The technological innovation of discrete devices can not ignore the actual needs of the market, and the improvement of device quality requires not only advanced chip manufacturing processes, but also the improvement of packaging technology is an important way to improve product quality.
From the market application, consumer electronics, computer and network communication are the traditional three major application markets for discrete devices. In recent years, the discrete device market in automotive electronics and electronic lighting is also growing rapidly. At present, although domestic discrete devices already have a certain industrial scale, their development still has a large gap compared with the domestic market demand. The rapid development of China's discrete device industry must be driven by continuous technological innovation.
Discrete device industry faces opportunities
The rapid development of the electronic information industry and the whole machine manufacturing industry has driven the development of the semiconductor discrete device industry. As an important part of the semiconductor industry, discrete devices have their own characteristics. "The integrated circuit is developing rapidly and its functions are getting stronger and stronger, but semiconductor discrete devices will continue to exist and develop in many fields. Just as humans have planes, they still need trains and cars." China Electronics Technology Group Corporation Li Songfa, director of the Science and Technology Commission, explained to reporters.
Discrete devices will continue to play an irreplaceable role in traditional applications such as high power, high voltage, and high current, and will play an indispensable role in many emerging applications. Tang Xuemin, general manager of the discrete device division of Hangzhou Silan Microelectronics Co., Ltd. said in an interview: "The whole machine market is steadily increasing, which has driven the continuous expansion of discrete device usage. With the advancement of integrated circuit technology, many peripherals are integrated. At the same time, the device is also driving the development of new functional devices. For example, with the development of CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) processes to deep sub-micron, higher requirements are imposed on ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection devices. The use of this device has increased dramatically. In addition, many power electronic devices have been greatly developed due to the emphasis on green, environmentally friendly, and energy-saving power supplies. For example, high-voltage MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) power transistors have been widely used in the power supply field. Applications, IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) has also been used in the field of motor variable frequency drive."
With the breakthrough of device performance, discrete devices have expanded into many new application areas. “For example, with the continuous improvement of the performance of high-brightness blue-chip technology and the reduction of cost, large-scale full-color LED (light-emitting diode) displays can be applied in large quantities. At the same time, LEDs are used in outdoor landscape lighting, LCD (liquid crystal display) backlights, special The field of lighting and other fields have made great progress," Tang Xuemin added.
Shen Haoping, general manager of Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co., Ltd., also expressed similar views to the reporter. He said: "Due to the pressure of energy and environment, power electronics has grown rapidly in recent years, especially in emerging industrial countries. Due to the relatively low energy efficiency, power electronics will have more room for development. From the perspective of consumer electronics, almost all portable products are bottlenecked in batteries, so power management can be said to be an eternal topic. Because many discrete device products have the characteristics of small batch, multi-variety and multi-standard, it is difficult for international manufacturers to monopolize technology. It can be seen that China's semiconductor discrete device companies are indeed facing good development opportunities.
Technological innovation should be close to market demand
After several decades of development, China's discrete device manufacturers have fully mastered the production process technology in the middle and low-end ordinary discrete devices, formed a certain scale of production, and achieved remarkable results; however, in some emerging, market-intensive In the product field, the breakthrough has not been achieved, and there is still a big gap with the international manufacturers. Some products with higher performance requirements (such as accuracy requirements and reliability requirements) are also difficult to meet the market demand. In addition, the quality of local manufacturers has not yet reached the first-class level, and it is difficult to be adopted by the world-class machine manufacturers. Therefore, strengthening R&D efforts, promoting technological innovation, and upgrading product grades are top priorities for Chinese discrete device manufacturers.
However, Shen Haoping also pointed out that technology is one of the production factors and a means to meet the demand. Therefore, we cannot talk about technology in isolation from the product market. Chinese semiconductor companies cannot ignore the market while paying attention to technology research and development. demand. In addition to maintaining its leading position in the market competition, Tianjin Zhonghuan will also use new chip production lines to develop and produce power semiconductor devices such as VDMOS (vertical double-diffused MOS devices) and IGBTs.
Tang Xuemin believes that technology upgrading is a gradual system engineering. It cannot be expected to catch up with international companies overnight. How to improve product quality and product consistency based on the existing technology level is the work of China's discrete device manufacturers. Focus. After the first chip production line was put into production in 2003, Silan Microelectronics began research and development of semiconductor discrete devices in 2004. Now it has introduced switching diodes, Zener diodes, Schottky tubes, high and low voltage VDMOS power transistors, and transients. Voltage suppression diodes (TVS), ESD protection tubes and fast recovery diodes have gradually developed into the most complete and complete chip providers in China. At present, Silan Micro has reached the domestic leading level in process development capability and quality control ability, especially the high-brightness blue-green LED chip that was mass-produced in 2006, which achieved a leap-forward development in 2007.
Packaging technology advances to improve device quality
Packaging technology is also one of the innovative areas of discrete devices. As the chip manufacturing technology continues to advance, the die area is greatly reduced, and the challenges faced by packaging technology are further highlighted. At the same time, the reduction in die area also places higher demands on the heat dissipation of the device.
For example, the usual SMD (Surface Mount Device) package leads are mostly "crab claws" and occupy a certain space on both sides or around, while the QFN (quad flat) package electrode is completely hidden. Contained at the bottom of its square flat QFN plastic body, there is no slight exposure and extraction. Therefore, the geometry of the QFN plastic body defines both the encapsulating resin and the electrode end. Compared with SMD, QFN occupies less assembly space, which can increase the assembly density per unit volume and save more space on the PCB. For the new challenges faced by the device's heat dissipation capability, the QFN high-density package utilizes the common features of the common electrode on the underside of the chip to make heat dissipation more efficient.
The typical volume of a 1*5 diode array is 2.9mm × 2.8mm × 1.1mm (5 tubes), and the QFN1*5 diode array developed by Suzhou Guyu Electronics Co., Ltd. can reduce the volume to 1.6mm × 1.6mm. ×0.75mm (5 tubes), its volume is 21.5% of the former, and there is no external lead, which greatly improves the installation accuracy and reliability. The device can be used in ultra-large scale integrated circuits of consumer electronics such as notebook computers, CPU circuits, micro mobile communication circuits (mobile phones, etc.), digital audio and video circuits, communication complete sets, digital cameras, etc., as an antistatic and connected to the input end. A diode array chip with instantaneous current and voltage is a leadless package device. Compared with the general SMD chip 1*5 diode array, the product has made great progress in both volume and reliability.
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