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From August 9th to 11th, the 2023 Integrated Circuit (Wuxi) Innovation and Development Conference with the theme "Connecting the World with Chips, Creating the Future with Xin" was grandly held in Wuxi.

This conference was jointly organized by the People's Government of Wuxi and the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Jiangsu Province, focusing on "one meeting and one exhibition", including 1 opening ceremony, 1 exhibition, 10 series of activities, and 15 ecological circle activities. It gathered experts and think tanks in the field of integrated circuits at home and abroad, industry leaders, and supporting ecological enterprises, highlighting the characteristics of "professionalization, marketization, and branding", and building a platform for enterprises to connect, communicate, open links, and achieve win-win cooperation.

On the morning of the 9th, at the opening ceremony of the conference, nearly 500 heavyweight guests from the entire industry chain of integrated circuit design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, and equipment materials gathered at the venue, and carried out in-depth exchanges around the cutting-edge technology and industry trends in the field of integrated circuits.

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Hu Guangjie, the Vice Governor of Jiangsu Province, Zhao Jianjun, the Mayor of Wuxi City, and Yang Xudong, the Deputy Director of the Electronic Information Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, delivered speeches at the conference, fully expressing their affirmation, expectations, and the next development goals and plans for the development of the integrated circuit industry in Jiangsu Province and Wuxi City.

In the keynote speech session, academicians Xu Juyan and Chen Zuoning from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Nobel Prize winner Professor Konstantin, and several heavyweight guests from the industry, such as Liu Bin, the Chief Scientist of China Electronics Technology Group, and Qian Kun, the Senior Vice President of Qualcomm, shared their insights on key technologies and future development directions of the industry, such as Chiplet, integrated circuit equipment and materials industry, and 5G+AI.

In addition, a batch of national platforms, special funds, and cluster pilots, including the National "Xinhuo" Dual Innovation Base Automotive Chip Reliability Testing Platform in Wuxi, the Wuxi Integrated Circuit Industry Special Fund with a total scale of 5 billion yuan, and the Jiangsu Province (Wuxi) Integrated Circuit Industry Integration Cluster, were officially unveiled at the opening ceremony.

At the same time, more than 30 key industrial projects were signed in a centralized manner, with a total contract amount exceeding 20 billion yuan, fully supporting the high-quality development of the integrated circuit industry.

Overall, as the first Integrated Circuit (Wuxi) Innovation and Development Conference, this conference fully leveraged the unique advantages of Wuxi City's full industry chain and profound industrial heritage, driving close collaboration and innovative cooperation between the upstream and downstream of the industry chain, which is conducive to comprehensively promoting the core competitiveness and overall development level of the integrated circuit industry in the city, the province, and the whole country, and effectively promoting the integrated circuit industry to better strengthen the chain, supplement the chain, and extend the chain.Wuxi's Local Emerging Equipment Enterprises Make a Strong Breakthrough

From the leader's opening speech, the industry expert's forward-looking sharing, and a series of key project signings and unveilings, it is not difficult to see that the integrated circuit industry is accelerating its growth in Wuxi.

Driven by marketization, policy guidance, and the support of capital, Wuxi's "core attack" map is becoming more vivid, leading a group of emerging technology innovation enterprises to grow and strengthen rapidly.

As one of the series of innovation and development conferences, the 11th (2023) China Electronic Special Equipment Industry Association Semiconductor Equipment Annual Conference and Industry Chain Cooperation Forum was held at the same time at the Wuxi Taihu International Expo Center. This year's equipment annual conference focuses on key areas such as high-end equipment, with more than 380 manufacturers covering the entire industry chain actively participating. It includes well-known domestic leading enterprises such as North Huachuang, Shengmei Semiconductor, Zhongwei Semiconductor, Tuojin Technology, and Shanghai Microelectronics, as well as local Wuxi enterprises such as Weidou Nanometer, Yiwen Technology, Hua Ying Microelectronics, and Qian Dao Intelligence. It comprehensively presents the development achievements of China's integrated circuit industry in equipment, core components, and key materials, as well as the innovative exploration of Wuxi enterprises in key links of the industry chain.

