Silicon carbide (SiC) is considered as one of the most important wide band gap materials. It has many advantages, such as wide band gap, high breakdown electric field, high thermal conductivity, high electron saturation velocity and strong radiation resistance. The semiconductor devices based on SiC materials can not only operate at higher temperature, but also have higher reliability at high voltage and high frequency. In the past 20 years, with the development of material growth technology, manufacturing process and device physics, SiC materials and devices have been widely used in radar, 5G telecom technology, electric vehicles and other fields, which has an extremely important impact on the development of national defense industry, information security and economy. In the SiC based high-power semiconductor device industrial chain, high-quality SiC single crystal preparation and industrialization is the most important part. In this paper, the development of semi-insulating SiC single crystal substrate materials at home and abroad is summarized. The research history and current progresses of semi-insulating SiC in Shandong University are mainly introduced. The research and industrialization and existing challenges are discussed.