Expert: China's IC industry chain layout is basically complete

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"Solve the problem of China's core and support China's development in the next 30 years." At the "Integrated Circuit Industry Innovation (Zhenjiang) High-end Dialogue" held in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu on the 25th, Ye Tianchun, director of the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and leader of the 02 Special Expert Group, said that under the continuous promotion of major national projects, China has initially completed the construction of the integrated circuit industry chain, and a number of companies have begun to stand out. Next, the country's continued investment is crucial to the development of the integrated circuit industry, and the technology must move towards a new path of emphasizing original innovation and integrated innovation. Wu Hanming, a technical research and development consultant at SMIC, and others elaborated on the opportunities and challenges facing the industry, revealing China's latecomer advantages in mature process fields and opportunities to overtake in the advanced process field. The industry needs continuous investment In Ye Tianchun's view, the "China Core" problem must be solved to support China's development in the next 30 years. Integrated circuit technology is the strategic commanding height of national strength. This field, which integrates more than 40 cross-disciplinary disciplines and cutting-edge manufacturing technologies in the fields of science and technology and engineering, has a direct impact on manufacturing equipment, precision machinery, precision instruments, automation, fine chemicals and new materials.

It is worth noting that, according to Ye Tianchun, Wuhan Xinxin and the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have jointly completed the construction of the 39-layer 3D-NAND process flow and the development of the prototype structure. All structural parameters have met the requirements and product trial production has begun. Recently, after Tsinghua Unigroup acquired a majority stake in Wuhan Xinxin, it established Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd., with Zhao Weiguo as chairman. Tsinghua Unigroup's Unigroup Guoxin (37.630, -0.46, -1.21%) is its memory integration platform. As the first-tier company in domestic memory design, in addition to raising 80 billion yuan in private placement to build a storage plant, Unigroup Guoxin recently invested 100 million yuan to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary, Unigroup Guoxin Microelectronics, to further expand its IC design business. In this regard, people related to Micron Semiconductor said that Wuhan Xinxin's progress in the field of 3D-NAND is shocking and gratifying, which shows that compared with other domestic factories, it has become a company with international talents and technologies. According to data, at present, in the field of 3D-NAND, Samsung has mass-produced 48-layer products, and 64-layer and 90-layer products are under development.

With the strong support of the state and the guidance of major national projects, the layout of the entire industrial chain of China's integrated circuit industry has been basically completed, and a number of companies have emerged. Ye Tianchun introduced that packaging technology has moved from low-end to high-end, and the technology has reached the international advanced level; key equipment and materials have been created from scratch, some products have entered 14nm research and development, and the manufacturing process has made great progress, 28nm has entered mass production, and 14nm research and development has achieved breakthroughs; the gap between system-level chip design capabilities and the international advanced level has been greatly narrowed. Among them, a number of companies such as China Micro Semiconductor, North Microelectronics (which has been acquired by Seven Star Electronics (41.000, 1.85, 4.73%)), Seven Star Huachuang, Ruili Scientific Instruments, Shanghai Shengmei, and Shenyang Tuojing have emerged.

Ye Tianchun further emphasized that the continuous investment of the state and enterprises is crucial to the development of the integrated circuit industry. Historically, the development of China's integrated circuit industry has been intermittently stagnant due to the lack of continuous investment, resulting in an increasing gap with the international advanced level. To this end, the country should further increase its efforts in major projects and key scientific and technological plans, and investment, especially investment in technology research and development funds, must be sustainable in order to keep up with the international pace. Technology enters original innovation Ye Tianchun believes that China's integrated circuit industry has entered a new stage from catching up to originality. Under the new situation, China's integrated circuit industry should pay more attention to innovation, especially original innovation and integrated innovation. In the past, China's integrated circuits took the path of "introducing, digesting, absorbing and re-innovating", and the development of the industry and enterprises was in a "catch-up mode". However, with the evolution of the process and the development of China's integrated circuit industry, on the one hand, it has accelerated its own research and development, and on the other hand, it has implemented mergers and acquisitions. China's integrated circuit industry and technology have reached a new height. In the case of following the leader, there is no longer so much experience from others to learn from. Like foreign countries, China's integrated circuit industry has begun to enter the exploration stage of "crossing the river by feeling the stones".