According to statistics, more than 63,000 professional visitors attended this exhibition, and cooperation signings and order projects came in an endless stream. 162 companies reached an on-site intention transaction amount of 2.65 billion yuan, which effectively promoted the efficient docking of the upstream and downstream of the industry chain and the coordinated development of large, medium, and small enterprises, and further polished the "golden signboard" of Wuxi's integrated circuit.

It is particularly worth noting that in the new product release activities, 15 companies including Shanghai Microelectronics, Shengmei Semiconductor, Yanwei Semiconductor, Weidou Nanometer, Yiwen Technology, and Aike Rui Si, have showcased their innovative achievements and leading products in new technologies, new equipment, and new materials, reflecting the cutting-edge product technology and trends of domestic semiconductor equipment from multiple angles, and showing the confidence and determination of Chinese enterprises to achieve high-level scientific and technological independence and self-improvement.

Weidou Nanometer: The leading domestic ALD equipment enterprise continues to break through

Among them, Jiangsu Weidou Nanometer Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Weidou Nanometer") made a strong debut with a new product, releasing the iTomic® MW series of batch-type atomic layer deposition coating systems.

According to Dr. Li Weiming, Deputy Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Weidou Nanometer, the new product uses an innovative batch-type (mini-batch) cavity design, which can process 25 12-inch wafers at a time, and the machine's chip output per hour is 6-7 times that of a single wafer machine. It is suitable for key processes and applications with low film deposition rate, high thickness requirements, and high capacity requirements. Compared with the furnace tube equipment, Weidou Nanometer's batch-type ALD equipment can reduce particle size while avoiding thermal damage to the chip devices in the process.At the same time, the iTomic® MW series products, leveraging their unique flow field design, offer advantages such as fast film formation, small footprint, high capacity, and low usage costs, providing customized mass production solutions for storage chips as well as Micro-OLED displays, MEMS, and more.

In semiconductor equipment, thin film deposition equipment, along with lithography equipment and etching equipment, constitute the three core devices of chip manufacturing, determining the advancement of chip manufacturing processes.

In recent years, driven by the expansion of wafer factories, the evolution of advanced processes, the increase in 3D NAND layers, and the rise in chip structure complexity, the market for thin film deposition equipment has continued to grow. According to SEMI data forecasts, the global thin film equipment market size is expected to reach 28 billion US dollars in 2024.

Thin film preparation processes can be divided into three major categories based on their film formation methods: Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD), Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD).

Currently, ALD equipment accounts for about 11% of the market share of the coating segment. As Moore's Law continues to evolve, ALD technology will play an increasingly important role in semiconductor equipment, with a compound annual growth rate of up to 26.3% expected in the next few years. In contrast, CVD equipment covers a broader range of processes, accounting for about 57% of the market share of the coating segment, with a compound growth rate of about 8.9%. In the future, as wafer process technology advances, CVD and ALD equipment may contribute to the main growth points.

However, looking at the current market share, the global thin film deposition equipment market is still highly monopolistic, with international giants such as Applied Materials, Lam Research, TEL, and ASM dominating. The proportion of domestic equipment is relatively low, and domestic substitution is imperative, but the task is arduous.

Under this situation and trend, local equipment manufacturers represented by Weidou Nano are accelerating their pace to help domestic thin film deposition equipment break through as soon as possible.

Founded in 2015, Weidou Nano has achieved multiple breakthroughs in the industrialization of ALD and CVD technologies through continuous deep cultivation in the field of high-end thin film deposition equipment. It is worth noting that Weidou Nano ranks first among domestic enterprises in terms of ALD product revenue scale, with a variety of semiconductor ALD equipment covering logic, storage, compound semiconductors, new display, and other segmented application fields, and key process indicators have reached an internationally advanced level.

