This article comes from the WeChat public account: XinchaoIC (ID: xinchaoIC), author: Wang Yike, title picture comes from: Visual China
In addition to Beijing, Shang and Shenzhen, Wuxi should be one of the cities where most semiconductor people check in regularly.
Wuxi is located in East China and southern Jiangsu Province. It has been known as the "hometown of fish and rice" since ancient times. Here, there is no prosperity of Beijing, modernity of Shanghai, and vitality of Shenzhen, but it has a unique "beauty". As the cradle of China's national industry and township industry, and the birthplace of Southern Jiangsu model , Wuxi is also a semiconductor highland that cannot be ignored in China. is also known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" for talents in China's integrated circuit industry.
According to the "2021 Mainland China Urban Integrated Circuit Competitiveness Ranking" released by the Xin Idea Research Institute, Wuxi surpassed Shenzhen in terms of comprehensive competitiveness in the chip industry, second only to Shanghai and Beijing.
How did this ancient city with a history of more than 3,000 years have become the leading chip manufacturing base in China? What are Wuxi’s unique advantages in the competition in which localities compete to build the semiconductor industry?
A city with core-making gene
The rise of Wuxi's semiconductor industry is indispensable for more than 50 years of historical accumulation.
As early as the 1970s, the State Planning Commission approved the "fixed-point report" of the Jiangsu Provincial Revolutionary Committee and the Fourth Machinery Department, and agreed to use the 742 factory for expansion, build a professional factory for the production of TV integrated circuits and a trial factory for MOS and bipolar integrated circuits, and produce 11 varieties of color TV linear integrated circuits, with an annual production capacity of 26 million yuan.
With the strong support of the Wuxi Municipal Government, Factory 742 in Wuxi has built the only professional factory in my country with the most complete manufacturing processes, the largest production capacity of , and the most complete industrial chain. covers a complete industrial chain from silicon material crystal pulling to integrated circuit design , manufacturing, packaging and testing, mask manufacturing, physical and chemical analysis, reliability testing, and some special equipment, some high-purity gases and some special materials manufacturing.
In China at that time, the status of the 742 factory was even higher than that of today's BAT factory. In the 1980s, Factory 742 introduced a complete set of color and black and white TVs, integrated circuits, 5 micron production lines from Toshiba, Japan. According to data, since April 1980, more than 60 batches of more than 150 Japanese experts have come to Wuxi to work.
China Huajing, derived from Factory 742, is a highlight in Wuxi's industrial history. In February 1989, after the "'85' Integrated Circuit Development Strategy Seminar" was held in Wuxi, Jiangsu, Factory 742 and the Wuxi Branch of Yongchuan Semiconductor Research Institute were merged into China Huajing Electronics Group Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "China Huajing"). Four years later, China Huajing made China's first 256K DRAM, which was seven years later than South Korea, but it broke China's "zero" record in one fell swoop.
In the 1990s, Huajing Group took the lead in building a 12,000-piece and 6-inch chip production line in China, becoming the "Southern Base" of the national microelectronics industry and the "Whampoa Military Academy" for the cultivation of integrated circuit talents. It is no exaggeration to say that the figure of "Huajingren" can be seen in well-known semiconductor companies such as SMIC , Huahong Hongli, Huali Microelectronics, Changdian Technology , Tongfu Microelectronics , Silicon Valley, and even relevant government departments.
And the excitement of the business world is that no piece of cake will always belong to whom, and so will the glory be.
records the true situation at that time in the paper "Research on Debt-to-Equity Transfer of Huajing Electronics Group Corporation" by Shen Ningning of Fudan University ": By 1999, Huajing's net loss reached more than 100 million yuan, and that year it lost 250 million yuan, becoming the largest loss-making enterprise in Wuxi . Although sales revenue was still growing at a rate of 15% to 20%, the huge debt made it difficult for Huajing to turn losses into trouble.