Ye Tianchun said that if China's integrated circuits want to maintain their stamina, they must pay more attention to innovation, strengthen basic research, and cultivate original innovation and integrated innovation. The focus of innovation: First, facing the adjustment of industrial structure, strategic emerging industries and intelligent social services, carry out overall, systematic and integrated innovation to promote industrial chain innovation; second, shift from following strategy to innovation leap, and form their own characteristics in the global industrial innovation chain. This requires the realization of world innovation based on the Chinese market, forming distinctive innovative technologies and innovative products in several core technology fields, and shifting from technological innovation to business model innovation through industrial chain collaboration. Latecomer advantages and opportunities It is worth noting that at this high-end dialogue, based on the advent of the post-Moore era, Wu Hanming and others elaborated on the opportunities and challenges facing the industry in detail, revealing China's latecomer advantages in the field of mature processes and the opportunity to overtake in the field of advanced processes. In the Moore process, facing the accumulation of half a century of international semiconductor giants and continued high scientific research investment, China's industrial foundation and scientific research investment have determined that it is difficult to compete with them, and can only narrow the gap with the world's advanced. However, as Moore's process breakthroughs become increasingly difficult and semiconductor application technology has seen a huge turnaround, China is expected to achieve unexpected success in the "post-Moore era", highlighting its latecomer advantage in the field of mature processes and overtaking in the field of advanced processes. In the post-Moore era, China's integrated circuit industry has the opportunity to overtake. Wu Hanming believes that in the post-Moore era, the fragmented market will bring chaos and a large number of destructive ideas, a large number of basic innovations will emerge, and the opportunities for basic research will be unprecedented; the market will show diversified development, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), radio frequency (RF), MEMS and sensors, and integrated circuit design companies will have great potential; the overall innovation opportunities of the industrial chain are highlighted, especially in the design link, including the construction of a public platform for design IP. In the view of Liu Erzhuang, general manager of Lam Research Semiconductor China, the Internet of Things will bring new development momentum to the integrated circuit industry and greatly extend the life of mature process technology and factories. The requirements of the Internet of Things for low cost, low power consumption and high efficiency have put forward new requirements and development momentum for integrated circuit materials, packaging and manufacturing, and have driven the development of technologies such as wide bandgap semiconductor materials and SIP packaging, giving China's integrated circuit industry the opportunity to compete with international giants on the same starting line. In addition, given that 80% of semiconductor devices in the Internet of Things will use mature processes below 28nm, this will greatly extend the life of those 8-inch plants and even 6-inch plants, giving China more development opportunities in the field of mature integrated circuit processes, making China highlight its latecomer advantage in the field of mature processes. Bain Consulting: China's 100 billion investment in semiconductors may fail Bain & Company released an analysis report saying that due to the lack of proprietary technology and talent, China's ambitious goal of investing more than $100 billion to become the global leader in the computer chip industry is likely to fail. China is now one of the world's largest consumers of semiconductor equipment, thanks to its huge manufacturing industry. Bain Consulting predicts that by 2020, nearly 55% of the world's storage, logic and analog chips will flow to or through China. However, most of the microchips that are the "brains" of products such as Apple's iPhone are mainly imported from companies such as Intel and Samsung Electronics. The Chinese government formulated a plan in 2014 to change this situation. China plans to invest more than $100 billion to become a leader in the global chip industry by 2020. China has also pushed for consolidation of domestic suppliers to maximize investment, including the $2.8 billion merger of Tsinghua Unigroup and Wuhan Xinxin, a deal announced last month. No access to cutting-edge technology Chips But Kevin Meehan, a partner at Bain in Singapore, said financial investment is not enough to buy leadership in the semiconductor industry, which is currently worth about $1 trillion. He estimates that China currently produces only 15% of the world's semiconductors. "China is preparing to enter the semiconductor market in a very smart and slick way," he said, "but I don't think this approach will allow them to obtain cutting-edge processor technology, which is the foundation of the success of Intel and Samsung." Chinese companies' efforts to acquire intellectual property rivals in the processor and memory chip markets have been blocked by global regulators. Tsinghua Unigroup's planned $3.8 billion investment in Western Digital was abandoned due to a U.S. security review, and investments in Taiwanese chip companies have also faced regulatory hurdles. Meehan believes that Chinese semiconductor manufacturers may eventually benefit from cooperation with global giants and become one of the large suppliers of key components such as computer memory chips. Intel and Qualcomm have both agreed to work with Chinese suppliers to build semiconductor manufacturing plants in China. “In the long term — not five years but decades — you have to believe that Chinese companies will absorb some of the technology,” he said. “But foreign companies are also very careful not to put cutting-edge intellectual property in China. It’s hard to get these technologies without licensing or acquisition.”

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