At the China Integrated Circuit Design Innovation Conference and IC Application Expo held in Suzhou today, Ye Tianchun, the national 02 special technical chief, the vice chairman and secretary of the Innovation Alliance of China Integrated Circuit Innovation Alliance, and Ye Tianchun, delivered a speech entitled “Integration in my country under the New Situation”. Some Thoughts on the Development of Circuit Innovation” speech.

Ye Tianchun, Vice Chairman and Secretary of China Integrated Circuit Innovation Alliance Innovation Alliance

In his speech, he first pointed out that for China’s integrated circuit industry, there are currently several unavoidable problems. These include:

Chips are controlled by people, and the “card point” extends from products to manufacturing, equipment, materials and EDA.

With basic trade rules being abandoned, can U.S. and international supply chains still be trusted in the long run?

China has been engaged in integrated circuits for so many years, how is it? Why do you keep getting stuck in the neck?

China is seeking peace? Anti-war? Or to chat?

Is it self-contained? Or continue to insist on globalization?

“The chip issue is a long-term strategic issue related to a century of development. It is not a short-term emergency issue. It must be developed persistently. If the most basic product in the industrial age is steel, then the most basic product in the information age is the chip”, Ye Tianchun Say. “The chip industry is the biggest shortcoming in my country’s information age, and it needs a long-term strategy of more than 30 years to solve it,” Ye Tianchun emphasized.

According to Ye Tianchun, in the past 12 years, under the guidance of major national science and technology projects, China’s entire integrated circuit industry chain has achieved leapfrog development, and the establishment of systems and capabilities has also brought us confidence and confidence.

As shown in the figure above, China’s integrated circuits have formed a technical system and established an industrial chain in the past development. The industrial competitiveness has been greatly improved, and the gap has been greatly narrowed. In this process of development, my country has also cultivated a group of backbone enterprises that are full of innovative vitality and have certain international competitiveness.

Specifically, in terms of product design, my country’s high-end chip design capabilities have been greatly improved, and major breakthroughs have been made in CPU, FPGA, and communication SoCs; in terms of manufacturing processes, my country’s 55nm-14nm circuits and advanced memory processes have achieved mass production. Product-oriented features are also gradually enriched. In the research and development of 7nm technology, progress has been made in the research of 3nm to 1nm; in terms of packaging integration, my country has entered from low-end to high-end, reaching the international advanced level, covering 90% of technology types; in terms of equipment and materials, my country has formed a whole on 55nm to 28nm technology Supply process capabilities, some products enter 14nm to 7nm, and are used by foreign production lines.

From the data provided by Ye Tianchun, we can see that between 1999 and 2020, my country’s integrated circuit design industry has achieved rapid growth, especially between 2008 and 2020, the sales growth has reached an astonishing 11 times.

Coming to the field of integrated circuit packaging and testing, my country has achieved a 4.3-fold increase from 2008 to 2020.

In equipment, we grew 9.5 times between 2008 and 2020.

Although in the past, my country’s integrated circuits have made good progress. But as mentioned at the beginning, there are still various problems with domestic semiconductors. What are the reasons for these problems? In Ye Tianchun’s view, this mainly includes the following aspects:

1. The global integrated circuit has followed the “Moore’s Law” for 60 years and has never slowed down. China has gone through several stages, with several ups and downs, sporty, and many times to start over, but it doesn’t last.

2. The investment has been insufficient. The investment has increased significantly in the past 12 years, but it has not yet met the demand.

3. Having illusions, over-trusting and relying on globalization, overly emphasizing “doing nothing” and failing to firmly establish an independent system, leading to the highlight of “short-board problems”.

4. Time is also the main factor. It has been stagnant in the past 20 years and cannot be recovered in 12 years. What we are chasing is a fast-moving dynamic target.

“At the same time, there is a huge gap between my country’s integrated circuit R&D investment and international leading companies,” Ye Tianchun added.

Based on the above thinking, Ye Tianchun believes that the development of China’s integrated circuits needs to follow three principles. The first point is to maintain concentration, don’t “smell the chicken and dance”, stabilize your position, and persevere in doing your own thing is the most important thing.

“For the integrated circuit itself, equipment, materials and software tools are the core foundation and will be the long-term focus of the international game. We cannot have illusions about the security of the supply chain. Even if the cost is higher, it must be done,” Ye Tianchun emphasized. He also pointed out that the solution to these problems depends on openness and cooperation, and globalization cannot be relied upon or abandoned, but reforms are needed to cultivate a new ecology of global cooperation that is not restricted. “The final solution cannot be based on large and comprehensive, but on innovation to form unique advantages,” Ye Tianchun continued.

Second, from its own development to the global pattern, China’s IC industry needs to be repositioned.

Ye Tianchun said that China’s integrated circuits have completed the industrial chain layout of “from nothing” in the development of the past ten years, and in the future, an upgraded development strategy is needed to promote the solution of the problem of market supply. In his view, our development focus is “focusing on products and taking industry solutions as the traction”, and the integrated development of system application, design, manufacturing and equipment industries. In this development process, we should also shift from “catch-up strategy” to “innovation strategy”.

According to Ye Tianchun, the development of my country’s integrated circuits needs to embark on a path from a substitute, to an innovator, and then to a leader.

“For this reason, I believe that technological innovation is the only way out,” Ye Tianchun emphasized.

In Ye Tianchun’s view, China’s integrated circuits are ushering in three opportunities, but at the same time there are three challenges.

At the same time, Ye Tianchun also gave him several suggestions.