Aixtron purpose of this thread

as far as i have understood the customers asked for it so i guess Aixtron had some talks with them as they wont run a site without knowing the outcome.

i hope they learned from Osram  

I always appreciate the insights and bluntness by OnSemi management team. Interesting comments on EVs, SIC and China. I absolutely recommend to listen

https://qcast.page.link/epe21N5nuUNChhbh6

Regards,
Fel  

Well pointed question rosskata, just my quick thoughts:

I think a lot of Government grants/Subsidies involved here

Your question on cost can be sliced in different ways. Of course there are additional costs given you need people, electricity etc etc. BUT. I think the facility might ensure additional revenue that was not available from the Aachen factory, for example (and that are just my thoughts) if ST Micro requires a production footprint in Italy from their supplier because ST itself received subsidies from the Italian state. If Aix had not had the footprint it would not be electable for an order.

Another scenario: yes, again, extra cost for running the facility but if you make a profit / margin from that facility, that’s fine, right?

So I think that was roughly what Grawert meant to say on the call.. he just not found the right wording. Or did not want to give too much away.

https://techfundingnews.com/...to-invest-nearly-e10b-in-chips-report/
 

Vielleicht für den eine oder anderen Wichtig


USA vergibt 1,6 Milliarden Dollar an Texas Instruments zum Bau von Halbleiterfabriken
Die Finanzierung stammt aus dem überparteilichen CHIPS Act, der die Produktion kritischer Halbleiter in den Vereinigten Staaten stärken soll.

BigEuro

 

SiC "pure play" Wolfspeed (shares down >70% YTD) is reporting quarterly figures after market close today. Seems that their Capex plans will be core focus of investores, not sure whether there will be any read-across for AIXA shares as a result:

"Capex and Funding Options Key Investor Focus. We believe Wolfspeed must further cut its 2025 capex plans of $1.5 billion to below $1 billion. This will provide much needed oxygen while allowing the company to focus on just building enough wafer capacity at Siler City to demonstrate the ramp and economics of Mohawk Valley."  

A 10 Years contract is good for WOLF and also potentialy good for Aixtron, opinions?
https://compoundsemiconductor.net/article/119635/...phorm_acquisition  

Martin Jungfleisch

I have two questions, please. First one, the silicon carbide order in the second quarter. Can you tell us how much will be delivered of that EUR105 million in 2024 and how much will be recorded in 2025? And then maybe if you can also comment how much of that order was coming out of China, please?

Felix Grawert

I don't have the data here. I have to do it out of my memory. So my message is a bit inaccurate, but qualitatively, I can give it to you. I would guess 25%, 30% gets shipped still in '24 from what I know, which customers are behind it. The rest goes into '25. Mostly, there is two existing customers behind of it and one new customer, which we got on board in the first quarter. In the first quarter, we announced the new customer is on board. Now in the second quarter, there was a very big volume order placed from that customer. So the majority goes into '25. And out of those orders, there was also a decent part coming out of China, I think there was multiple China customers amongst that. So yes, there was a certain China fraction but I'm not able to quantify how much of that it was.
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My guess is that Hunan Sanan is the major new Chinese customer, and other Chinese customers might include TYSIC (Tianyu).  They are all expanding 8" SiC epi wafers capacity aggressively.

I posted previously that Sanan, including Hunan San and Sanan-STM JV were hiring engineers with Aixtron experience.  From a new press release:

"...Sanan Optoelectronics' financial report also revealed the equipment procurement of Hunan Sanan's silicon carbide project - Sanan Optoelectronics' Hunan Sanan letter of credit guarantee is 150.19 million yuan, mainly used to purchase silicon carbide equipment from companies such as Aixtron, LPE, Asher, and KLA..."
 

CWL1, since you have  a thorough overview of Asian (and not only) Aix SiC market: do you observe a trend of capex reduction? I cannot imagine Woolfspeed is the only major player with such plans.
I start thinking that the estimation given my Aix management this year about the next year is no longer valid. I tend to believe that a guideline of +0 % growth will be good news...keeping in mind the state of EV market.
Your view on this is highly appreciated. thanks!  

expected to be max 20% if we assume same distribution as Q1 and Q2 for the while year.
Some drop in the next year in SiC orders could be compensated by the other segments. Effectively maybe only by GaN.  

There is adaption of 800V SiC platform in almost all the new EV's in China that requires more SiC.  Tesla's EV's are still 400V based.  However, we probably won't see the effect in short term.  

Do you think Aixtron is behind the Infineon 300mm GaN?
But i see Veeco offering a Tool/Machine for 300mm GaN but not Aixtron.  

Aix has stated they have 300 mm tool for evaluation at customers side. Very likely Infineon as well.

Here something to read: https://research-hub.de/companies/AIXTRON%2520SE
 

HAMBURG (dpa-AFX Analyser) - Die Privatbank Berenberg hat die Aktien des Chipindustrie-Ausrüsters Aixtron mit einem Kursziel von 30 Euro auf "Buy" belassen. Auf einer Berenberg-Konferenz mit deutschen Unternehmen habe Finanzvorstand Christian Danninger signalisiert, dass er im derzeit verhaltenen Markt für Leistungshalbleiter auf Siliziumkarbid-Basis Licht am Ende des Tunnels sehe, schrieb Analyst Gustav Froberg in seinem am Dienstag vorliegenden Kommentar.

Hoffentlich gibt es dazu positive Kommentare zu Q3 Zahlen.

 

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/...049.cms?from=mdr


The Invest is worth roughly 15 Billions USD (source:
https://www.electronicsforyou.biz/industry-buzz/...dias-electronics/)
Just wondering how much of that will go for production equipement. Hopefully mainly by Aix.

 

they explore different scenarios in terms of market evolvement here:
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/...e-silicon-carbide-wafer-market

Their bottom line:

The SiC industry is proactively addressing the new demand stemming from growth in EVs, even though uncertainty abounds about how it will evolve. No matter what scenario materializes, demand for SiC wafers will continue to grow and remain robust. Simultaneously, competition will intensify for technology, quality, and price leadership, with wafer suppliers continuing to make massive investments in improvements. Incumbents face competition from emerging companies and will benefit from ensuring that the shift to 200-mm technology delivers the expected cost advantages to maintain their technology leadership. Meanwhile, emerging suppliers must focus on iterative learning to close the technology leadership gap against incumbents. For all industry stakeholders, the next few years will be a challenging but exciting time to capture opportunities.