With its strong technical strength, Weidou Nano's achievements have filled many domestic technical gaps, solving the problem of High-k gate oxide layer ALD thin film deposition, a key core process for 300mm wafer 28nm process, achieving a breakthrough from "0 to 1" for domestic ALD equipment, and winning the China "Semiconductor Innovation Product" award. It is an outstanding representative of the national specialized and new "Little Giant" enterprises.

On December 23, 2022, Weidou Nano successfully landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, becoming the "first stock" of domestic ALD equipment and the first integrated circuit front-end process equipment enterprise listed in Wuxi, achieving a new breakthrough in the capital market.While maintaining the market competitiveness and market share of ALD products, Weidao Nano also launched CVD thin film deposition equipment, further opening up the development space of the industry. This has laid the strategic positioning of the company with ALD technology as the core, and a gradient development of various vacuum thin film technologies such as CVD, helping to accelerate the process of domestication of the semiconductor industry.

The release of this new product marks another new breakthrough for Weidao Nano in the field of semiconductor thin film deposition, and it is also a key step for the company to activate new growth drivers through diversified layout.

Regarding the future development plan, Dr. Li Weiming pointed out that Weidao Nano will continue to focus on market demand, deepen independent innovation, accelerate the development of core technologies, further expand the application field of thin film deposition technology, promote the domestication and industrialization of high-end technical equipment, and strive to become a world-class leader in micro-nano manufacturing equipment.

Yiwen Technology: Domestic etching equipment ushers in new opportunities.

Similarly, in the field of semiconductor front-end equipment, Wuxi Yiwen Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Yiwen Technology"), as a local high-quality manufacturer, is also actively deploying.

Liu Dan, General Manager of the Coating Business Department of Yiwen Technology, said in an interview with the semiconductor industry observation that Yiwen Technology was established in Wuxi in 2011, with the main products being etching process equipment and thin film deposition process equipment, applied to the front-end process stage of semiconductors, especially in the field of compound semiconductors and MEMS and other characteristic process areas. At present, the etching machine, stripping machine, ALD, CVD and other equipment independently developed by Yiwen Technology have reached the leading level in the country, and the 2000ICP etching equipment has been awarded the title of the first set of equipment in Jiangsu Province.

During this conference, Yiwen Technology also brought the new product of 2023 - the third-generation semiconductor 8-inch thin film etching equipment. Due to the high hardness, high melting point, high density and other characteristics of SiC materials, there are some particularities in the manufacturing process of materials and chip preparation, which requires parameter adjustment and component optimization of existing equipment.

Liu Dan pointed out that Yiwen Technology's third-generation semiconductor etching series products have many advantages, including: high-precision automated multi-chamber transmission platform ICP chamber design, flexible process, support for a variety of customized processes; the software system architecture is reasonable, simple and convenient operation, low consumption and maintenance cost of the reaction chamber process kit; full-wavelength OES system, suitable for the transmission of various materials, the whole machine is modularly designed, and the chamber configuration is flexible, etc., which can be widely used in etching applications of 4-inch-12-inch silicon-based, third-generation semiconductor and other production lines.

Behind the advantages, it comes from the early layout of Yiwen Technology. It is understood that as early as 2013, Yiwen Technology began to research and layout the third-generation semiconductors, and in 2014, it entered the field of silicon carbide layout with Taike Tianrun and 55 companies as an opportunity for the development of silicon carbide process. For a long time, Yiwen Technology has accumulated technical experience and scientific research strength through the original mature business, deeply cultivated the characteristic process fields of the third-generation semiconductor, MEMS, etc., and launched etching equipment suitable for the third-generation semiconductor materials including silicon carbide and gallium nitride, to meet the requirements of industry customers for process equipment.It is well known that etching equipment, as one of the core equipment in the semiconductor production line, is only second in complexity to the lithography machine. In recent years, with the upgrade of chip process technology, lithography machines are limited by the wavelength of light, and the critical dimensions cannot meet the requirements. It is necessary to adopt multi-layer template processes and use etching processes to achieve smaller sizes, which further enhances the importance of etching technology and related equipment. Research institution Transparency Market Research recently stated that the global semiconductor etching equipment market value is about 11.3 billion US dollars in 2022, and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.6% from 2023 to 2031, reaching 21.7 billion US dollars in 2031, with a broad market space.

