[New Practice of Governing the Country] Hefei’s integrated circuit industry has risen strongly, creating a ＂core＂ and building ＂China’s IC Capital＂
Zhongan online news High-end equipment and materials are from scratch, the integration of manufacturing technology and packaging is from weak to strong, and the synergy mechanism of technological innovation is growing … … Since the implementation of major national science and technology projects, Hefei Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have attached great importance to it, seized the strategic opportunity of integrated circuit industry, focused on key points and resources, and strived to build integrated circuits into a core industry to enhance Hefei’s competitiveness. After the implementation of major projects, Hefei will strive to exceed 50 billion yuan in output value in 2020 and make every effort to build "IC Capital of China".
Breaking foreign monopoly and constructing ecological chain of integrated circuit industry
For a long time, China’s integrated circuit industry has been restricted by the introduction of advanced manufacturing equipment, materials and processes in the West, and high-end chips mainly rely on imports. In recent years, the domestic demand for integrated circuit products continues to grow rapidly. As far as Hefei is concerned, due to the rapid development of home appliance industry, panel display, automotive electronics and green new energy, there is a great demand for chips. Complementing the "core" has become the key to take the road of independent innovation.
Why is a small chip so difficult? Relevant experts said that the manufacturing difficulty of integrated circuits (chips) is atomic. Take the 28-nanometer technology as an example, the integration level is equivalent to manufacturing more than 1 billion transistors in the size area of a fingernail, and each wire is equivalent to one-third of a human hair.
In order to break the blank state of high-end equipment and materials of integrated circuits and improve the manufacturing technology and packaging integration technology, Hefei has cultivated the integrated circuit industry as a new independent innovation industry. At present, it has formed a relatively complete industrial chain of design, manufacturing, packaging, testing, materials and equipment, with 116 integrated circuit enterprises.
Focusing on Hefei’s integrated circuit industry cluster development base, in the design process, there are 73 well-known enterprises such as Lianfa Technology, and the sales revenue in 2016 was 1.34 billion yuan; In the manufacturing process, Crystal Cooperation is the first 12-inch wafer foundry enterprise in Anhui Province, and its 12-inch chip manufacturing project has started trial production; In the process of packaging and testing, the first phase of Xinhuicheng project is put into production. After all the projects are put into production, the monthly packaging capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers and 50,000 8-inch wafers can be realized. The first phase of Tongfu Microelectronics project is put into production, and the whole project is planned to be put into production in 2025, with an annual output of about 21.7 billion integrated circuits such as consumer and communication. In the equipment link, Xinqi Microelectronics double mesa laser direct imaging equipment broke the monopoly of foreign high-end laser direct writing exposure equipment, and Dahua semiconductor packaging proprietary production equipment and precision molds realized mass production and sales.
According to statistics, in 2016, Hefei IC Industry Cluster Development Base completed an output value of 17.98 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.86%, and invested 5.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 136%. From January to June this year, the total output value of the base was 11.33 billion yuan, up 30.2% year-on-year, and the investment was 3.616 billion yuan, up 40.7% year-on-year.
Cultivating Strong Product "Core" Technology to Increase the Code of Integrated Circuit Industry
In the information age, integrated circuit is the core cornerstone. Computers, mobile phones, home appliances, automobiles, high-speed rail, power grids, medical instruments, robots, industrial control and other electronic products and systems are inseparable from integrated circuits. If the chip is strong, the industry will be strong, and if the chip is prosperous, the economy will flourish.
After the implementation of the project, a number of key equipment, materials and technologies for integrated circuit manufacturing in Hefei have achieved breakthroughs from scratch. Walking into the dust-free workshop of Hefei Jinghe Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd., the automatic production links make people shine. Integrated circuit is a kind of micro electronic device or component, and wafer is the carrier used to produce integrated circuit. "The larger the wafer, the more integrated circuits can be produced on the same wafer, the lower the cost of a single chip, and the corresponding requirements for material technology and production technology are higher." Lin Xiqin, director of the market business department of Hefei Jinghe Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd. said.
According to Lin Xiqin, on June 28 this year, the Jinghe 12-inch wafer production line project (Phase I) was completed for trial production. In July, the first batch of wafers were officially rolled off the assembly line. This means that the design, manufacture and use of panel driver chips will all be realized in Hefei. In October this year, "Made in Hefei" wafers can be mass-produced, and by the end of the year, the monthly production capacity can reach 3,000 wafers. It is estimated that a factory will reach the monthly production scale of 40,000 wafers next year, and Hefei Jinghe is expected to become the world’s largest manufacturer focusing on panel driver chips. After the wafer project is put into production, the problem of combining "core" and "screen" has also been solved. In five years, the localization rate of panel driver chips in Hefei will be increased to 30%, breaking the situation that domestic panel chips are almost entirely imported.
