Recently, the GT advanced technology companies in the United States (with silicon carbide and sapphire materials and polycrystalline silicon products and crystal growth system), President and chief executive Greg Knight said, the United States and China's repeated trade disputes exist between a cross-border issue, is to protect U.S. manufacturing, can't weaken the ability of the United States in the manufacturing technology.

American companies think it has made mistakes in areas such as solar power

While the U.S. government does restrict the sale of key U.S. technology companies, it does not place reasonable restrictions on the sale of related manufacturing equipment and processes. The United States (and Europe) has lost its early lead over China in solar, LED and polysilicon manufacturing, in part because there are no restrictions on the sale of manufacturing equipment. But us manufacturers and the government must now work together to stop this mistake and to protect a new American industry, silicon carbide.

Over the past 15 years, GT advanced technologies has sold advanced equipment and processes to the solar, LED and polysilicon industries, helping Asia, especially China, dominate today. In just a few years, Chinese manufacturers have taken over industries that were once dominated by the United States and Europe, driven by massive capital injections and the design of replica equipment.

Us companies want the us government to protect the SiC industry

The United States is the undisputed global leader in advanced silicon carbide production, a material that will fundamentally accelerate the transformation of the U.S. economy. This little-known strategic asset is one of America's most important technological innovations. Our company and a number of other American companies have developed core substrate material technology for the mass production of SiC crystal wafers.

Semiconductor device manufacturers are replacing conventional silicon with SiC to improve availability and reduce the cost of high-power applications. SiC could help electric cars achieve longer distances, lower costs, help achieve cheaper renewable energy and stronger 5G networks.

SiC technology and related production intellectual property rights are closely protected by patents and trade secrets. The ingredients of silicon carbide are simple - but the process and equipment to change them is complex. If the us company with the technology exports it, it will help other countries to "expand with simple capital support and dominate the SiC market in the short term".

Sales of production equipment used to be the business model of GT advanced technologies. This strategy makes it a lot of money, and it can do a lot more by selling SiC equipment and processes. However, Greg Knight said that as CEO, I changed my business model and decided that as a forward-looking company in SiC's supply chain, we must protect technology developed in the United States while still ensuring the best interests of our shareholders, employees, and industry.

Us companies want the us government to ban the sale of SiC manufacturing equipment

Much of the power to protect us strategic technology assets rests with the us government - particularly CFIUS, the committee on foreign investment in the us. Last year, CFIUS blocked the sale of Wolfspeed, an American firm that makes SiC, gan-on-sic high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC), to Germany's infineon on national security grounds. The move follows the Obama administration's decision to block two similar sales to Chinese buyers: LED maker LumiLEDs, a unit of Dutch electronics giant philips, and Aixtron, a German maker of MOCVD systems, which has a us subsidiary.

The existing system for protecting America's key technologies is less than satisfactory. The blocked M&A transactions or the amount of foreign investment are of no importance when all companies are required to do is buy the underlying manufacturing equipment and processes; If we allow the sale of capital equipment, there is no need to buy the business, as this would grant an implied right to use the technology. Therefore, we must stop by making equipment sales to our knowledge, because we are in the high-growth, key strategic industry to support any country (China) or any other countries of that day of, we will help them to get technology again, and destroy the birth of another American industry. Hopefully us policymakers will protect the basic "made in America" technology we have.