However, the etching equipment industry has a high concentration and significant industry barriers. The global etching machine market has long been occupied by industry giants such as Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, and Lam Research. But in recent years, with the continuous breakthroughs of domestic equipment giants such as SMIC and North Micro, as well as the continuous efforts of emerging companies including Yiven Technology, domestic etching equipment companies have a relatively sufficient accumulation of technology and process experience in mature processes, and even in advanced process fields, capable of completing a wider range of domestic replacements, with a larger potential market share.

At the same time, due to the supply risks of overseas equipment, under the condition of the local enterprises' awareness of independent control, domestic wafer factories will rely more on domestic etching equipment, and the domestic equipment rate will continue to rise, providing opportunities for domestic etching equipment to move towards the high-end.

On the other hand, in addition to the current opportunities for domestic replacement, Liu Dan said to the author that proximity service, high customization, differentiated competition, and cost-effectiveness are also the key advantages for Yiven Technology to compete with foreign giants.

Proximity Service: Yiven Technology is closer to local customers and markets, and can respond to any service needs of the customer at any time through rapid response and on-site service speed, ensuring service quality with a complete service process. At the same time, Yiven Technology also has rich experience in equipment and process development technology, and can provide customers with equipment process training in multiple fields.

Customized Service: In the process of manufacturing equipment, Yiven Technology pays more attention to customer needs, and can customize design and manufacturing according to different requirements of customers to meet the different needs of different customers. This also makes the adaptability of domestic equipment stronger, and can play a better role in different processing environments.

Differentiated Competition: Seize the market of characteristic process technology, meet the differentiated needs of customers for renovation and transformation, and at the same time, use the original business to accumulate customer groups, quickly promote the marketization process of new products and new technologies, collect the use data and feedback of end users, continuously optimize and improve the design and manufacturing of products, and form a deep accumulation in the field of characteristic process technology and transform to self-developed equipment.

Cost-effective: Compared with imported equipment, the manufacturing cost of domestic manufacturers is relatively low, and the equipment price is more affordable. At the same time, Yiven Technology is also continuously improving the rate of domestic spare parts, laying the foundation for the demand for spare parts on the customer side, with a spare parts rate of more than 95%.In addition, in terms of talent cultivation, Yiven Technology relies on joint laboratories co-built by enterprises, universities, and research institutions as the core support, establishing a talent training mechanism that integrates the advantages of industry, academia, and research, providing new research and development forces for the company's continuous technological innovation.

With many advantages, Yiven Technology has been continuously innovating and developing, achieving a series of breakthroughs in self-developed technologies. It is understood that Yiven Technology has applied for 224 patents, owns 160 authorized patents, and has obtained 35 software copyrights. The company has 54 patents under review, including 50 invention patents, 3 practical new type patents, and 1 PCT. The foundation of intellectual property rights has laid a good foundation for Yiven Technology to create its own well-known brand.

In the future, Yiven Technology will continue to develop proprietary intellectual property technology, promote process improvement, explore cutting-edge technologies for the future development of the industry, and lead the development of industry technology.

In addition, during the exhibition, the annual semiconductor equipment summit and special forums were also held in the venue, inviting a group of industry executives and academic representatives to discuss the urgent issues of semiconductor equipment, core components, and materials. From macro trends to technical difficulties, it fully demonstrated the opportunities and challenges faced by the semiconductor industry. At the same time, it also built a friendly platform for the industry to exchange technology, negotiate business, and promote the market, helping exhibitors in various segments of the industry to have in-depth exchanges and efficient cooperation with potential customers on the spot.

