What are the hot spots in integrated circuit research?

The development of science and technology is inseparable from various electronic products, which bring convenience to our lives. Integrated circuits have always been in full swing, but I think everyone, like me, is not familiar with what the research direction of integrated circuits is, and what the hot spots and highlights of integrated circuits are. Let’s learn about the latest developments in integrated circuits. Cutting edge technology.

According to relevant statistics, the current domestic investment in the chip field has increased by 30% year-on-year. It is easy to imagine the popularity of "domestic cores". Even traditional home appliance giants like Gree have joined in the "core manufacturing" Among the team, there are many companies that are either "making cores" or on their way to "making cores". Without exception, they all expressed that they must take core technologies like chips into their own hands. Recently, the Department of Information and Electronics of the Chinese Academy of Engineering released a blue book in the field of electronic information, "Research on the Development of China's Electronic Information Engineering Science and Technology."

What are the hot spots and highlights in the domestic integrated circuit industry?

Hot spots:

The future hot spots in the integrated circuit industry should keep pace with the market. The market hot spots in the future are 5G communications, cloud computing, Internet of Things, big data, etc. In addition, smart grid, smart transportation, automotive electronics, etc. are also hot spots in the future. 5G communication technology is the foundation for the Internet of Things, big data, intelligent transportation, etc. The hot development in the next few years will be 5G communications. The reason is that in addition to technology, the development of 5G also requires two supporting points, namely a huge market and cost competition, and these two points are our unique advantages.

Intelligent connected cars are an opportunity for my country’s industrial development. With the electrification, sensing, intelligence, and networking of traditional cars, new intelligent connected cars have an increasing demand for the number of semiconductors, and semiconductors account for an increasing proportion of the total vehicle cost.

Highlights:

Rapid growth in scale: According to data from the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA), the compound annual growth rate of China's integrated circuit industry in the 10 years from 2007 to 2017 was more than twice the global rate, reaching 15.8%, which is much higher than the global semiconductor market of 6.8% growth rate. In 2017, the entire domestic semiconductor market reached 1,670.86 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.5%. my country's semiconductor market region has become one of the largest and most active trade regions in the world. According to data released by CCID, China's integrated circuit industry sales reached 115.29 billion yuan from January to March 2018, a year-on-year increase of 20.8%.

The structure is becoming more reasonable: in 2008, the packaging and testing industry accounted for 50%, the manufacturing industry accounted for 31%, and the design industry only accounted for 19%. After 10 years of adjustment and development, by 2017, the proportion of the national design industry had increased significantly to 38%, the proportion of manufacturing industry had dropped to 27%, and the proportion of packaging and testing industry had also dropped to 35%.

Improvement in leading strength: In 2017, the number of mainland China's top 50 integrated circuit design companies in the world reached 10. For the chip foundry market, SMIC's sales in 2017 reached US$3.101 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6%, ranking fifth in the world; Huahong Group's sales reached US$1.395 billion, a year-on-year increase of 18%, ranking seventh .

Innovation has significantly improved: Innovation capabilities are mainly reflected in design capabilities, manufacturing process levels (SMIC 14nm has begun to be introduced into clients and is expected to be mass-produced soon), memory (Yangtze Memory is mass-producing 64-layer 128G 3D storage), packaging and testing (The proportion of advanced packaging and testing scale has increased to 30%), equipment and materials (cleaning equipment, dielectric etching machines, CMP grinders, ion implanters, packaging and testing equipment, etc. have achieved breakthroughs, 8-inch silicon wafers, photoresist, copper Key materials such as electroplating solutions and metal targets have been sold, and some segments have entered the global mainstream). The above is an introduction to the hot topics in integrated circuit research. I hope to be helpful.