At this time, chip veteran from Taiwan, Chen Zhengyu took the initiative to negotiate with Huajing, hoping to rent Huajing's equipment and production line. In 1999, Dr. Chen Zhengyu cooperated with China Huajing to establish Wuxi Huajing Shanghua Semiconductor Co., Ltd. in Wuxi. Shanghua holds 451% of html and 49% of html to operate a 6-inch MOS wafer foundry.
In order to reverse the company's situation, Chen Zhengyu invited the most influential figure in the history of Chinese semiconductors - the godfather of Chinese semiconductors Zhang Rujing . At that time, Dr. Chen Zhengyu was the chairman of China Resources Shanghua , Zhang Rujing served as the first general manager, and led a team to develop 0.5 micron chip products. Not long after, Huajing Shanghua quickly turned losses into profits and became the first "pure wafer foundry" company in mainland China.
During this period, Wuxi established the first microelectronics industrial park in China, attracting a large number of integrated circuit wafer manufacturing and packaging and testing enterprises with the highest international standards represented by SK Hynix , Infineon , Toshiba Semiconductor, etc. The industrial park also cultivated a number of representative enterprises of national semiconductor industry such as Jiangsu Changdian, and nurtured a large number of emerging microelectronics companies such as Meixin Semiconductor, Lixin Microelectronics, and Xinpeng Microelectronics.
In 2002, China Resources Group of Hong Kong officially announced the completion of the acquisition of Huajing, and evolved into today's China Resources Microelectronics . Today, China Resources Microelectronics has become the only semiconductor company in China that operates mainly in the IDM model. The company has built and operated China's first 4-inch wafer production line and the first 6-inch wafer production line. Currently, the products are mainly power devices. In 2020, the company had a 6-inch production capacity of about 2.48 million pieces per year and an 8-inch production capacity of about 1.44 million pieces per year.
From the original factory 742 to Huajing Group and now China Resources Microelectronics, Wuxi's semiconductor industry map has gradually been drawn and formed in the process of the historical evolution of the company. "Start early, have a good foundation, and have a strong foundation" , the few numbers seem to be the best summary of the development of Wuxi's chip industry.
" Little Shanghai " Wuxi, packaging and manufacturing are good at
"because Wuxi has a good packaging industry foundation." Zheng Yong, who has been in Wuxi for 8 years, said without hesitation that the packaging and testing factory is right at the door of "home", which is both convenient and cost-saving.
In the main links of the semiconductor industry chain, packaging is an important part of the semiconductor production process and the smallest gap between China and the world in the semiconductor industry. China's chip packaging and testing can occupy a place in the global territory, and Wuxi's silent efforts are indispensable.
Wuxi packaging industry has supported the backbone of China's semiconductor industry. "Last year, Wuxi's integrated circuit industry ranked second in the country, among which packaging testing and supporting support were the first in the country." Wuxi Municipal Party Committee Secretary Du Xiaogang introduced at the 19th China Semiconductor Packaging Testing Technology and Market Annual Meeting.
When it comes to Wuxi's packaging industry, naturally cannot avoid Changdian Technology located in Jiangyin (under the jurisdiction of Wuxi). was born in the planned economy period in the 1970s and grew into a world-renowned leading packaging and testing company after many ups and downs.
data shows that the company currently provides semiconductor integration and packaging testing services covering all categories of packaging and testing. In terms of scale, Changdian Technology is the largest packaging and testing company in China and the third largest in the world. The company has a full range of service capabilities in the packaging field. In the use of advanced packaging technology, it is about the same progress as the world's number one Sun Moonlight , surpassing the second place.
Under the leadership of the leading company Changdian Technology, Wuxi has gathered nearly 10 packaging and testing companies, including Haitai Semiconductor, Quanxun RF, Infineon, Lite Semiconductor, China Resources AXA, Hongguang Microelectronics, Taiji Semiconductor, SMIC Changdian, Huajin Semiconductor, mainly concentrated in the High-tech Zone ( Xinwu District ) and Jiangyin City .Every year, a large number of semiconductor companies come to Wuxi to make packaging, which has become a norm.
