Ni Qian, member of the Party Working Committee and deputy director of the Management Committee of Suzhou Industrial Park, Zhang Shumei, chairman and president of Suzhou Nano Technology Development Co., Ltd., Yuan Tong, vice chairman of the China Electronic Materials Association, Chen Yanfeng, professor of Nanjing University and director of the State Key Laboratory of Solid Microstructure Physics, Gao Da, a professor level senior engineer of the China Academy of Metallurgical Automation, Xia Yushan, the angel investor of Hico and founder of Yunyi Investment, and representatives of more than 10 investment institutions Representatives of customers and suppliers were invited to attend the press conference on that day, witnessing this historic moment in the Chinese silicon carbide industry.

In recent years, core materials and equipment have become the two most serious bottlenecks in China's semiconductor industry. How to achieve key technological breakthroughs and complete domestic substitution has become an important issue that China's high-tech industry must face in upgrading. Fortunately, with the high attention and strong support of the country, and the joint efforts of all parties in the industry, localized alternative technologies are constantly emerging. The breakthrough progress made by Xike Semiconductor in the research and development of SiC epitaxial process this time is the use of pure domestic equipment and fully independent advanced technology, demonstrating the confidence and determination of domestic enterprises to revitalize China's semiconductor industry, and also inspiring the experts and leaders present.

General Manager Lv Liping introduced that in the past year, Xike Semiconductor has successfully debugged its domestic horizontal epitaxial furnace, completed the debugging of domestic measurement equipment, and achieved calibration with imported measurement equipment, filling the industry gap; Recently, the company has further completed the debugging of the domestic vertical epitaxial furnace and completed comparative testing of domestic substrate raw materials and imported substrates under the same epitaxial process. At this point, Xike Semiconductor has achieved the integration of process equipment, measurement equipment, and key raw materials domestically, completely, cleanly, and thoroughly solving the bottleneck problem of foreign products. This series of achievements has filled the gap in China's silicon carbide industry.

Ni Qian, a member of the Party Working Committee and Deputy Director of the Management Committee of Suzhou Industrial Park, stated that the official production of Xike Semiconductor Silicon Carbide epitaxial wafers will inject stronger development momentum into the third generation semiconductor industry in the park. At present, the park is aiming to build a world-class high-tech park, with the construction of major innovation carriers such as Suzhou Laboratory and National Third Generation Semiconductor Technology Innovation Center as the starting point. We will comprehensively study and implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, adhere to the principle that technology is the first productive force, talent is the first resource, and innovation is the first driving force, and strive to build an internationally first-class third generation semiconductor industry innovation cluster. For a long time, the park has attached great importance to the development of the semiconductor industry, actively exploring and introducing corresponding policies to support the industry's growth and strength, and continuing to increase support in the semiconductor industry. The park will continue to create a first-class innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, continuously improve the policy system, talent supply, and industrial ecology, and promote the deep integration of innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, talent chain, and service chain to a higher level. It will do a good job as a "shop assistant" for enterprises that meet their needs, and fully support the accelerated growth of excellent enterprises, including Xike Semiconductor.

Yuan Tong, Vice Chairman of the China Electronic Materials Association, who has traveled a long way due to the pandemic, stated that China's semiconductor industry has experienced tremendous challenges. From a domestic perspective, the economy is facing downward pressure under the pandemic. From an international perspective, the sanctions imposed by the US Chip Act on China's semiconductor enterprises have further expanded. However, within the framework and context of national support for the development of the semiconductor industry, the entire industry still faces challenges and has achieved unprecedented development. The trillions of capital investments have also injected tremendous vitality into the industry, attracting talents from the global semiconductor industry. This has also led to the emergence of enterprises with initial global competitiveness in various key industrial chains such as semiconductor process equipment, materials, design, and wafer manufacturing in China. The localization rate has significantly increased, breaking foreign monopolies in many key equipment, materials, and advanced processes. She said that the current industry has entered a new stage that is most conducive to the leapfrog development of high-quality semiconductor enterprises. She is pleased to see that the young Xike Semiconductor has demonstrated astonishing development potential in just over a year of establishment, and is also pleased to see the largest and most comprehensive downstream industry cluster of semiconductor materials in China gathered in the Suzhou Industrial Park and surrounding areas. On behalf of the China Electronic Materials Association and Vice Chairman Xiao Xiangfeng of the Power Electronics Branch of the China Electrical Industry Association, she wishes Hiko Semiconductor a smooth production and looks forward to making new contributions to the development of China's semiconductor industry.

