On April 9, the Hurun Research Institute released the "2024 Global Unicorn List", which lists the world's unlisted companies founded after 2000 and worth more than $1 billion.
Hangzhou Zhongxin Wafer Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongxin Wafer") from Qiantang is on the list. It is also the only manufacturing unicorn in Qiantang.
Due to the characteristics of the industry, many people feel that the semiconductor industry is both "thunderous" and relatively unfamiliar. The same is true for Zhongxin wafers.
Moving towards the "new" bears fruit
Silicon wafers are known as "semiconductor canvases" and are the raw materials used to produce chips.
The semiconductor industry chain is divided into upstream materials and equipment, midstream integrated circuit production and downstream application fields. Zhongxin wafers, which focus on silicon wafer products, belong to the field of semiconductor materials.
"China's semiconductor wafer industry started late, especially in the 12-inch large silicon wafer gap, heavily dependent on imports from Japan, Germany and South Korea. Guo Jianyue, general manager of Zhongxin Wafer, introduced that the company was established in 2017 and is committed to breaking the long-term monopoly of foreign countries on the domestic semiconductor silicon wafer market and realizing the real "intelligent manufacturing in China" of semiconductor silicon materials.
Although it has not been established for a long time, it is well-known in related fields - at present, Zhongxin Wafer has realized the complete production from semiconductor monocrystalline crystal rod drawing to 4~12-inch semiconductor monocrystalline silicon polishing wafer and 12-inch epitaxial wafer processing, with an annual production capacity of 2.4 million pieces of 12-inch and 4.8 million pieces of 8-inch silicon wafers.
"Zhongxin Wafer is the first enterprise in China that can independently complete the R&D and production from 12-inch monocrystalline and polishing to epitaxial R&D and production in the true sense. Under the leadership of Guo Jianyue, Zhongxin Wafer has changed the status quo of domestic semiconductor large silicon wafers completely dependent on foreign countries, and effectively filled the industry shortcomings of domestic semiconductor large silicon wafer supply.
Referring to the current hot word "new quality productivity", Guo Jianyue believes that this coincides with the requirements of the development of the semiconductor industry.
The semiconductor wafer industry has the characteristics of high technical difficulty, long R&D cycle, and long customer certification cycle, and the overall barriers of the industry are high. The first breakthrough of Zhongxin Wafer stems from its diligent pursuit of "mastering the key core technology in its own hands": it has successively achieved a number of scientific and technological achievements transformation in three aspects: crystal growth process, silicon wafer processing technology and epitaxial process, successively mastered new production technology, realized the localization of multiple products, and made significant progress in manufacturing 12-inch low resistivity silicon wafers, which has reached the international advanced level.
It was selected into the list of national specialized and new "little giant" enterprises, and released 12-inch semiconductor ultra-thick film epitaxial wafers...... In the past 2023, Zhongxin Wafer has reaped fruitful results in "moving towards the 'new'".
From "flowering at the point" to "on-chain scenery"
The semiconductor industry chain is long and requires a high level, and it is indispensable to support the top-level application of semiconductor technology, from materials, structures, and devices to circuits, architectures, algorithms, and software.
Guo Jianyue said frankly that most of the mainland's talents are concentrated in the design field of the semiconductor industry, and there is still a lack of talents who can really engage in semiconductor physics, materials and device research. "Some key materials and components that are deeply engaged in technological breakthroughs have not yet been localized, and they must be broken through as soon as possible. ”
However, the mainland's development of the semiconductor industry also has its unique advantages.
First of all, it has the institutional advantage of "concentrating forces to do great things." At the national level, a series of preferential policies and support measures in taxation, finance, finance, talent, intellectual property rights and other aspects have been introduced, and the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (commonly known as the "big fund") has been established to provide strong support for the upgrading of the semiconductor industry in the mainland.
Secondly, the arrival of a new era of the Internet of Everything has made Guo Jianyue full of confidence in the future of the industry.
The semiconductor industry is a consumption-based market, and where the consumer market is, the upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain will go. "China has the advantage of a super-large market, and the demand for chips in the domestic market far exceeds that of the American market, and it is still growing. In his view, this provides a valuable opportunity for the development of emerging Chinese semiconductor companies, "allowing us to have more opportunities for verification in the process link." ”
In addition, the business environment of the location also gives enterprises abundant sunshine and rain. "Based on the needs of enterprises, Qiantang has set up an industrial platform and implemented institutional guarantees to escort entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. Guo Jianyue specifically mentioned that the industrial platform has also set up a service station to provide enterprises with "point-to-point" and "one-to-one" services, "which allows us to focus on the main business, have no worries, and devote ourselves to R&D and production." ”
Semiconductors are a landmark industrial cluster that Qiantang focuses on building. The "magnetic attraction" of the leading enterprise is stringing "beads" into a "chain". At present, Qiantang has gathered more than 100 upstream and downstream enterprises related to semiconductors, involving various fields such as semiconductor raw materials, equipment, integrated circuit design, wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing, and terminal products, forming a semiconductor industry development pattern connected by enterprises.
In 2023, the Qiantang integrated circuit industry will be selected as a national-level innovative industrial cluster, and the first batch of Hangzhou municipal-level "one park, one main industry" industrial platform will be selected, and the output value of the region's semiconductor upstream and downstream industries will reach 76.147 billion yuan, accounting for 20.88% of the total industrial output value above the designated level in the region. In the next five years, Qiantang will build "one core and four platforms" (one core of semiconductor manufacturing, four platforms for equipment, materials, funds and parks), and make every effort to build "China Core Valley".
When the city's innovation, industry and market "resonate at the same frequency", the footsteps of high-quality development are sonorously heard.