Huawei Hubble and Zhongguancun Development Group invested in a thermal control materials company. The founder once created China's first metal matrix composite material | Exclusive report by 36Kr

Author: Ou Xue

Editor: Yuan Silai

Yingke learned that Harbin Yisheng New Material Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yisheng New Material"), an enterprise specializing in metal-based thermal management materials, recently completed tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing. The investors are Huawei Hubble and Qihang Investment of Zhongguancun Development Group. This round of financing will be mainly used for the purchase of production line equipment, capacity expansion, and the R & D of a new generation of thermal control materials.

Established on September 18, 2024, Yisheng New Material is a high - tech enterprise mainly engaged in the operation and R & D of domestic high - end metal composite materials. Relying on the national - level metal matrix composite engineering laboratory, the company's core technologies, such as interface control technology, net forming technology for complex components, and low - cost processes, are in the leading position in the industry.

The company's products cover new materials and their components, such as diamond/copper, diamond/aluminum ultra - high thermal conductivity materials, graphite/aluminum, carbon fiber/aluminum, carbon fiber/magnesium, and high - thermal conductivity and low - expansion silicon carbide/aluminum. They have successfully met the requirements of advanced semiconductors, new energy, and consumer electronics for lightweight, high - thermal conductivity, high - strength, and high - stiffness properties, providing important material and component support for fields such as high - power chip packaging, consumer electronics, aerospace, and new energy vehicles.

Wu Gaohui, the founder of the company, is an academician of the Asia - Pacific Academy of Materials and one of the pioneers in the field of metal matrix composites in China. He started relevant research more than forty years ago and presided over the development of the first metal matrix composite in China.

Yingke learned that with the explosion of AI computing power, the popularization of new energy vehicles, and the rapid development of communication base stations, the power consumption of chips has increased by 4 - 5 times, and the heat generation has also surged synchronously. Traditional thermal control materials have been difficult to meet the demand, and the fourth - generation high - thermal conductivity composite materials are changing from "optional" to "essential".

According to Wu Gaohui, the founder of Yisheng New Material, the potential domestic market space for diamond/aluminum and diamond/copper materials alone reaches tens of billions of yuan. Especially in fields such as AI computing centers, 6G communications, and low - orbit satellites, the demand is being rapidly released.

Currently, the mainstream process for high - thermal conductivity composite materials is the powder metallurgy route, which involves mixing copper powder and diamond powder and then sintering them under heat and pressure. However, Yisheng New Material has chosen another path: vacuum/pressure infiltration.

This technology allows liquid aluminum or copper to penetrate into the diamond preform under pressure, achieving nearly 100% density. Wu Gaohui believes that the advantage of this technical route lies in the high quality and stability of the products.

The Yisheng New Material team has developed an independently - researched W coating thickness control process, which forms a high - thermal conductivity interface between the diamond and the metal matrix while avoiding harmful interface reactions. After environmental tests such as aerospace - grade humidity and heat, and thermal shock, the thermal conductivity attenuation of the material is less than 2.5%, reaching the lowest value reported in the literature.

While meeting the cyclic stability of the materials, in terms of performance indicators, the thermal conductivity of the diamond/aluminum composite material prepared by Yisheng New Material reaches 550 - 750W/(m·k), and that of diamond/copper reaches 750 - 980W/(m·k), both of which are higher than similar products of international manufacturers such as Sumitomo Electric of Japan and Plansee of Austria.

In addition, the team's invented pulling - type vacuum pressure infiltration technology enables low - cost mass production and one - step forming of complex - shaped components. The size of the heat spreader for aerospace applications can reach 300×300 mm, and the surface roughness Ra can be controlled between 0.4 - 0.8 microns.

Schematic diagram of Yisheng New Material's products (Source: the enterprise)

Currently, in terms of orders, Yisheng New Material has established long - term supply relationships with many military units such as China Electronics Technology Group and aerospace research institutes, and its products are used in national key models such as high - resolution satellites and electronic warfare equipment. In the civilian field, the company has passed the verification of product performance, reliability, and stability for key power devices of many industry leaders and is expanding its customer base in fields such as optical modules, computing centers, and new energy vehicles.

Although the team has a deep technical accumulation, its production capacity has been limited because it has long relied on the equipment of the State Key Laboratory of Harbin Institute of Technology for small - batch supply.

After this round of financing, Yisheng New Material will put the first self - developed automatic infiltration equipment into production, and the production capacity of a single machine will be increased to one million pieces per year. In the future, the company will continuously expand the equipment array according to market demand, aiming to achieve an annual production capacity of tens of millions of pieces.

Wu Gaohui said that the team is simultaneously promoting the market application of multiple thermal control materials, including graphene/aluminum, carbon fiber/aluminum, and sandwich composite structures, with the goal of simplifying the chip packaging structure at the material level. In addition, the company plans to go public in the next 3 - 5 years and will accelerate market expansion and capacity ramp - up after this round of financing.

Views of the investors:

Ma Jianping, the managing partner of Qihang Investment of Zhongguancun Development Group, said: Diamond - copper and diamond - aluminum high - thermal conductivity composite materials have extremely high thermal conductivity, adjustable thermal expansion coefficients, and are cost - effective for large - scale applications, representing the clear development direction of the next - generation heat - dissipation materials. These materials have irreplaceable application value in high - end fields such as communications, data centers, power modules, and aerospace, with huge market potential. We believe that enterprises that master the core preparation process and can achieve stable mass production will occupy a key position in the industrial chain.

Professor Wu Gaohui, the founder of the company, is an authoritative scientist in the field of composite materials. Over the decades, he has made remarkable research achievements in the field of metal matrix composites, especially diamond/copper (aluminum) materials, leading the development of this technical direction in China. The company has formed a complete independent intellectual property system from theory, process to product, and is a veritable technological source and leader in this field. Particularly, the company has strong product depth and industrialization extension capabilities, with a product matrix of dozens of high - performance metal matrix composite materials in reserve, and has the technical and engineering capabilities for continuous industrialization. We are also pleased to see that the company has quickly gained recognition from many leading customers in a short period after our investment, and the large - scale orders have further strengthened our confidence.