National Business Daily: "Bottleneck Problem" of Integrated Circuit Solved! Yongxiang Polysilicon Realizes a Major Technical Breakthrough

Reported by National Business Daily

On November 2, Tongwei's Yongxiang New Energy Phase II 51,000t High-purity Crystalline Silicon Project announced its start of production and operation, further consolidating the leading position of Tongwei in the crystalline silicon raw material production field. The start of the production of 1,000t electronic grade high-purity crystalline silicon of the Project means a huge breakthrough in the localization of electronic grade polycrystalline silicon, thus breaking the "technological blockage" by the US, Japan and some European countries and regions, reversing the dependency on export of all basic raw materials for integrated circuit in the country, and providing a safeguard for strategic safety of raw materials of the Chinese integrated circuit industry.

Electronic grade polycrystalline silicon is a main material for the semi-conductor electronics industry and it has very wide application in the electronic information field. At present, the country encourages domestic enterprises to actively develop high-purity electronic grade polycrystalline silicon mass production technology and this serves as an important national strategic development direction.

High-purity crystalline silicon rectifying tower device of Yongxiang Co., Ltd.

To further improve the quality of the high-purity crystalline silicon products of the company and increase the market share of its high-end crystalline silicon products, Yongxiang Co., Ltd. has created a electronic grade polycrystalline silicon device by carrying out research and development of core equipment of the electronic grade polycrystalline silicon production process, high steady state reduction electrical system, supporting system technology for electronic grade polycrystalline silicon reduction, process intelligent automatic control system integration, study of electronic material circulating, rectifying and purifying technology and development of equipment.

In the 51,000t high-purity crystalline silicon project that has just been put into operation, 1,000t capacity is for production of electronics grade polycrystalline silicon. The purifying technology of the new electronics grade production line will be further enhanced. According to relevant leaders of Yongxiang Co., Ltd., the electronics grade and solar energy grade control standards are different and the number of elements involved is also different. The quality indicator data is currently the best quality level of Yongxiang and various quality indicators are still constantly exceeding the best level. The downstream processes of high-purity crystalline silicon are pull rods, slices and cells. They are eventually applied to PV power generation. Without question, high quality raw material products create a larger space and possibility of value enhancement. "More than 90% of the materials of Yongxiang can be used for N-type. At present, our silicon materials have passed N-type monocrystal verification of a number of suppliers including Longi, Jinko and Yuze and the materials are supplied to them in a batch manner." said the leader of Yongxiang.

It is learned that, compared to the 99.9999% purity of the solar energy grade polycrystalline silicon used in the PV industry, the requirement on the purity of electronics grade polycrystalline silicon is up to 99.999999999%. The electronics grade polycrystalline silicon with such demanding purity is the "cornerstone" of the integrated circuit industry and it has always been a necessary strategic raw material for the development of integrated circuit in the country. However, for a long time, there are only a few enterprises in the world that can produce electronics grade polycrystalline silicon products. Moreover, key technology is mainly mastered by German, Japanese and the US enterprises and it can be said that electronics grade polycrystalline silicon has long been monopolized by foreign enterprises.

Regarding the 1,000t electronics grade polycrystalline silicon of Yongxiang New Energy Phase II Project, the process technology and product quality will be further enhanced, meaning that Chinese enterprises have made new breakthroughs in "bottleneck" technology in key fields and achieving a huge breakthrough in the localization of electronics grade polycrystalline silicon. Against the backdrop that our integrated circuit silicon materials are "subject to others", the breakthroughs are of great strategic significance for the development of the integrated circuit industry of the country.

Garden type factory of Yongxiang Co., Ltd.

As an upstream enterprise of Tongwei PV industrial chain, Yongxiang Co., Ltd. entered the polycrystalline silicon field in 2007 and its core technology "Yongxiang Method" has evolved to the "seventh generation" through more than ten years of technical accumulation and innovative breakthroughs. Great efforts have been made to improve the quality and reduce the consumption, realizing excellent result in both safety and environmental protection and economic benefit. As early as in 2008, the company set up a technical center with supporting facilities and equipment and made investment to establish a test line for study of technical application of recycling of by-products of polycrystalline silicon production. In 2009, with the approval by the Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province, the company officially established the Sichuan Province Silicon Material By-product Recycling Engineering Technology Research Center which is dedicated to development and application of polycrystalline silicon production technology and by-product recycling technology. In 2015, through years of study of the Center, the goal of 100% recycling of polycrystalline silicon by-products, zero pollution and zero emission was realized and it was approved to change the name of Sichuan Province Silicon Material By-product Recycling Engineering Technology Research Center to Sichuan Province Polycrystalline Silicon Engineering Technology Research Center, the only engineering technology research center in Sichuan Province that is engaged in research and application of polycrystalline silicon technology.

Meantime, through twenty years of continual technical research and development and technological innovation, Yongxiang Co., Ltd. has solved the safety and environmental protection problem from the source, formed a complete circular economy industrial chain combining chemical engineering and new energy and a material and energy self-circulation system, and realizing improved quality and reduced consumption and low carbon development with various indicators leading in the world.

In the future, with the constant expansion of the integrated circuit market scale of the country, the electronics grade polycrystalline silicon production enterprises of the country will have a broad development space. Yongxiang Co., Ltd. will further promote the localization of electronics grade polycrystalline silicon materials in the country, create a renowned national brand for our semi-conductor silicon materials and continually consolidate the status and competitiveness of our high-purity crystalline silicon industry in the world.