Wang Zhonglin, Secretary of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of Hubei Provincial People’s Congress, and his delegation visited YASC Wuhan Base on the morning of May 28, 2025, inspected the silicon carbide (SiC) wafer production line, and witnessed the first wafer made at the base rolling off the production line.
With the first wafer successfully rolling off the production line on the production floor, YASC Wuhan Base, with a total investment of over CNY20 billion, was put into operation. The launch is not only an important milestone in the development history of YASC, but also means that the countdown is on for full production at Wuhan Base with an annual capacity of 360,000 SiC wafers.
The first wafer fabricated at Wuhan Base lights up the Optics Valley Science Island
YASC Wuhan Base is located at the Optics Valley Science Island, Wuhan East Lake Hi-tech Development Zone. The project has constantly refreshed the construction “progress bar” since its official groundbreaking on September 1, 2023. It took less than ten months to build the plant from driving the first pile to topping out the main structure, setting new speeds for ultra-large project construction with CNY10B+ investments.
At the meeting, Wang Zhonglin was briefed on Wuhan Base construction history, products and technologies, and planning and layout. He points out, the YASC Wuhan project fills a gap in high-end SiC device manufacturing in Hubei Province, and plays an important underpinning role in Hubei’s efforts to compete in new arenas in the third-generation semiconductor industry and build the full industrial chain of integrated circuits. Wang Zhonglin hopes that YASC will continuously increase more in research and development, strengthen manufacturing capacity, enhance product competitiveness, attract more upstream and downstream enterprises to support the layout, integrate companies into a comprehensive industrial chain, and help Hubei build a more leading, independent, forward-looking and complete world-class optoelectronic information industry cluster.
Zhuang Dan, Executive Director and President of YOFC and Chairman of YASC, extended a warm welcome to Wang Zhonglin and his delegation, and expressed sincere appreciation to the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee and Hubei Provincial Government for their longstanding support and assistance to YASC. With the first wafer fabricated at Wuhan Base rolling off the production line, YASC will embark on a new journey, he noted. Zhuang Dan believes, the launch as an important milestone in the development history of YASC will enable YASC to make positive contributions to the development of China’s third-generation semiconductor and new energy vehicle industries, and help build Hubei into “a hub of scientific and technological innovation with national influence”.
Together writing a new chapter in the compound semiconductor industry
The “YASC’s 3nd Anniversary” Keynote Forum & Guru Lecture with the theme of “Sailing” was held on the sidelines of the event in the afternoon of May 28. It brought together Chinese and foreign experts in the third-generation semiconductor field to discuss industry opportunities and explore a new future for development.
YASC has followed a challenging but impressive path in the third-generation semiconductor startup journey over the past three years: The company has continuously expanded its workforce to more than 1,500 employees; it has successfully completed two core standard certifications in international automotive quality management and automotive-grade reliability; it has built a strategic presence of Wuhu Base, Wuhan Base, Shanghai Sales Office and Shenzhen Sales Office, and substantially improved comprehensive corporate power.
In particular, Wuhan Base is fully outfitted with 6/8-inch compatible equipment, comparable to those at major international SiC device manufacturers; meanwhile, it has built refined technology processes and complete process platforms, and can provide comprehensive process development and technology solutions; it has set up the first fully automated Overhead Hoist Transfer (OHT) plant (Auto3) in the SiC industry, which can achieve efficient utilization of production resources and maximize manufacturing efficiency.
In the Keynote Report & Guru Lecture session, heavyweight guests from Chinese and foreign academia and industry including Liu Sheng, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Dean of School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University, Tsunenobu Kimoto, a professor at Kyoto University, and Long Shibing, a professor at School of Microelectronics, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), had in-depth exchanges of views on compound semiconductor frontier technologies and industry trends, and talked about the future of the compound semiconductor industry.
Across the globe, with the commercial rollout of 5G, vehicles going electric, and the development of artificial intelligence industry, the third-generation semiconductor market represented by silicon carbide is seeing explosive growth in demand. In the increasingly intense global competition, YASC will take the power-on and production at Wuhan Base as a new starting point, constantly increase R&D spending, and make its products more competitive. At the same time, it will actively work with industry peers to build compound semiconductor industry clusters represented by silicon carbide, and make new and greater contributions to the thriving third-generation semiconductor industry.
