【Member News】Qi Hongji, Chairman of Fujia Gallium: Anchoring Industrialization to Seize the Development Opportunity of Gallium Oxide Materials

      "Power electronic devices prepared by Gallium Oxide can withstand higher voltage, higher current, and lower on-off loss, and have broad prospects for industrial development, and have become a strategic plateau for global competition." Qi Hongji, chairman of Fujia Gallium, said in an interview with China Securities Journal reporter that the company is using the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics science and technology incubation platform to speed up the industrialization process of Gallium Oxide single crystal transfer and epitaxy wafer.

Photo of the production workshop for Gallium Oxide crystals in Fujia Gallium: provided by the company

      At present, the new round of scientific and technological revolution represented by artificial intelligence is accelerating its evolution, promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial change, and becoming the key to seize the global industrial highland. Fujia Gallium is a typical case of transformation of scientific and technological achievements. Qi Hongji said that it is necessary to promote enterprises to cross the "valley of death" of transformation of scientific and technological achievements, open up the channel of industrialization of scientific and technological innovation, and create an incubation platform with cultivation ability.

Promote the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements

      "This is the Gallium Oxide single crystal material." In the exhibition hall of Fujia Gallium, Qi Hongji picked up a square crystal material the size of a hand to introduce to reporters, "Gallium Oxide single crystal belongs to semiconductor materials. Compared with monocrystalline Silicon, the power electronic devices prepared by Gallium Oxide can withstand higher voltage, greater current, and lower on-off loss, which is known as the fourth-generation semiconductor materials. Based on these excellent properties and efficient preparation methods similar to monocrystalline Silicon, Gallium Oxide has become a key point for global competition."

      At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution is accelerating, promoting the integrated development of scientific and technological innovation and industrial transformation, and becoming the key to seize the global industrial highland. Fujia Gallium itself is a typical case of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. "We are one of the earliest teams to carry out research and development of Gallium Oxide materials in China, with more than 20 years since 2004. We have certain technical advantages in the preparation of single crystal materials." Qi Hongji told reporters.

      In order to solve the material bottleneck problem at the source of China's Gallium Oxide industry chain, in 2019, Qi Hongji led the team to establish Fujia Gallium, which is committed to the industrialization of Gallium Oxide single crystal and epitaxy wafer. The practice of entrepreneurship has made Qi Hongji deeply realize that there is a huge gap between good technology and good products. "In the process of transforming scientific and technological achievements, founders usually have technical advantages, but lack abilities in team building, corporate strategy formulation and operation. This will seriously affect the success rate of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. To improve this situation, I participated in the 14th period of the Legend Star Entrepreneurial CEO Training Class, where I learned to 'set up a team, set a strategy and lead a team'." Qi Hongji said.

Create Science and Innovation Incubator

      Qi Hongji told reporters that the establishment of Fujia Gallium is already his third "entrepreneurship". Previously, Qi Hongji conducted research and engineered work on laser film and large-size high-performance DKDP crystal growth technology, and the establishment of Fujia Gallium is the true entrepreneurship. Qi Hongji has experienced three stages of scientific research, engineering and industrialization, and has played multiple roles, which gives him a deeper understanding of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

      "In the laboratory, researchers pursue the continuous improvement of material properties. But for entrepreneurs, there are higher comprehensive requirements, you have to consider the industry prospects of the material, the cost of batch preparation, which is a huge change in concept in the first place." Qi Hongji said that in order to cross the gap between innovation and entrepreneurship, an incubation platform with nurturing ability is crucial, and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements of Fujia Gallium is carried out on the professional incubator of Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics.

      It is worth mentioning that Qi Hongji also serves as the director of Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, which allows him to examine the future of scientific and technological achievements transformation from a different perspective.

      "Scientific and technological innovation is from 0 to 1, the transformation of achievements is from 1 to 10, and industrialization is from 10 to 100 and 1000... From the perspective of Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, when we screen projects, scientific and technological achievements themselves are only one of the criteria, whether the application scenario is large enough, whether the application points to solve are critical enough, and whether the team is willing to devote itself to them are all important measurement criteria." Qi Hongji said.

Accelerating Industrialization

      "This is a 2-inch Gallium Oxide single crystal that we transferred from Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is very thin and can only cut 2-3 chips. And this piece is a 4-inch Gallium Oxide single crystal developed by us, with a thickness of 12mm. It can cut 8-10 4-inch chips, with high output efficiency and greatly reduced cost. Now, we can produce 6 inches of Gallium Oxide single crystal substrate." Qi Hongji told reporters that Fujia Gallium continues to accelerate the industrialization of Gallium Oxide materials. "At present, we focus on Gallium Oxide single crystal substrates and epitaxial wafers, which have obvious technical advantages. In the device and module segment, we are working with our partners to accelerate the industrialization of Gallium Oxide on the full chain." Qi Hongji introduced that the emphasis of Gallium Oxide industrialization is the industrialization of substrate. In this regard, Fujia Gallium relies on technical advantages and forward-looking layout, has achieved a number of industries "first" : the first to achieve 6-inch thick single crystal substrate preparation, reaching the threshold of semiconductor device process line industrialization; Advanced layout in the field of artificial intelligence, took the lead in launching EFG "one-key crystal growth" equipment, solved the problem of equipment obstacles in the industrialization of Gallium Oxide materials, and laid the foundation for the industrialization of single crystal; Adopting MOCVD and MBE technologies more suitable for industrialization to prepare epitaxial films, and taking the lead in obtaining device performance verification from industry partners.

      It is worth mentioning that in September 2024, the first domestic 6-inch Gallium Oxide single crystal and epitaxial wafer growth line built by Fujia Gallium started construction in Fuyang, Hangzhou, and is expected to be put into use in 2025. In the future, Fujia Gallium will achieve an annual production scale of 10,000 pieces, provide high-quality single crystal and epitaxial wafer for downstream customers, and further accelerate the industrialization process in this field.

      Under the background of the integrated development of artificial intelligence technology and the real economy, Fujia Gallium actively applies artificial intelligence technology to accelerate industrial development. "The company team is keenly aware of the major impact of artificial intelligence on material research and development and industrialization, formulated a clear ‘one-key crystal growth' and ‘intelligent crystal growth' development roadmap, and took the lead in the layout of relevant patents at domestic and international." At this stage, the "one-key crystal growth" has been realized, and the "intelligent crystal growth" is in the data collection and model training, and it is believed that it will be put into practical application in the near future. In addition, quantum computing technology brings computing power improvement, which can greatly accelerate the development of semiconductor materials in analog simulation, digital twin, big data processing, material system design and other aspects."

      Qi Hongji said that in order to promote the industrialization process of Gallium Oxide and achieve commercial application, "it is also necessary to further reduce the material preparation cost of Gallium Oxide to improve market competitiveness." In the future, while carrying out research and development, we will promote the development of engineered technology across the whole chain, to further improve the stability of products, reduce production costs and expand competitive advantages."