How did Xiamen Semiconductor achieve the transformation from a “wasteland” to a highland in just 4 years?

According to Jiwei.com, the Xiamen Semiconductor Investment Group 2021 Investor Annual Meeting and System Integration and Advanced Packaging Seminar was successfully held in Haicang, Xiamen on January 8, 2021. Leaders and guests from semiconductor industry experts, local governments, investment companies, partners, and investment institutions attended and witnessed the event, and gained a deeper understanding of the prospects of Xiamen's semiconductor industry.

After four years of industrial layout, Xiamen Semiconductor Investment Group Co., Ltd. has built a relatively complete semiconductor industry chain from design, manufacturing to packaging and testing, and has initially formed an advanced packaging industry chain (such as wafer-level and substrate-based technology-supported special packaging) with product-oriented special processes and oriented to system integration market demand, as well as a group of design companies mainly entrepreneurial, and has invested in nearly 30 companies.

Professor Zhang Bo from Chengdu University of Electronic Science and Technology delivered a speech at the conference, saying that we can see that in just four years, Haicang has grown from a semiconductor "wasteland" to a very important domestic semiconductor highland. It is very rare that Xiamen Semiconductor Investment Group can combine its own judgment and the advice of external experts to make some fruitful industrial investments. I would like to thank Xiamen Semiconductor Investment Group for its great contribution to the entire semiconductor industry, especially the power semiconductor industry where I work. I wish this annual meeting and Xiamen (Haicang) Integrated Circuit Enterprise Advanced Packaging Seminar a success.

Wang Huilian: For the next 30-50 years of development rights, semiconductors will be the focus of competition, and open development will be the cornerstone

Wang Huilian, director and general manager of Xiamen Semiconductor Investment Group, delivered a speech entitled "Exploring the path of semiconductor industry suitable for national conditions and development stage - insisting on doing the right thing". He said that in the long river of history, we have bought precious time at the cost of chips and exchanged it for the world's top computing infrastructure - cloud computing, and the spring of Chinese chips has just arrived.

 "Today, we are facing the development rights for the next 30 to 50 years, and semiconductors are the focus of strategic competition. Regardless of the development model, adhering to open development is the cornerstone," said Wang Huilian.

Looking back at 2020, Wang Huilian said that the strategic competition between China and the United States has intensified, deepened and is long-term, and the focus of the stage has extended from Huawei to the restriction and suppression of the industrial chain and core technologies. The strategy of filling the gaps with a high degree of dependence on foreign technology and products lacks an overall layout and effective measures. The global industrial chain and supply chain are facing challenges, forcing domestic substitution and industrial ecology. In 2020, the production capacity is in short supply, which is expected to continue until Q3-4 of 2021. 2021 is expected to be a big year for integrated circuits, and it may rebound after the epidemic.

Wang Huilian further stated that at the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the country will launch a number of forward-looking and strategic national major science and technology projects (with integrated circuits as a key area). Based on the Chinese market, industrial stage and product innovation, we will explore measures suitable for national conditions and development stages and provide long-term support.

It is worth noting that Wang Huilian pointed out that "domestic substitution is not the goal. Building a technology ecosystem, an industrial ecosystem and a talent training system is the future of China's semiconductors. The separation of China and the United States and technological competition will bring more market opportunities, but we need to clearly understand the gap and treat the semiconductor industry with awe."

Cai Jian: System-level packaging/3D integration is an important innovation direction for the development of integrated circuit technology

Associate Professor Cai Jian, Party Secretary of the Institute of Microelectronics at Tsinghua University, delivered a speech entitled "From Advanced Packaging to 3D Integration". At present, packaging technology has developed from single-chip packaging to multi-chip packaging/modules, 3D packaging, etc., and is currently experiencing the development stage of system-level packaging and 3D integration.

Cai Jian believes that as Moore's Law slows down, system-level packaging and three-dimensional integration will become the key to expanding Moore's Law by breaking away from the traditional development path of size dependence through functional integration, and will be an important innovative direction for the development of integrated circuit technology.

