A piece of nail a large chip, carrying behind the field may be related to the technical contest.
With the country on the integrated circuit industry to support the policy of landing and the rise of Chinese enterprises in the past few years to catch up, in the world stage, from the Chinese semiconductor industry voice increasingly loud.
Chen Nanxiang, vice chairman of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, said at the annual meeting of China's semiconductor market in 2017 that the global semiconductor market in 2016 was $ 338.93 billion, up slightly by 1.1% year-on-year, while the US market was down 4.7% Asia's growth of 3.6% .2016 China's IC market size reached 1,195.59 billion yuan, accounting for more than half of the global semiconductor market.
In particular, some excellent semiconductor companies in their respective areas of Europe and the United States launched a strong offensive, such as Huawei Haisi in the artificial intelligence chip on the profound knowledge, and as purple technology in the market technology contest fearless, in the industry's right to speak Contention, the outside world to see more from the Chinese enterprises figure.
'Late' to catch up
According to the China Semiconductor Industry Association statistics, China's IC industry sales reached 433.55 billion yuan, an increase of 20.1% in 2016. Design, manufacture, packaging and testing of three industry sales were 164.43 billion, 112.69 billion and 156.43 billion, the growth rate Respectively, 24.1%, 25.1% and 13%, the design and manufacturing growth rate was significantly faster than the IC packaging and testing, accounting for further rise, the industrial structure tends to balance.
Chen Nanxiang said that the next few years, China is still the world's largest integrated circuit market, and will maintain an average annual growth rate of about 20%.
Group of information industry semiconductor industry analyst Guo Gaohang said to the first financial, China's semiconductor industry can be rapid development, mainly due to domestic demand for alternative imports, policy and financial support and terminal demand to guide the three factors.
Policy and financial support led to the development of the industry in June 2014, the State Council promulgated the "National Integrated Circuit Industry Development Promotion Program"; the same year in September, the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (also known as 'Big Fund') was formally established , The first phase of fund-raising 138.72 billion yuan .2017 early in Shanghai, an industry summit, the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Co., Ltd. General Manager Ding Wenwu said that as of the end of 2016, the national fund set up more than two years, Decision-making investment of 43 projects, the cumulative commitment to invest 81.8 billion yuan, the actual contribution of more than 56 billion yuan.Pevelopment projects have covered the integrated circuit design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, equipment, materials, ecological construction and other links.
All over the country have set up funds to support the development of integrated circuits, Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan, Hubei and other provinces and cities set up integrated circuit industry investment fund .2003 December, Beijing announced the establishment of integrated circuit industry development equity investment fund, the total size of the fund (Fujian) fund size of up to 500 billion yuan.According to incomplete statistics, a large fund can be leveraging the local fund industry, the development of the IC industry, Capital of about 500 billion yuan.In addition, some investment institutions are also actively looking for some popular frontier.
Guo Gaohang believes that from the computer to the mobile phone, and now the hottest AI, China's semiconductor applications more and more widely .In the era of all things interconnected, many emerging applications, AR, VR, wearable equipment, car networking and industrial control New demand and other terminal needs to guide the upstream middle reaches of the industry faster development.
To small broad
In some high-tech areas, Chinese manufacturers began to gradually break the technical barriers.
The IC industry is mainly composed of integrated circuit design, chip manufacturing and packaging testing of three links.Guo Gaohang said that at present, in the field of design and packaging and testing, China and the United States and other advanced enterprises have narrowed the gap, but there are still many gaps in manufacturing The
'The current IC packaging and testing is done in our country is the best, is China's industry chain in the relevant development of the fastest and longest, the largest domestic three packaging and testing plant Chang Technology Co., Ltd. (Chang Technology), Tong Fu Microelectronics Co., Ltd. (Tongfu Microelectronics) and Tianshui Huatian Technology Co., Ltd. (Huatian Science and Technology) from the beginning of 2015 have foreign giants and advanced technology packaging and testing manufacturers to acquire, through mergers and acquisitions to obtain advanced technology , Customers and the market. 'Guo Gaohang told reporters.
