Chips are the cornerstone of the information age and an important embodiment of the country's scientific and technological strength. In recent years, with the development of new infrastructure and digital economy, China's chip industry has ushered in opportunities for rapid growth, but it is also facing multiple challenges in the domestic and foreign environment. This article will analyze the status, problems and prospects of China's chip industry from all links of the chip industry chain.
First, the chip industry chain overview
The chip industry chain generally includes the following links: chip design, wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing, EDA tools, chip raw materials and semiconductor equipment. Among them, chip design is the upstream of the chip industry chain, which determines the performance and function of the chip; Wafer manufacturing is the middle stream of the chip industry chain, which determines the cost and production capacity of chips; Packaging and testing is the downstream of the chip industry chain, which determines the quality and reliability of the chip; EDA tools are an important support for chip design and manufacturing, providing software platforms and technical services; Chip raw materials and semiconductor equipment are the foundation of the chip industry chain, providing hardware facilities and material supply.
Second, the current situation of China's chip industry
According to statistics from the China Semiconductor Industry Association, the sales of China's chip industry increased by 17.8% in 2020 to 891.1 billion yuan. Sales explosion is one thing, but demand is also rising. According to IC Insights and China Customs, in 2020, the demand for China's chip industry reached $143.4 billion. However, in the case of rising sales and demand, there are still many problems in the development of China's chip industry. The data shows that the capacity value that all chip manufacturing enterprises in Chinese mainland China (including foreign-funded factories) can supply is 22.7 billion US dollars, and the self-sufficiency rate is only 15.9%.
From the perspective of all links of the chip industry chain, China's performance in different fields is also different. The details are as follows:
(1) Chip design
In terms of low-end and mid-end, China has many excellent chip design companies, covering RF chips, touch chips, flash memory chips, memory chips, Bluetooth chips, display driver chips and other categories, and has been in a leading state in some fields. For example, in the field of display driver chips, the domestic company Himax has entered the world's top ten IC design manufacturers by revenue for the first time; In the field of memory, the domestic enterprise Changjiang Storage has achieved the mass production of 64-layer 3D NAND flash memory, and is developing 128-layer products.
In terms of high-end, China's gap with foreign countries in the fields of processors, graphics processing units (GPUs), and communication basebands is still not small. For example, in the field of mobile phone processors, the current global market is mainly occupied by Qualcomm of the United States, MediaTek of Taiwan, Samsung of South Korea and other companies. Huawei's HiSilicon, the only one in China that can compete with it, was affected by US sanctions and could not continue to supply chips, resulting in a serious impact on its mobile phone business. At present, other domestic companies still have a lot of space in the research and development of baseband chips, such as UNISOC Zhanrui, ZTE Microelectronics, etc.
In the field of GPU chips, the gap between China and foreign countries is more obvious. GPU chips are mainly used in graphics processing and artificial intelligence computing, and are the core components of high-performance computing. At present, the global GPU chip market is almost monopolized by NVIDIA and AMD in the United States, and NVIDIA occupies an absolute advantage in the field of game graphics cards and data centers. Domestic research and development in GPU chips is still in its infancy, and only a few companies such as Jingjiawei and Zhongke Shuguang are trying to make breakthroughs. However, compared with foreign countries, domestic enterprises have a big gap in terms of technical level, production process, market share and so on.
(2) Wafer manufacturing
Wafer manufacturing is the core and most difficult link in the chip industry chain, involving complex processes, sophisticated equipment, high investment and strict quality control. At present, the global wafer manufacturing market is monopolized by a few companies such as TSMC, Samsung, and Intel, among which TSMC is far ahead with a market share of more than 50%. TSMC has achieved mass production of 5nm process and is developing 3nm or even 2nm process.
China's development in wafer manufacturing is relatively lagging behind, mainly due to the lack of advanced semiconductor equipment and materials, as well as the long-term impact of foreign technology blockades and sanctions. At present, the most advanced wafer manufacturing company in China is SMIC, whose latest 14nm process has begun mass production, and plans to achieve mass production of 12nm process in 2022. However, compared with international giants such as TSMC, SMIC still has a technology gap of two or three generations. In addition, China also has a number of wafer manufacturing enterprises such as Hua Microelectronics and Unigroup Group, and there is also some progress in 28nm and below processes.
(3) Packaging and testing
Packaging and testing is the closest link to the end market in the chip industry chain, and is mainly responsible for cutting, packaging, and testing the chips on the wafer and delivering them to customers. The packaging and testing process has an important impact on the performance, quality, reliability and cost of the chip. At present, the global packaging and testing market is dominated by enterprises in Taiwan Province and South Korea, among which Taiwan Wanghong Electronics, ASE Semiconductor and other enterprises are famous for their high-end packaging technology.
China is relatively strong in packaging and testing, with a number of enterprises with scale and competitiveness, such as Changjian Technology, Huatian Technology, Tongfu Microelectric, etc. These enterprises not only provide high-quality services for domestic and foreign customers, but also provide support for domestic independent innovation. However, at the same time, China has not yet formed a large-scale industrial chain in the field of high-end packaging, mainly relying on imports, especially the demand for high-end packaging materials. With the continuous upgrading of domestic intelligent terminal products, the demand for high-end packaging materials will further increase, and domestic enterprises are expected to make more progress in technological breakthroughs and market expansion.