As early as the end of September this year, Hiko Semiconductor produced 6-inch epitaxial wafers using its unique industrial process. After double testing by two industry authoritative institutions, the results showed that it could completely rival top international competitors. With the large-scale production of Hiko Semiconductor, the current situation of relying on imported equipment and substrates for the core raw materials of silicon carbide chips, silicon carbide epitaxy, will be changed. Not only will it have better quality and lower costs, but it can also ensure supply and expand production on demand. It will make due contributions to the development of China's new energy industry and the implementation of the dual carbon strategy.

It is understood that SiC epitaxy is a crucial link in the process from silicon carbide long crystals to chip production. The so-called SiC epitaxial layer refers to the growth of a single crystal thin film (epitaxial layer) with higher lattice quality on a silicon carbide substrate. In practical applications, each silicon carbide chip is achieved on this epitaxial layer using semiconductor processes such as photolithography, masking, and doping, while the silicon carbide wafer itself serves as a substrate to support it. Therefore, the quality of silicon carbide epitaxial wafers has the most direct and significant impact on the performance of silicon carbide devices after chip wafer scribing and packaging in the next step. The quality of epitaxy is also influenced by the epitaxial process, equipment, and substrate quality, and is in the middle of the entire industry. Its technological and technological progress plays a crucial role in the development of the overall silicon carbide industry. For a long time, SiC epitaxial production equipment has been monopolized by developed countries in Europe, America, and Japan. In recent years, the domestic industry has actively invested in research and development of domestic equipment and production processes to solve this "bottleneck" problem.

Gao Da, a professor level senior engineer from the China Academy of Metallurgical Automation who attended the meeting, said that Hiko Semiconductor's industrial technology breakthrough is a major contribution to the industry. He believes that Hiko's achievement of "all key process machines are domestically produced" and "all measurement machines are locally replaced" will provide new impetus for the silicon carbide industry. He said that the series of breakthroughs made by Hiko Semiconductor in advanced process research and development, industrialization, and localization have laid a solid foundation for the company's own development and the industry's overall elimination of dependence on foreign technology and equipment.

Xia Yushan, the angel investor of Xike Semiconductor and founder of Yunyi Investment, couldn't conceal his excitement in his speech. Yunyi Investment has been involved in third-generation semiconductor investment since 2017, investing in Zhanxin Electronics, Shandong Tianyue (688234), and the protagonist of this press conference, Xike Semiconductor. Shandong Tianyue successfully became the first listed company in the silicon carbide industry this year, and Zhanxin Electronics has also grown into a recognized leader in the silicon carbide chip industry. He said that from the initial investment in Xike Semiconductor to its current mass production, Xike's team represented by General Manager Lv Liping has been very efficient and pragmatic. During the development process, various decisions including comprehensive localization were made, and Yunyi Investment participated in them. It can be said that they achieved mutual success with the entrepreneurial team, and this feeling of starting a business together like a member of a team is very rare.

At the meeting, Mr. Xia Yushan also revealed Hiko's future financing plan and welcomed the active participation of many investment institutions that are interested in the prospects of the silicon carbide industry, jointly supporting Hiko in achieving its goal of achieving an annual production capacity of 100000 pieces and becoming the top three in the industry in the near future.

Xike Semiconductor Co., Ltd. was established in August 2021 and is located in the Third Generation Semiconductor Industrial Park of Nanocity Zone 3 in Suzhou Industrial Park. It is also a key enterprise and benchmark project introduced by Suzhou Nanocity. Since its establishment, the company has focused on the key process research and development of silicon carbide epitaxial wafers. The core team has more than ten years of experience in research and development, mass production, and management experience in world-class factories. It has also reserved multiple independent intellectual property rights. Among them, the founder and general manager of the company, Lv Liping, is the earliest leading talent in China to engage in the research and industrialization of SiC technology and processes, possessing multiple invention patents and utility model patents.

At the press conference, General Manager Lv Liping expressed heartfelt gratitude to the leaders and guests who braved the risk of epidemic control and came to the conference. He stated that Hiko Semiconductor Company was able to achieve leapfrog and rapid progress in just over a year after its establishment, which was achieved in the context of the rapid development of the Chinese chip industry. It cannot do without the strong support of the industry and government regulatory departments at all levels, among which the most direct and important support came from the leaders of Suzhou Industrial Park and Suzhou Nanocity Development Co., Ltd.

In recent years, with the rise of new energy and dual carbon industries, the silicon carbide industry is facing explosive market opportunities. With the overall forward-looking understanding of the semiconductor industry, leaders at all levels of Suzhou Nanocity strongly support advanced semiconductor industry chains such as silicon carbide and MEMS, and have built a sound industrial foundation and supporting facilities. Currently, this area and its surrounding areas have become the largest gathering place for the upstream and downstream of China's chip industry. Suzhou Nanocity has a superior geographical location, convenient transportation, and overall planning is scientific and reasonable, with excellent living facilities such as education, healthcare, and commerce, attracting more and more high-end semiconductor technology talents and entrepreneurs.