The strength and efforts of Wuxi's integrated circuit industry

It is not difficult to see that Wuxi's local integrated circuit enterprises represented by Micro-Guide Nano and Yiven Technology are bursting with new market vitality and development potential.

As one of the main birthplaces of the domestic integrated circuit industry, Wuxi has been focusing on strengthening the "core" for more than half a century. In addition to a group of emerging enterprises, it has already emerged as a batch of influential leading enterprises and single champion enterprises in the industry, such as China Resources Microelectronics, Zhongke Microelectronics, Changdian Technology, SK Hynix, Huahong Wuxi, HAITAI Semiconductor, Zhonghuan Leading, and Zhuosheng Micro.

Looking at the various links of the industrial chain, Wuxi is a rare city in the domestic integrated circuit industry that covers R&D design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, equipment materials, and supporting services.

Specifically, Wuxi's design industry is developing rapidly, with a number of listed companies that master core technologies. Among them, Zhuosheng Micro is the first listed design company in the province and a leading domestic RF chip company; Xinpeng Micro and Lixin Micro have been listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board; and Xinjie Energy is listed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The manufacturing industry is large in scale. Wuxi's wafer manufacturing industry has pioneered domestic contract manufacturing. Among the top 10 largest wafer manufacturing enterprises in the province, 7 are in Wuxi, namely SK Hynix, China Resources Micro, Wuxi Huahong, Haichen Semiconductor, Jiangyin Xinshun, Zhongwei Wafer, and Dongchen Electronics.At the same time, Wuxi's scale and technical level in the packaging and testing industry are leading the nation. Jiangsu Changdian, Quanxun RF, Haitai Semiconductor, and Shenghe Jingwei are among the top ten enterprises in the province, with Jiangsu Changdian ranking first in the country and third in the world. In terms of core technology research, Wuxi has established the National Integrated Circuit Specialty Process and Packaging Testing Innovation Center.

In terms of supporting industries, Wuxi's supporting industries cover a wide range of categories such as specialized equipment, core components, and raw materials for integrated circuits, and have achieved leading positions in various sub-segments. For example, the chemical reagent industry in Jiangyin area ranks first in the country; self-developed thin-film deposition equipment and etching equipment by Micro-Nano and Yuwen Technology have reached the leading level in the country.

According to data statistics, in 2022, the scale of Wuxi's integrated circuit industry reached 209.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.2%. From January to June this year, there were 219 listed enterprises in Wuxi's integrated circuit industry, achieving a total output value of 106.548 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.5%. Currently, the scale of Wuxi's integrated circuit industry accounts for 1/2 of the province and 1/8 of the country. The leading enterprises have gathered for development, with 14 listed companies, 34 national-level specialized and new "little giant" enterprises, and more than 300 high-tech enterprises. It is expected that the scale of the integrated circuit industry in the whole city will exceed 280 billion yuan by 2025.

Looking back at the development history of Wuxi's integrated circuit industry, from producing China's first ultra-large-scale commercial integrated circuit to becoming the "Huangpu Military Academy" of the integrated circuit industry, and then to the development of the entire industry chain of integrated circuits, each step is marked with the progress and innovation of Wuxi's "core".

Of course, the construction of the integrated circuit industry cluster is not something that can be achieved overnight. Behind the fruitful results is Wuxi's unremitting efforts in building the industrial ecosystem, policy support, and investment attraction.

In terms of the industrial ecosystem, Wuxi has been approved as one of the National Integrated Circuit Design Industrialization Bases (8 in total), National Microelectronics High-tech Industrial Bases (2 in total), and the only National "Xinhuo" Double Innovation Base at the prefecture-level city level, committed to empowering industrial development with a high-level support system.

At present, Wuxi has built 19 national innovation carriers and 60 provincial public service platforms; it has focused on building 13 characteristic parks and continues to promote industrial agglomeration development. At the same time, Wuxi has gathered a large number of innovative and entrepreneurial talents, building 50 high-end talent teams and attracting 150,000 "specialized, refined, and scarce" talents from various industries.