According to the state information extension industry research institute released the latest 2017 global IC packaging and testing foundry revenue list, in the professional packaging and testing foundry part of the top three followed by ASE, security, long power technology, Huatian (Fip Chip, Bumping, etc.) and advanced packaging (Fan-In, Fan-Out, 2.5D, and so on), the company said that the Chinese mainland packaging and packaging manufacturers in high-end packaging technology (Flip Chip, Bumping, etc.) and advanced packaging (Fan-In, Fan-Out, 2.5D IC, SiP, etc.) continued production capacity, as well as business acquisitions brought about by the revenue recognized, including long power technology, Tianshui Huatian, Tongfu microelectronics and other manufacturers in 2017 annual revenue more than double The number of growth, performance is better than the global IC IC packaging and testing industry level.
In addition, the mainland of China to set up a new wafer fab production capacity will be out, according to the enterprise released capacity planning, estimated before the end of 2018 12-inch wafer in mainland China monthly production capacity can be added 16.2 million, 1.8 times for the existing capacity, Is expected to 2018 China's mainland packaging and testing industry into a shot in the arm.
Under the influence of the wave of artificial intelligence, NVIDIA, Intel, Qualcomm and other IT giants have stepped up the layout of AI chips, the Chinese chip companies are not far behind.
At the Berlin International Consumer Electronics Show, Huawei released the first artificial intelligence chip Kirin 970, is the industry's first with a separate NPU (neural network unit) dedicated hardware processing unit of the mobile phone chip.The first use of the chip Huawei mobile phone Mate 10 also on the 16th in Munich, Germany officially released, indicating that China's artificial intelligence chip applications in a leading position.
Kirin 970 equipped with NPU is the smart chip research and development company Cambrian issued in 2016 Cambrian 1A processor (Cambricon-1A Processor) .In August this year, Cambrian received 100 million US dollars A round of financing, venture capital by the venture (Angel rounds of investment), Chung Hua investment (angel round investors) joint investment, is the United States, the United States, the United States, the United States, the United States, the United States, the United States, The world's first AI chip field 'Unicorn' company.
Guo Gaohang said that Huawei's Kirin 970 highlights a lot, and Qualcomm gap is not big, even in some aspects of the lead, but he also admitted that the United States and the world's top chip design company compared, there is a clear gap, Hai Si 2016 R & D Investment accounted for 23% to 24%, in addition to Qualcomm, and other top international giants or less, but the total size of the funds there is still a big gap.
It takes time to master the core technology
Although the design and packaging and testing areas have been able to catch up with other developed countries and regions, but the overall disk, the chip manufacturing gap is greater.
In the semiconductor manufacturing process requires a lot of semiconductor equipment and materials, Guo Gaohang told reporters that domestic manufacturers in the manufacturing and international advanced enterprises there is a big gap between the equipment, the North of China's etching function to do 28nm level, but no Mass production, and now the most advanced technology has been to the 7nm level, a difference of three generations, the gap between the greater range of lithography.
Materials are made of silicon, photoresist, abrasive material, sputtering target, chemical gas, chemical materials, etc. Each gap is different.With silicon, the new progress of Shanghai is slow. Ancillary lighting factory, covering more than 28nm. Guo Gao Hang said that the domestic lighting factory a lot of attention in the LED panel and other low-end areas.
According to market insiders IC Insights announced wafer production report, as of the end of 2016, 12-inch wafer production capacity, Samsung to 22% of the world's first, the second is 14% of Micron, SK Hynix and TSMC (2%) and force crystal technology tied for ninth. Among them, in the pure wafer foundry manufacturers, SMIC and power crystal tied for fourth, in TSMC, GlobalFoundries and After UMC.
In addition, the biggest problem may be the existence of talent and technology congenital short board.
'Because the technical bottleneck of the breakthrough will have a learning curve in the inside, has been the leading manufacturers encountered problems, the latecomers will encounter, but also to find ways to bypass the former patent issues in the R & D investment, Haisi is just a case, and other Chinese chip design companies should learn from them, as well as talent, because China's semiconductor industry framework from 2015 to gradually improve, so the industry atmosphere is insufficient, the training of talent system is not yet formed.However, With the industrial atmosphere more and more strong, talent training will be more perfect, but also the introduction of high-end talent .2018 a large number of fabs to mass production. 'Guo Gaohang told reporters.
The chip foundry giant TSMC an engineer on the first financial reporter also admitted that the United States and other countries will protect the advanced technology, but the domestic government incentives will narrow the gap between domestic companies and abroad.When talking about the introduction of talent, he Said that many companies will now open a very high salary, 'can induce TSMC to quit the first reason is the salary, the second is that they are not really do what they want to do. , To achieve self-achievement will be more important than wages. 'The people said.