In recent years, the demand for chips is increasingly high in integration, high performance and lightweight, which puts higher requirements on semiconductor packaging technology. In this regard, Jiangyin is actively promoting the construction of "Science and Technology Innovation Jiangyin", with the goal of building a world-leading high-end packaging and testing industry base, accurately formulating special plans for the integrated circuit industry, setting up industrial development funds specifically to strengthen advanced packaging advantageous industries.
Specifically, companies such as Changdian Technology, Huajin Semiconductor, and Taiji Semiconductor have significantly increased the proportion of advanced packaging processes represented by flip chip packaging (FC), chip-level packaging (WLP), system-level packaging (SiP), etc. in the product . Among them, Changdian Technology has mastered advanced packaging technologies such as system-level SiP technology, high-density fan-out wafer-level technology, flip-up technology, 2.5D/3D, and has achieved large-scale production.
In terms of wafer foundry, Wuxi has set a precedent in China - it was once the largest 12-inch memory chip manufacturing and 6-inch wafer foundry base in China, accounting for 70% of the national market share . 位于无锡市的晶圆制造企业有：SK海力士、华润上华科技、华润华晶、无锡华虹（在建）、海辰半导体（在建）、中微晶圆、江苏东晨、江阴新顺等，主要集中在梁溪区和高新区（新吴区）。
In recent years, good news has been heard in Wuxi wafer foundry -
In September 2019, Huahong Semiconductor's integrated circuit research and development and manufacturing base (Phase I) 12-inch production line construction project in Wuxi, Huahong Group's subsidiary Huahong Group officially launched a film. This production line is not only the leading 12-inch special process production line in mainland China, but is also the world's first 12-inch power device OEM production line.
When China's leading integrated circuit giant Shanghai Huahong Group decided to "set" Wuxi's 10 billion-level 12-inch integrated circuit research and development and manufacturing base project, Wuxi's position in the field of integrated circuits is self-evident.
data shows that in 2021, the Huahong Wuxi 12-inch Phase I project reached full production, contributing 29.5% of sales revenue. This has enabled Huahong to successfully transform from an 8-inch wafer fab into a "8+12" wafer fab. Huahong said in its annual report that the company will continue to expand the production capacity of Huahong Wuxi 12-inch production line, and strive to reach a monthly production capacity of more than 90,000 pieces by the end of 2022.
At the end of 2020, the M8 project with a total investment of US$1.4 billion was officially put into production. This project is an 8-inch non-storage wafer project jointly invested and constructed by Haichen Semiconductor (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. and SK Hynix System Integrated Circuit (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. The project will transfer the equipment assets and related patented technologies, R&D teams, and customer orders in Cheongju, South Korea to Wuxi, with a total investment of US$1.4 billion. After production, 115,000 8-inch wafers will be produced per month, far higher than the average monthly output of 50,000 pieces by other domestic and foreign companies.
In April 2021, SK Hynix Wuxi Second Factory held a completion ceremony. It is reported that SK Hynix is the largest foreign-invested enterprise in Jiangsu's single-unit investment scale. The total investment of SK Hynix II factory project is US$8.6 billion, of which US$1.6 billion is used to build a new 33,000 square meters of clean factory and its affiliated supporting facilities, and US$7 billion is used to purchase the world's most advanced semiconductor production equipment. The term of the construction of the project is from 2017 to 2026. After the second factory project is completed, the SK Hynix Wuxi factory will have a monthly production capacity of 180,000 12-inch wafers, and its annual sales are also planned to reach US$3.3 billion.
also has a 12-inch wafer factory (Huahong Factory 7) with a monthly production capacity of 65,000 pieces in Wuxi High-tech Industrial Development Zone. It is not only the leading 12-inch special process production line in mainland China, but also the world's first 12-inch power device OEM production line.
