Analysis shows Chinese SiC patents, startup growth
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Analysis of the latest silicon carbide (SiC) patents shows the rapid progression of China and the main vertically integrated companies says a report by Knowmade in France.
Growing market competition and on-going geopolitical tensions are boosting IP activities across the supply chain with some interesting dynamics in the patenting activities related to devices, with Mitsubishi Electric and Fuji Electric dominating.
KnowMade highlights the latest IP dynamics across the SiC supply chain and provides a focus on the IP activities of some of the main companies adopting a vertical integration model within the industry. The number of inventions disclosed by Chinese players have increased by about 60% between 2021 and 2023.
This is driven by the prospect of large-scale adoption of SiC power devices in electric vehicles (EV), SiC companies started filing more and more patents in strategic regions for this industry. The number of Chinese companies and research organizations involved in SiC activities is also growing fast, with more than 25 IP newcomers for substrates, and about 50 IP newcomers identified for devices since 2022.
As a result the number of inventions disclosed in patents in 2023 is more than 50% higher than it was in 2021, and several incumbent patent holders have effectively enlarged the perimeter of protection for their inventions.
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The analysis demonstrates that Chinese companies have filed a very limited number of their patent applications abroad (less than 5%). It suggests that, at least for now, most Chinese companies do not plan to challenge the leadership of their competitors outside China, says Rémi Comyn, Senior Analyst in the field of Compound Semiconductors and Electronics at KnowMade.
The Chinese government has been strongly encouraging the patenting activities of Chinese companies, leading to a huge number of patent applications filed in recent years. More than 70% of SiC patent applications published in 2023 worldwide are assigned to Chinese entities. This makes patent analysis a powerful tool to study the Chinese ecosystem emerging for SiC technology
This has helped the early identification of new Chinese companies, the description of their technological developments and the explanation of their relationships with other players, such as research organizations or foreign companies with patent collaborations and IP transfers.
KnowMade has been investigating SiC technology since 2018, extending its patent analysis across the whole SiC supply chain over the years.
The US-China trade war has also had a role to play in the recent acceleration of patenting activities, by supporting the establishment of more localized semiconductor supply chains across the world, especially in China. This dense local ecosystem has allowed China to rapidly address the shortage issues in the SiC wafer industry. However, by creating an oversupply of wafers, China brought about a tough price competition in the SiC wafer market, making a stronger case for SiC wafer suppliers to use their patents against their main competitors, says the report.
At the same time the vertically integrated companies such as Infineon Technologies, Wolfspeed and Rohm, as well as STMicroelectronics and Coherent exhibit different IP strategies across the supply chain.
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Several SiC device market players are investing a lot of resources into the establishment of a vertically integrated manufacturing infrastructure for SiC technology. These companies have adopted an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) business model in the SiC industry and aim to integrate within the company every step of SiC manufacturing, from material growth to device manufacturing and packaging.
The comparison of IP activities across the supply chain highlights quite differentiated IP strategies for SiC technology. While certain companies heavily rely on patents to assert their position in the market, other companies have not significantly developed their patent portfolio across the SiC supply chain.
The geographic distribution of their patent filings also points out some discrepancies between SiC IDM companies, highlighting the relative importance of the different markets for each company (US, Japan, Europe, China, South Korea and Taiwan).
The analysis starts with the identification of the main IP players and newcomers filing SiC-related patents across the supply chain, from bulk SiC to circuits and systems using SiC devices. Because patents related to packaging, modules, circuits and applications tend to cover more than just a single semiconductor technology, the scope of the selection must be tuned in the downstream supply chain.
The patents cover substrates (including bulk SiC, bare wafers, growth apparatuses, finishing, slicing, epitaxial wafers), power devices, packaging, modules, circuits and applications, split into diodes, planar and trench MOSFETs and other devices.
The analysis points out that most companies in the SiC patent landscape have integrated trench MOSFET in their technological roadmap, leading to an acceleration of patent filings in this area. As a result, trench MOSFET has become an increasingly competitive IP space lately.
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