Question

What is the current situation in China in the field of chips?

Answer 1

Although mobile phone chips have entered the 3nm process process, China's Internet of Things, industry, new storage and many other markets are still in the ascendant, and there is still a large demand gap in mature chips.

Motor drive chip

In the past three years, SMIC has built ten wafer fabs in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and other regions, SMIC Xiqing began civil construction, and SMIC Beijing entered the trial production stage. The cumulative investment has exceeded 170 billion yuan, and the production capacity of the whole line can reach 800,000 pieces.

The lack of core equipment (lithography machine) simply cannot stop China's huge expansion plan for mature chips.

Answer 2

China's automotive chips: The improvement of vehicle electrification and intelligence will be reflected in the increase in the consumption of chips, and the number of units will reach about 1000-1200. It will eventually surpass mobile phones and become the future engine of China's semiconductor development.

Answer 3

China's chip industry has received strong support from national policies in recent years and has made certain achievements. In the field of chip packaging and testing, China also has a good performance. It is embodied in the following aspects:

Touch chip

Large-scale production: SMIC, Huahong Group and other companies have begun large-scale production of chip packaging and testing to meet the needs of the domestic market.

High-end technology: Some chip packaging and testing companies in China are also working hard to develop high-end packaging and testing technology. For example, Changjian Technology has a good performance in the fields of 3D packaging and micro packaging.

Import substitution: The Chinese government is also promoting import substitution in the chip packaging and testing industry and encouraging domestic companies to develop high-end chip packaging and testing technologies.

Anti-interference touch IC chip solution

Although China's chip industry has made certain achievements in manufacturing, design and packaging and testing, there is still a certain gap with the international leading level, and it is necessary to further strengthen R&D and innovation and enhance independent innovation capabilities. At the same time, the Chinese government is also continuing to increase investment and support for the chip industry to provide guarantees for the rapid development of China's chip industry.

Answer 4

The chip industry chain generally includes the following links: chip design, wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing, EDA tools, chip raw materials and semiconductor equipment. 

Bluetooth chip manufacturers

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.

Answer 5

The technical standards of some products of China's chips have reached the world's first-class level, and the local production line has achieved medium and large volume supply, including resistors, inductors, capacitors, diodes and triodes, other passive components, base station filters and other components, as well as driver ICs, CIS and fingerprint chips.

Sensors, MCUs, FPGAs, memory chips, mobile phone SoCs, automotive estimated MOSFETs, automotive-grade IGBTs, other discrete devices, Bluetooth and WiFi chips, as well as silicon carbide, gallium arsenide can be summarized into the second echelon, this echelon has individual product technical standards to reach the world-class level, local production lines have been supplied in small quantities or have policy support due to greater strategic significance.

CPU, GPU, DSP, power management IC, RF front-end chip and other analog ICs belong to the third echelon, and there is still a big gap between the technology of this echelon and the world's first-class level, and the mass supply has not yet been achieved.

Answer 6

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.

Robot chip design

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.

Answer 7

According to market research firm Shangpu Consulting Group, China's chip market reached $65.8 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $80 billion in 2025, with an average annual growth of about 10%.