2mΩ.cm² in the sixth-generation product (PG6N). This indicates that YASC has reached the level of international leading manufacturers in key parameters of Silicon Carbide chips.
In terms of quality assurance, both the Wuhan and Wuhu bases of YASC have passed the German TÜV system certification, and Silicon Carbide chips and modules have passed AEC-Q101 and AQG324 certifications. Whether for automotive-grade platforms or AI data centers, consumer, and industrial fields, it aims for zero product defects (0PPM).
If the past four years saw YASC mainly complete the leap from "building the production line" to "delivering the products"; now, as basic capabilities such as production lines and yields are gradually consolidated, and it begins to emerge in downstream markets, the new question it needs to answer is: against the backdrop of increasingly fierce competition in the Silicon Carbide industry, from which angles will YASC leverage the market?
02. From Technological Long March to Market Long March: YASC Targets Four Major Tracks
Facing this proposition, YASC provided its own answer at this conference.
At the conference, YASC unveiled and showcased a range of innovative technologies, covering automotive-grade SiC MOSFETs, automotive-grade main drive SiC modules, innovative products for AIDC, as well as consumer and industrial product layouts, clearly outlining "where YASC is going".
Li Gang stated that there were two particularly critical milestones for YASC over the past four years: first, the breakthrough in chip performance, with Rsp surpassing most competitors thanks to process innovation; second, the innovation in product forms, as YASC began to define its own products.
Based on the synergistic breakthroughs in technology and capacity, YASC regards NEVs, AIDC, consumer electronics, and industrial & energy as four major tracks and growth curves. These four paths are not only an extension of its four-year technological long march but also the specific routes to leverage the next stage of the market.
Automotive-Grade SiC MOSFETs: Parallel Development of Planar Gate and Trench Gate
According to Liu Wei, Senior Director of Technology Development at YASC, over the past four years, YASC's SiC MOSFETs have undergone a process from following to matching, and then to surpassing; the next three years are critical for the domestic substitution of Silicon Carbide chips, and their goal is to promote market landing with high performance, high reliability, and high consistency.
Currently, YASC is advancing both planar gate and trench gate routes simultaneously. This is actually a route judgment on the mainstream device structure of automotive-grade main drives in the coming years: the planar structure is responsible for current mass production delivery and cost, while the trench structure determines the competitiveness in the next stage.
For planar gate SiC MOSFETs, YASC chose to unfold the technology iteration route all at once. For SiC MOSFETs, the most intuitive manifestation of performance iteration in each generation is the specific on-resistance Rsp. YASC continues to break through in this indicator, especially in the mainstream 1200V specification, from the fourth-generation PG4E to the sixth-generation PG6N, with Rsp dropping generation by generation, making the technology iteration path clearly visible.
Taking the mainstream 1200V SiC MOSFET specification as an example, the Rsp of YASC's fourth-generation PG4E at room temperature/175℃ is 2.2/4.4mΩ.cm² respectively, with a short-circuit withstand time of 2.1μs, significantly improving long-term reliability. The cell size of the fifth-generation PG5E is shrunk by more than 15% compared to the previous generation, the channel length is shrunk by 10%, and high-energy ion implantation technology is adopted, reducing the Rsp at room temperature/175℃ to 1.9/3.7mΩ.cm². The sixth-generation PG6N achieves optimizations in size shrinkage, implantation process, and wafer thinning, with Rsp dropping to 1.7mΩ.cm² and 3.2mΩ.cm² at room temperature and 175℃ high temperature respectively. The chip achieves higher current density while possessing better heat dissipation capabilities.
On the other hand, YASC's trench gate technology platform was also officially unveiled. According to Wang Huimin, Chief Technology Officer of Process Innovation at YASC, they started laying out the trench process platform in 2023 and have formulated and released a technology roadmap from TG1N to TG3N, adopting double-sided deep shielding, double-sided deep buried, and semi-super junction trench technologies respectively.
Taking the first-generation TG1N product as an example, YASC achieves CellPitch≤3.0μm and Ron,sp≤2.0mΩ.cm² through technologies such as secondary epitaxy, and is expected to achieve mass production in 2026. In addition, regarding trench process patents, YASC has publicly disclosed 79 patents related to SiC trench MOSFETs, ranking among the top internationally.
Automotive-Grade Main Drive SiC Modules: Simultaneous Layout of Potting/Molding/Embedded
If the chip stage competes on design and process, the core of competition in the module stage is "how the same chip is packaged"—under the same chip conditions, the packaging solution often directly determines the current carrying capacity, heat dissipation efficiency, and system volume. YASC's choice in this stage remains a dual layout of mass production and cutting-edge technology.
