With the advent of the global 5G generation, continuous drive 8-inch and 12-inch wafer plant capacity requirements, not only part of the wafer plant expansion of the 8-inch plant RF Soi (RF Silicon on insulator) capacity, in order to catch strong market demand, currently including TSMC, GlobalFoundries, TowerJazz and UMC, and more at the same time to expand or import 12-inch plant RF SOI process, fully meet the first wave of 5G RF chip order business opportunities. Currently around the world about 95% of the RF SOI chip by 8-inch factory building, cell phone-related RF SOI Chip is also more than 8-inch factory production, and the vast majority of RF switch (RF switches) and related products are also in 8-inch factory building, but with the RF Soi manufacturing process from 0.18 microns down to 0.13 and 0.11 microns, at this stage, some products have turned to 12-inch wafer production plant. International semiconductor manufacturers including TSMC, GlobalFoundries, TowerJazz, UMC, Sony, SMIC, Huahong and Italian-French semiconductor (STMicroelectronics), which has 8-inch wafer plant RF Soi capacity, it is noteworthy that Recent large-scale wafer generation factory actively import 12-inch plant RF Soi capacity, including TSMC, GlobalFoundries, TowerJazz and UMC, etc. are all launched 12-inch plant production, import 0.13 micron to 45 nm and other process nodes. Semiconductor industry pointed out that the introduction of RF SOI process to build the chip can be locked in different application market, the main application is the handset RF front-end module (RF front-end modules), its integrated RF 0 components such as power amplifier, antenna tuner, low-noise amplifier, RF switch, etc. Responsible for the handling of mobile phone transmission and reception functions. At present, mobile phone RF 0 component chip price of about 12~15 U.S. dollars, the future of 5G smart mobile phones, mobile phone-related chip prices will reach more than 18~20 U.S. dollars, which is also the current RF SOI capacity tight one of the reasons. Soitec, the world's largest supplier of RF SOI substrates, has a market share of up to 70%, while producing 8-inch and 12-inch RF soi substrates. The other two suppliers are the Japanese letter Yue (Shin-etsu) and Taiwan Factory Global Wafer, also supply 8-inch and 12-inch RF Soi substrate, as for the land plant Qinghua only supply 8-inch RF soi substrate. At present, the RF SOI substrate capacity in the bottleneck stage, whether 8 or 12-inch substrate is a tight state of supply, which makes the wafer generation plant in the expansion of the limited. As for the RF SOI chip into 12-inch factory volume production, still cannot solve the overall RF SOI capacity tight problem, because 12-inch factory capacity mainly locked high-order 5G system applications, some of the capacity of 4G mobile phone applications. Future 12-inch RF Soi capacity will be a necessary condition for 5G application development, for the RF SOI chip, 12-inch plant capacity has many better conditions, including the provision of more process control and wafer plant automation control, and in tolerance, repeatability and yield, etc. are superior to 8-inch plant capacity. For the RF SOI substrate capacity supply tight problem, Soitec Executive Vice President Thomas Piliszczuk said, with the partner Green China certification, 8-inch RF Soi substrate capacity expected to be improved in 2019, as for 12-inch RF Soi substrate capacity, in Soitec, The more the letter and global wafer and so on to increase production capacity, 2019 since the tight supply and demand should be able to get relief. From the perspective of expanding capacity of wafer generation industry, more than 12-inch RF soi substrate capacity is needed, although the supplier is willing to expand capacity, but in the short term, 12-inch RF Soi substrate supply is still quite limited. Facing the advent of 5G generation, 12-inch plant RF SOI Capacity competition has been launched, wafer generation plant expansion to meet strong demand for orders, currently GlobalFoundries has been in New York State East Fishkill and Singapore's two 12-inch plant to import RF Soi production, Including 0.13 Micron and 45 nm process. In fact, GlobalFoundries has been in the United States Vermont State Burlington and Singapore's two 8-inch plant into the RF SOI production, the purpose is to first-card supply chain demand, in the investment of 12-inch plant RF soi capacity, while Also stabilize its 8-inch plant capacity, to maintain customer orders. TowerJazz has shipped 8-inch RF Soi, currently in Japan's 12-inch plant to start the production of RF SOI, currently 65 nm process, and is expected to be a miniature to 45 nm.