It is reported that Professor Cai Jian's team established the company "Qingxin Integration" in September 2020 and started actual operations in October. Its layout areas include high-complexity processors, optoelectronic packaging, quantum packaging, detector packaging, etc.; in 2021, it plans to build the basic architecture, complete the clean room decoration, realize basic packaging process capabilities, and carry out small-batch business.

Huang Junhua of Silan Integrated Circuits: China's integrated circuit industry needs to be high-profile in work and low-profile in life

Huang Junhua, general manager of Xiamen Silan Jike Microelectronics Co., Ltd., delivered a speech with the theme of "Based in Haicang, Seize the Opportunity, and Do Something Solidly in Semiconductor Business". Huang Junhua pointed out: "When you publicly promote the investment of 'big funds' in the IC field, as a rising force, it will make the current dominant forces nervous. In order to accelerate the upgrading of the industry, more massive funds have been injected, but quietly."

Since its establishment in 1997, Silan Microelectronics has initially acquired the genes that an IDM enterprise should have. Huang Junhua said that Silan Microelectronics' goal is to become the Infineon of China. We have Fab factories for 5-inch, 6-inch, 8-inch and third-generation semiconductors in Hangzhou, and we have our own packaging and testing factory in Chengdu. Our products are among the few domestic semiconductor companies that can enter the industrial and automotive grades.

In 2020, Silan's 12-inch specialty process chip manufacturing production line was officially put into production, and reached a mass production level of 6K in December, and is expected to reach a mass production capacity of 40K in the first half of 2022. Looking to the future, Huang Junhua said that based in Haicang, Silan Jike must seize the opportunities in 2020 and 2021, unite its will, and work steadily.

Yu Fengxiang from Tongfu Microelectronics: The dilemma of the display driver chip industry chain and the development strategy of the packaging and testing factory

Dr. Yu Fengxiang from Tongfu Microelectronics gave a speech titled "Overview of Display Driver Chips". Currently, driver ICs are usually packaged in two ways on mobile phones, tablets and TVs: one is COG, which is used for traditional small screens, and the other is COF, which is used for large screens. In recent years, smartphones have moved towards the era of full-screen displays, and the packaging method has also moved from COG to COF.

In the TV and monitor driver IC market, Taiwanese manufacturers, led by Novatek Technology, are the dominant players. Secondly, Korean manufacturers are behind Taiwanese manufacturers because they have their own panel industry to support them. Currently, some design companies in mainland China are also catching up. The panel production in mainland China is already the first in the world, which is a very good opportunity for IC design companies.

Regarding the development strategy of driver chip packaging and testing factories in the past two years, Yu Fengxiang pointed out four major trends. The first is to enter the key materials field, such as Chibang and Eswi entering the production of COF tape; the second is to build closer customer relationships with panel manufacturers, such as Chizhong joining the Eswi Group; the third is to provide full-service and various packaging services to interactively cover the driver chip packaging and testing business, such as Tongfu Microelectronics and Chibang’s recent acquisition of the packaging and testing factory Huatai; the fourth is that whoever wins the test wins the world, and all efforts should be made to purchase testing machines.

Kong Lingwen of Anjieli Meiwei: Domestic packaging substrates are in the introduction and growth stages and have great room for growth

Kong Lingwen, Vice Chairman of Anjieli Meiwei Electronics, delivered a keynote speech entitled "The Current Development, Prospects and Key Enterprises of China's Packaging Substrate Industry". Kong Lingwen said that at present, the scale of the integrated circuit market is more than 400 billion US dollars, with an average annual growth rate of about 6.3%. The market scale of packaging substrates accounts for 1/7 of the PCB market scale. In other words, if the PCB market scale is 70 billion US dollars, then the packaging substrate is 10 billion US dollars.

"At present, domestic packaging substrate products are in the introduction and growth stages, and have great room for growth." Kong Lingwen said, "The Chinese packaging industry has the foundation to enter the high-end market after being promoted by the market and national policies. At present, domestic packaging substrates still cannot meet domestic demand, and equipment and materials cannot meet domestic demand for substrates. With the continuous development of the industry, the development of the packaging and substrate industries will tend to be deeply integrated in the future."