According to Chen Yulin, Director of Automotive Product Market at YASC, in recent years, the penetration rate of Silicon Carbide in the NEV field has grown rapidly, and technology iteration is also very fast. Currently, three routes have formed a framework on the market: potting, transfer molding, and PCB embedding, all of which they have laid out.
Facing the mainstream potting/transfer molding packaging routes, YASC released the E2Drive™ automotive-grade main drive module series, which can cover passenger car and commercial vehicle application scenarios, focusing on the 60kW-1000kW power segment. Among them, E2Dmini-J was jointly developed by YASC and Jingwei Hirain, adopting the self-developed PG5E 1200V SiC chip, with a stray inductance of only 4.5nH.
More room for development lies in the DeepXE™ embedded PCB power module, making its debut. This solution is based on a Cavity-Free AMB embedded unit PCB stacking scheme and adopts technologies such as DTS metallization and surface copper plating. It can achieve a peak 250kW power conversion through 24 SiC MOSFETs within an area the size of a playing card: compared with traditional packaging, the volume and weight are reduced by 50%, the stray inductance is reduced to 0.9nH, the switching loss is reduced by 20%, and the current density is increased by 20%.
According to YASC, this solution has completed eight core verifications including performance, thermal resistance, 1,000 temperature cycles, and over 200,000 power cycles. It is expected to complete the full-chain closed loop of comprehensive reliability testing and industrialization verification in the first half of next year.
AIDC Applications: Diffusion Soldering Modules and Single Tubes Enter Simultaneously
The explosion of AI computing power is pushing the power supply architecture towards the high-voltage direct current era, also making AIDC one of the most certain incremental markets for SiC. According to Sun Yunshuai, Director of Industrial Market at YASC, they mainly target two types of products for AI data centers, focusing on various application markets such as solid-state transformers (SST), server power supplies, and BBU power supplies.
The first is the EZ series power modules, including two specifications: EZ2C and EZ3C. YASC stated that this is the first domestic power module adopting the diffusion soldering process. Compared with the traditional solder sheet process, the junction-to-case thermal resistance of EZ2C is reduced by 18%, and the chip junction temperature at full load can be reduced by more than 25℃, with performance comparable to the expensive silver sintering process; EZ3C innovatively integrates the SHB three-level topology, which can increase the power of a single SST module from 70kW to over 100kW, and reduce the cascade levels of10kV AI SST from 16 to 8, significantly reducing system complexity.
The second is the 750V and 1200V products based on the mature mass-produced PG4E chip. Through the strict version of AEC-Q101 verification and 3,000-hour assessment, the measured high-temperature switching loss is significantly better than domestic and international leading competitors, adapting to the full-link links of 800V HVDC such as power cabinet PSU, computing cabinet PSU, and BBU.
Consumer and Industrial Markets: Mature Product Matrix Continues to Scale Up
According to Jiang Jiaqi, Senior Manager of FAE at YASC, the company has made long-term layouts in the consumer and industrial markets and has built a rich product matrix, continuing to achieve mass production shipments.
In the consumer market, YASC has mass-produced 38 models of 650V/800V SiC MOSFET products. With a wafer yield of 95%-99% and a significantly leading number of effective chips per unit wafer (under the 180mΩ specification, Gross Die is 27.5% more than competitors), its high cost-performance route has been verified at scale in scenarios such as fast charging.
In the industrial aspect, the company has built a 93-model product matrix covering 650V-3300V, with packaging covering mainstream forms such as TO-247, TOLL, and QDPAK series; the SBD products in both 650V (4-40A) and 1200V (5-60A) platforms have been fully mass-produced, with applications extending to photovoltaics, energy storage, charging piles, PC power supplies, white goods, and other scenarios.
03. Summary by Hangjia Shuo Sandaiban
Discussing the development of the Silicon Carbide industry, Li Gang pointed out that only enterprises with strong production capabilities, solid product R&D capabilities, and deep application accumulation can maintain competitiveness and not fall behind in the coming years.
We also see that the Silicon Carbide industry has bid farewell to wild growth and entered a stage of multi-dimensional and refined competition. At the same time, downstream markets such as automotive and AIDC continue to tighten their requirements for Silicon Carbide cost, performance, and reliability. This indicates that the competition in the next stage of Silicon Carbide will no longer be a contest of a single link, but a较量 of comprehensive system capabilities.
The four-year long march is just the first step for YASC. Facing the comprehensive system competition in the next stage, this domestic full-chain Silicon Carbide manufacturer is already prepared to take a seat at the table and compete.