At the same time, the Changxin 12-inch DRAM memory project (Project 506) led by Hefei Changxin Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd. was also successfully implemented. After the project is put into production, it will gain about 9% share of the world DRAM market and effectively fill the gap in the domestic DRAM market. The company will rank among the major DRAM manufacturers in the world and become an absolute domestic semiconductor giant, and Hefei will also enter the ranks of world-class memory manufacturing centers.
In addition, Hefei Xinhuicheng Microelectronics Co., Ltd. wafer bump sealing and testing project (Phase I) was officially put into production, which is the first comprehensive bonded zone in Anhui — — The first industrial project in Hefei Comprehensive Bonded Zone was put into production. After the project is fully put into production, the monthly packaging capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers and 50,000 8-inch wafers can be realized, with an annual output value of about 5 billion yuan. This will fill the gap of similar products in China and add "core" power to build Hefei into "IC Capital of China".
Multi-guarantee government will build more high-level service platforms.
Looking forward to the future, Hefei’s integrated circuit industry is firmly established and leaps step by step. In the future, during the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, Hefei plans to cultivate and develop integrated circuits, and will focus on improving the whole chain of "Hefei Core", "Hefei Production" and "Hefei Use", and make every effort to develop the design and manufacture of memory chips, driver chips and characteristic chips. By 2020, the output value will exceed 50 billion yuan, and the manufacturing and design industries will rank among the top five in the country, making every effort to build "China IC Capital".
According to the plan, in the near future, Hefei will issue "Several Policies for the Development of Integrated Circuit Industry in Hefei", and at the same time, a separate "Special Policy for the Development of Talents in Integrated Circuit Industry in Hefei" will support the development of integrated circuit enterprises in all aspects from supporting research and development, promoting application, platform construction, talent introduction and service.
Zhu Ce, director of the Hefei Municipal Development and Reform Commission, said that Hefei will seek layout in key areas. Strengthen demand traction, give play to the core leading role of integrated circuit industry, and help the transformation and upgrading of leading industries such as flat panel display, automobile, home appliances, equipment manufacturing and public safety. In the field of flat panel display, we will focus on developing LCD panel driver chips and OLED driver chips, and lay out next-generation display technologies such as Micro-LED in advance. In the automotive field, support the development of IDM enterprises with automotive control chips, and focus on breaking through battery control chips for new energy vehicles. In the field of home appliances, we will focus on the development of smart home-related Wifi, Zigbee (short-range low-power wireless communication technology) and power line carrier chips. In the field of equipment manufacturing, focusing on equipment manufacturing technologies such as optical-mechanical-electrical integration, digital control and fine machining, we will focus on developing digital equipment core chips and MEMS sensor chips for production lines. In the field of public safety, we will focus on developing radar chips and MEMS sensor chips that collect environmental data.
At the same time, we will strengthen supply promotion and fully promote major projects with large investment scale and strong influence. In the manufacturing process, we will focus on promoting the implementation of major projects such as 506 project and Jinghe project, and gather leading enterprises in upstream and downstream to form industrial cluster development. In the material link, keep a close eye on the development trend of the new generation of compound semiconductors, plan ahead and take timely action, and plan to build a compound semiconductor foundry production line. In terms of equipment, we should pay close attention to the global industry leaders, vigorously introduce well-known enterprises for special equipment, and actively support equipment manufacturers such as laser direct writing lithography equipment, silicon optical devices and three-dimensional packaging to accelerate their development into leading enterprises. In industrial parks, we will strengthen in-depth cooperation with advanced parks in the global integrated circuit industry and explore new modes of overall investment attraction.
The key to the development of science and technology is to improve the service of talent introduction. "Hefei will introduce special policies on one-time talent subsidies, work allowances, housing, children’s education, etc., in order to meet the needs of Taiwan Province and foreign talents, accelerate the construction of international communities and improve international hospitals, schools and other service facilities. In terms of personnel training, microelectronics personnel training is an important part of promoting the construction of "double-class" universities and disciplines such as China University of Science and Technology, Polytechnic University and Anda University, and promoting enterprises, professional institutions and universities to jointly establish training bases. " Zhu Ce said. (Reporter Wang Jia)