Integrated circuit breaks the opportunity period

As the economy improves, leading companies in the IC industry have been very busy recently. At the same time, the Outline for Promoting Industrial Development is expected to be announced in the near future. The integrated circuit industry is facing an important opportunity of “do not wait”.

Changjiang Electronics has just finished the relocation of production capacity, and has begun to accelerate the industrialization of specialty products. Changjiang Electronics Technology's headquarters in Jiangyin sees its secretary Dong Zhu, and is busy sending away a group of research institutions. In Tongfu Microelectronics, the company is currently engaged in a large-scale recruitment. Qian Jianzhong, the company's executive secretary, said that the company's industrial line has a total of 4,000 workers, but even if there is another 500-600 people, there will be no problem.

Also busy, of course, there are investment institutions, Guotai Junan, Industrial Securities and a number of fund companies have "opened the altar," invited experts to preach the IC industry prospects and analysis, and such capital fever has not seen for many years.

As the industry heats up, it is expected that the outline of IC development will be announced in the near future.

Macro: Comprehensive release of support signals

Zhu Zhengyi said that the new government attaches great importance to the integrated circuit industry and raises it to the height of information security, which is related to the safety of the country’s economic lifeline. This has brought positive effects to the entire industry.

In 2013, the State Council and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology successively issued the “Twelfth Five-Year National Strategic Emerging Industries Development Plan” and “The IC Industry Twelfth Five-Year Plan”. Since 2014, support signals for the integrated circuit industry have been further developed. freed.

A few days ago, the central bank decentralized the 2014 credit policy work opinion and clearly stated that in 2014, it would develop financing products suitable for the characteristics of high-tech enterprises, while the integrated circuit industry was included in the list of key support.

The 2014 government work report also clearly stated that it is necessary to set up an entrepreneurial innovation platform for emerging industries, to catch up with advanced ones in the new generation of mobile communications, integrated circuits, big data, advanced manufacturing, new energy, and new materials, and to lead future industrial development.

The reason why multiple policies are all-encompassing is due to the imperative of the urgent development of integrated circuits. Ye Tianchun, director of the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, made it clear that the semiconductor and integrated circuit industry will be the most important industrial material for the next 30 years. And our country’s self-sufficiency in this material is worth worrying about.

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China imported 231.3 billion U.S. dollars of integrated circuits in 2013, a year-on-year increase of 20.5%. Its import volume exceeded crude oil, and it is China's largest import commodity. The deficit in imports and exports in the integrated circuit sector reached US$143.6 billion, a 3.5% increase over the previous year. In the eyes of people in the industry, as long as domestic alternatives can win 50% of the market share, market space should not be underestimated.

In Ju Zheng's view, the integrated circuit industry is facing an important opportunity period of "not waiting for the time."

With regard to the current level of integrated circuits in China, Zhu Zheng believes that our basic capabilities have been greatly improved: the design also has a certain ability, chip manufacturing has made great progress, packaging and testing are close to the international advanced level, and the equipment and materials are from scratch. Nowadays, Beijing and Tianjin have successively introduced measures for the development of local new policies for integrated circuits, as well as the development of industrial funds and financial support industries. And Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hefei and other places are also studying relevant policies and actively introducing leading domestic enterprises to set up factories.

Microscopic: IC companies expand production capacity

In the face of the dual advantages of industry prosperity and policy dividends, Changjiang Electronics and Tongfu Microelectronics are expanding their production capacity, restructuring, and distribution of high-end products.

At Changjiang Electronics' headquarters in Jiangyin, Zhu Zhengyi stated that in the face of unprecedented opportunities in the industry, “emphasizing internal strength, adjusting structure, grasping innovation, gathering talent, and extensive cooperation” is becoming the company’s main strategy at this stage. On the one hand, costs are reduced through relocation. Raise the gross profit of traditional products, and on the other hand, place high-end products in the middle to achieve a local surpass.

According to Zhu Zhengyi, Changjiang Electronics started from low-end products. However, due to excessive market competition and low prices, the company's interests cannot be guaranteed. Without technical reserves, high-end products cannot be made. Therefore, the company must focus on investment in high-end products, moderate development of traditional products, and accelerated development of specialty products, which will also become the focus of investment.

For example, the company's wafer-level packaging currently grows by 30% each year, bump processing increases by 60% annually, BGA high-end integrated circuit packaging increases by 90% last year, and FC BGA's flip-chip growth is faster, and it has been mass-produced. In 2013, the company's high-end production capacity accounted for 33%, which will increase to 45% in 2014.

Zhu Zhengyi said that the company began to adjust last year and moved its traditional middle and low-end parts production capacity to the central and western regions to reduce costs. At present, the relocation has been completed. In addition to the company's 5,000 employees in Jiangyin, the company also has 5,000 workers in Zhangzhou, Anhui Province and Suqian, Jiangsu Province. It is expected that the adverse effects brought by the relocation of the factory are expected to be digested in the first half of the year, and the advantage of cost control is expected to be reflected in the second half of the year. He said frankly, "The purpose of doing so is to restore old products to profitability."

To speed up the development of specialty products, the first is to realize industrialization, carry out secondary development, and solve technological problems on the production line so as to achieve the goal of industrial mass production. According to him, at present, Changjiang Electronics' single-layer board has a capacity of 40,000 pieces/month. The preliminary sample of the double-layer board is successful. If the sample passes, it can quickly enter into mass production.

"This is a reversal of the basic materials used in the original integrated circuit package, which can reduce material costs on a large scale and make it difficult for many integrated circuits to implement encapsulation using this type of material," Zhu Zhengyi explained.

In the layout of high-end products, the Bumping technology jointly invested by the company and SMIC is necessary for advanced semiconductor manufacturing process yield testing, and is also the basis for future 3D wafer-level packaging technology. Suitable for chip products below 40nm, but also more consistent with the trend of light and thin mobile consumer electronics products. At the same time, the company also developed high-pixel image sensing products jointly with Toshiba.

According to reports, the preparations for the two projects have been done very well and the technology has been well ahead of schedule. This also echoes the company's restructuring strategy.

The same is true for Tongfu Microelectronics. Qian Jianzhong said that the company is in the process of large-scale recruitment. The production line workers plan to add another 500-600 people to the existing 4,000. “As the business climate is clearly improving, the company’s orders are very abundant, and expansion is planned.” From the aspect of cost control, Tongfu Microelectronics' copper technology application has expanded from traditional packaging products to advanced packaging products such as BGA. At present, the proportion of copper products has reached 80%, which is conducive to the stability and even increase of gross profit. In 2013, the sales of advanced packaging products such as BGA and QFN increased by more than 35% year-on-year. In 2014, the company plans to expand the production scale of BGA and QFN, adjust the product mix, and increase the proportion of advanced packaging products.