As large-scale manufacturing and packaging and testing leading projects have spread in Wuxi, Wuxi has gradually formed a full industrial chain covering design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, equipment, materials and supporting support, and has more than 400 integrated circuit companies represented by China Resources Microelectronics, Changdian Technology, Huahong, Hynix , Zhuoshengwei, etc. Looking across the country, Wuxi is the city with the most complete integrated circuit industry chain except Shanghai. In this regard, Wuxi seems to have the strength of a "first-tier city".
With the gradual increase in the number of enterprises in the semiconductor field, Wuxi has specially established professional parks such as the Information Industry Science and Technology Park and Wuxi Super Large-scale Integrated Circuit Industrial Park. Through industrial parks, enterprises are introduced scientifically to form supporting facilities for the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, which is also the key reason why Wuxi has become a city with a relatively complete semiconductor industry chain.
also has a strong set of data - in 2021, Wuxi's integrated circuit industry revenue is expected to exceed 170 billion yuan, increased by 27% year-on-year compared with , and 5's annual average annual growth rate reached 17.5%. The industry scale is second only to Shanghai, ranking second in the country and first in Jiangsu. Wuxi is therefore also called "Little Shanghai" by the outside world, which is enough to show its status.
In the capital market, Wuxi integrated circuit industry corps has been making rapid progress, and the city has 11 listed integrated circuit companies. Among them, the five design companies, Zhuoshengwei, , China Resources Micro , Xinjie Energy, Xinpengwei and Lixinwei, performed well, with an overall market value of 16% of the total market value of the national design industry. The first two are also ranked among the top 500 listed companies in China with Changdian Technology.
" Taihu Pearl" Although Wuxi is far away from the worldly prosperity and retains the beauty and comfort of the Jiangnan water town, it shines with brilliant light in the semiconductor world.
checks for omissions and fills in the gaps, strengthening the industrial chain
gold has no color, and white jade has a slight flaw. Even if Wuxi has a relatively complete semiconductor industry chain, there will be differences in strengths and weaknesses. In recent years, strengthening the industrial chain has been the goal that Wuxi has been striving to strive for. Among many industries, Wuxi was the first to target the hidden pain of many Wuxi chips - chip design.
In the years of development, Wuxi's chip design industry has a unique style - with private enterprises as the main body of entrepreneurs, product development is mainly consumer electronics chip, and the development model is short, flat and fast. But over time, the problem of "big but not strong" in Wuxi's chip design industry began to emerge.
data shows that Wuxi has more than 10 IC design companies with sales of over 100 million yuan, with a total sales of over 2 billion yuan, accounting for 29.6% of the city's integrated circuit design industry sales, far lower than the national 91% of the proportion. In terms of output value , although the per capita output value of Wuxi integrated circuit design company is very high, it still has a big gap with leading domestic design companies. "The concentration of the IC design industry is not high enough, the industry is relatively scattered, and chip products with brand effect are not outstanding." A semiconductor veteran commented. After the right medicine was given to
, the situation in Wuxi's chip design industry has changed significantly. At present, Wuxi's relatively high-level integrated circuit design companies can develop and design 10-28-nanometer products, and have successfully developed high-end products represented by smart memory chips, satellite navigation, MEMS sensing chips, etc., which has effectively driven the R&D and innovation capabilities in Wuxi's integrated circuit design field.
In the capital market, Wuxi chip design companies have created the "Wuxi phenomenon" of semiconductor listed companies.
