On April 28, BYD Semiconductor announced that its wafer fab in Changsha City, Hunan Province, China has broken ground. The total investment of the project is about $140 millions, and annual revenue is expected to reach $113 million after it is put into production.
According to public information, BYD Semiconductor is a high-tech enterprise integrating R&D, manufacturing, and marketing services of semiconductor power devices and integrated circuits. Its main business covers the research and development, production and sales of power semiconductors, control ICs, smart sensors and optoelectronic semiconductors, and has a complete industrial chain of integrated operations including chip design, wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing and applications.
As a leading company in China's auto industry, BYD's investment in the semiconductor industry has been rarely reported. In fact, BYD has been in the semiconductor industry for many years.
In 2002, BYD Group established BYD Microelectronics (now BYD Semiconductor) and began to design integrated circuits. Until now, many products have been developed, including power management chips, CMOS image sensors, LCD drivers and touch control chips. .
In 2008, BYD acquired Zhongwei Semiconductor Circuit's fab and began to independently develop automotive-grade IGBT chips. After more than ten years of development, BYD has become a company that can independently manufacture automotive-grade IGBT modules in China.
According to BYD Semiconductor, the focus of its business in the future will be mainly on automotive-grade IGBTs and industrial-grade IGBTs. The company will use automotive-grade semiconductors as the core to simultaneously promote the development of semiconductors in industrial and consumer fields and become a new type of semiconductor manufacturer.