In terms of policy, Wuxi first introduced special policies for integrated circuits in 2016, and has continuously iterated and upgraded them, successively formulating and issuing a series of policies such as "Several Policies on Accelerating the Construction of an Internationally Influential Integrated Circuit Landmark Industry" and "Wuxi Integrated Circuit Industry Cluster Development Three-Year Action Plan (2023-2025)". These policies focus on supporting the growth and development of the industry, the innovation and development of enterprises, the acceleration of project construction, the introduction and cultivation of talents, the collaborative development of the industry, and the optimization of the industrial environment, emphasizing the systematic, targeted, and innovative development of the integrated circuit industry.

At the same time, Wuxi also pays more attention to providing "real gold and silver" and increasing subsidies. The new policy introduced in June this year has increased the special funds by three times to 300 million yuan, which will strongly support the construction of an internationally influential and core competitive integrated circuit landmark industry cluster in Wuxi, leading to high-quality development of the entire industry chain.

With the strong support of policy encouragement and the business environment, a series of key projects are also continuously promoting the rise of Wuxi's integrated circuit industry to the high end of the industry chain. In 2023, Wuxi has a number of new and under-construction projects such as Huatong Manufacturing, Zhonghuan Leading Phase II, Changdian Microelectronics Microsystem Manufacturing, and Shenghe Jingwei 3D Multi-Chip Packaging, with a total investment exceeding 170 billion yuan for the year.Significant projects and leading enterprises are frequently "adding stakes" to invest in Wuxi, and the logic behind this is not difficult to analyze. On one hand, it is highly consistent with the industrial orientation. In recent years, Wuxi has taken the integrated circuit industry as a key strategic emerging industry for development, providing a comprehensive "ecological soil" for the industry, offering a fertile ground for the development of integrated circuit enterprises, and creating a favorable development situation where "big trees can take root, and small trees can grow."

On the other hand, it is also inseparable from the "no difficult matters, attentively handled" business environment provided by the Wuxi government at all levels. As Mayor Zhao Jianjun said, for the "ace" industry of integrated circuits, Wuxi is committed to providing the best resources, the most favorable policies, and the most efficient services, supporting "hard development" with "soft strength" and ensuring "soft strength" with "hard measures."

In conjunction with this conference, adhering to the goal of organizing an exhibition to activate a "chain," the 2023 Integrated Circuit (Wuxi) Innovation and Development Conference has further provided effective docking for integrated circuit industry cooperation, business negotiations, and results display by building a "exhibition + industry + investment attraction" reception platform, driving collaborative innovation in the industry chain upstream and downstream, promoting high-quality industrial development, and injecting "core" momentum into the integrated circuit industry of the city, province, and country.

Conclusion

"By 2025, strive to build an internationally influential integrated circuit landmark industry cluster," this is the long-term goal set by Wuxi for itself, and it is also the determination and attitude of Wuxi to vigorously develop the integrated circuit industry. Behind this is also Wuxi's self-confidence and self-strength based on the industrial foundation and technological innovation advantages.

In the future, Wuxi will promote the construction of the "dual center," support the National Integrated Circuit Specialty Process and Packaging Testing Innovation Center to grow and strengthen, and accelerate the rapid layout in the fields of the "two circles and two chains" of the information creation chip ecosystem, the automotive-grade chip innovation circle, the high-end power semiconductor industry chain, and the third-generation semiconductor full industry chain, and make precise efforts.

At the same time, it will continue to deepen the "four connections" between design enterprises and manufacturing enterprises, material equipment and manufacturing enterprises, local parts and components small and medium-sized enterprises and equipment enterprises, and capital and industry, promoting collaborative innovation in the integrated circuit industry chain.

All these new industrial policies, layouts, and goals are driving the integrated circuit industry in Wuxi to usher in a new wave of development in the future.