A bit of history, China Semiconductor Industry 2006-2015
Mainland China’s IC market is large, with more than 70% relying on imports
Wang Longxing pointed out that after years of development, mainland China's IC industry has developed vigorously in recent years. From 2006 to 2012, the average annual compound growth rate (CAGR) reached 18.8%, of which the IC design industry reached 25.7%. level; see Table 1 for details.
From the data in Table 1, it can be seen that the mainland's semiconductor industry chain has developed quite completely. In addition to establishing an industrial system for the interlocking common development of IC design industry, chip manufacturing industry, packaging and testing industry, and equipment and materials, the industry Each block in the chain has considerable output value and growth rate. It is worth noting that due to the impact of the 2008 financial crisis, the output value of many fields declined in 2009, but the IC design industry did not fall but rose. This shows how strong the growth of the mainland IC design industry is.
In addition to the formation and increasingly complete industrial chain, industrial clusters are also quietly taking shape. Wang Longxing pointed out that in the past few years, mainland China has formed three major industry-intensive areas: the Yangtze River Delta, the Beijing-Tianjin Rim Bohai Bay, and the Pearl River Delta, as well as emerging industrial areas in the central and western regions with Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, and Wuhan as central cities. In summary, there are two major niches for the development of the IC industry in mainland China. The first major niche is the government's strong support for the development of the IC industry, which induces joint efforts by the industry. This also promotes the rapid rise of IC technology levels and actively strives to shorten the gap with the world's advanced technology levels. gap. In terms of technology, according to the 2013 Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Development Research Report, China's IC design technology is expected to reach the 22nm/20nm level in 2015, while chip manufacturing can enter the 300mm wafer 32nm complete process; in addition, 28nm has already Enter mass production and break through 22m/20nm key technologies. As for the main IC packaging forms, mainland China will also enter the international mainstream field in 2015 and further improve advanced packaging technologies such as Flipchip, BGA, CSP, WLP and MCP. In addition to expanding the production capacity of advanced packaging forms, it will also accelerate the system Development of high-end packaging and testing technologies such as SiP and 2.5D/3D IC.
The second major niche for the development of the IC industry in the mainland is the huge IC market demand in the mainland, which provides strong support for the development of the IC industry in the mainland. The self-sufficiency ratio of mainland China's IC industry is not high. Table 2 below shows the size of the mainland IC market from 2006 to 2015. From 2007 to 2015, it had a compound annual growth rate of 12.5%. In fact, since 2005, mainland China has become the world's largest single IC market. However, mainland China's local IC production volume is far from keeping up with market demand. Wang Longxing pointed out that last year (2012), the mainland's local system units purchased IC-related products worth US$130 billion, but the mainland's local IC output value was only US$33 billion. Most of the locally produced products are for self-use, and a small part is exported. The self-sufficiency ratio is only about 25%. More than 70% of ICs must be imported. Wang Longxing said: "The mainland market is huge. If it develops, the market will be even bigger. Therefore, we cannot rely entirely on imports. We must cultivate our own R&D and production capabilities. However, we still have to import the latest equipment from abroad. If we develop the latest equipment at a faster speed, we must cultivate our own R&D and production capabilities." If we cannot keep up with technological development, we will still have to rely on imports.”
Mainland semiconductor equipment manufacturing has achieved breakthrough development
Wang Longxing pointed out that many local semiconductor companies in mainland China are still developing. Whether it is IC design, chip production and manufacturing, or even equipment manufacturing, their scale is not as large as that of large foreign companies. The gap is quite large. "Currently, Taiwan is the mainland's largest partner in the semiconductor field. Many Taiwanese companies, such as packaging and testing, IC design, and wafer packaging manufacturers, are heavily involved in the mainland market, and Taiwan is also the largest importer of mainland ICs." Overall, Wang Longxing believes that China is currently only better than Taiwan in semiconductor equipment and materials, while Taiwan is relatively lacking in this area.
Semiconductor equipment manufacturers in mainland China are divided into two categories. One category is the mainland branches of relatively large internationally renowned manufacturers, such as the American company Applied Material and the Japanese company TEL. Because China is a large equipment market, international Manufacturers do not want to be absent; on the other hand, Wang Longxing pointed out that local equipment manufacturers in mainland China have also grown rapidly in recent years; so far, there are about 50 or 60 large-scale local equipment manufacturers. Most of these large equipment manufacturers are concentrated in Beijing and are state-owned enterprises. Such as Northern Microelectronics, Seven Star Huachuang, Electronic Technology Group 45th Research Institute, etc.; while wafer manufacturing and IC design are concentrated in Shanghai. Wang Longxing said: "Shanghai's equipment factories are all small and medium-sized enterprises. They are not comprehensive, but they are quite professional in a specific field. For example, China Micro Semiconductor's plasma etching machine has reached the 20nm level; in addition, like Shanghai Microelectronics Equipment Company is the only company in the country that manufactures complete lithography machines. The technology sources of these manufacturers include imported from abroad and self-developed. For example, local lithography machines are highly integrated and are supported by many optical research institutes in China. . Many high-precision instruments, such as exposure systems, light source systems, optical radio stations, etc., are supplied by other manufacturers and then integrated by Shanghai Microelectronics.”
Shanghai Microelectronics Equipment Company is the only company in China that can produce complete photolithography machines.
Currently, mainland China does not stipulate the comparison of manufacturers purchasing local equipment, but there is a policy that if the equipment has been successfully developed and passed verification, manufacturers will be recommended and encouraged to purchase it. (Sadly never enforced)
Overall, mainland China has made great progress in the research and development and production of wafer manufacturing equipment, packaging and testing equipment, and semiconductor material processing equipment in recent years, such as 300mm plasma etching machines and 300mm single wafer cleaning machines. Not only has it been selected by local IC production lines, it has also entered the international market; however, the 450mm part has not yet officially started
(I here from the future, 450mm never happened). Wang Longxing said:
"At present, most of the production lines of local equipment factories are still 200mm, and this quantity is the largest. Some domestic equipment factories cannot even make 200mm equipment. Although 300mm is also developing rapidly, the quantity has not exceeded 200mm. As for the manufacturing process Some 90nm products are quite large, but the quantity of 65nm products is also quite large. In addition, mainland China has also begun to engage in 3D IC, such as Jiangyin Changdian and Nantong Fujitsu, etc., which have begun small-scale production.”
4 years of Think Tank stooge sponsored export controls.