Zhuoshengwei listed on A-share in June 2019, and its stock price once rose and was called the "A-share technology stock king"; while China Resources WeChat, which was listed in 2020, is the first red chip stock in the history of A-shares, with a market value of over 75 billion; power management chip enterprise Xinpengwei, one of the leading domestic power device design companies, and Lixinwei, a chip design company that mainly engages in power management ICs, have been listed one after another, and most of them have performed well.
and IC design companies located in Wuxi High-tech Zone (Xinwu District) and Binhu District , there are now more than a hundred IC design companies. Among them, the High-tech Zone (Xinwu District) takes the former Wuxi National Integrated Circuit Design Base as the core, and gathers more than 60 companies including China Resources Silicon Technology, Lixin Microelectronics, Xinpeng Microelectronics, and Lingxin Electronics; Binhu District takes the National Integrated Circuit (Wuxi) Design Center as the core, and gathers more than 40 companies including Zhongke Xin , Zhuosheng Microelectronics , Huada Guoqi, Chengxin Microelectronics, and Xinjie Energy. In the national rankings, Wuxi's chip design industry is firmly ranked among the top five. The report "Practical Work Promoting Continuous Progress in the Design Industry" by Wei Shaojun, Chairman of the Integrated Circuit Design Branch of China Semiconductor Industry Association, shows that in 2021, Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen will continue to hold the top three, and the sales scale of Wuxi's design industry exceeded 30 billion yuan, ranking fifth. Among them, Wuxi has 42 companies with sales of over 100 million yuan, second only to Nanjing (52) and Shenzhen (50).
is also one of the shortcomings of Wuxi's integrated circuit industry chain, and key integrated circuit equipment has also developed very rapidly in recent years.
Wuxi integrated circuit equipment companies' main products include wafer cleaning machines, grinding thinner machines, chip loaders, sorting machines, marking machines, tape-knitting machines, lithography machines, testers, etc.; the main products of the material companies include high-purity reagents, fine electronic chemicals, corrosion-resistant photosensitive inks, special gas , etc., as well as integrated circuit packaging materials such as packaging base plate, lead frame, bonding wire, epoxy plastic sealing materials. At present, some equipment and materials have been used in 6-inch and 8-inch wafer manufacturing lines.
At present, Wuxi City has 40 integrated circuit supporting enterprises, including: Jiangyin Kangqiang Electronics, Jiangyin Jianghua, Jiangyin Runma, Guangxin New Materials, Wuxi Chuangda New Materials, Huaying Microelectronics, Ennaki Electronics, etc.
In terms of integrated circuit materials, Wuxi has 22 ultra-high purity reagents and photoresist enterprises, and 3 of the 10 major companies in are in Wuxi, with annual production capacity accounting for 30.9% of the country's main production capacity. For example, Jianghua Microelectronics, a leading domestic wet electronic chemical company, accounts for 9.16% of the domestic market.
In addition, , jacques technology , Chuangda New Materials, has obtained investment holdings from the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund. Among them, Yak Technology acquired Jiangsu Xianke and indirectly controlled South Korea's UP Chemical, and then acquired high-quality customer resources such as SK Hynix , Samsung , TSMC, Linde Gas, Showa Dento and Kanto Electrochemical.
Recently, an entrepreneur with Shanghai Jiaotong University background chose to register and implement it in Wuxi. "The local stronger semiconductor industry ecosystem is an important reason why I made up my mind." In the process of constantly filling in the shortcomings, Wuxi has once again ushered in a golden period of chip industry development.
群雄争霸，无锡军团申请出战
在众人感叹无锡半导体产业链格局之全、企业的门类之多的时候，笔者更为关心这座看似普通的地级城市如何迅速实现产业生态的进阶跃升？ How can the Wuxi team stand out when major cities are trapped in the battle for the "chip capital"?
First of all, Wuxi can often keep pace with the times in terms of policies.
After the integrated circuit industry rose to a national strategy, a new round of overseas acquisitions of integrated circuit industry and the construction of major projects in China has set off. At present, many cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Wuxi, , Xiamen , Dalian, and Hefei have regarded the integrated circuit industry as one of the strategic commanding heights of innovation-driven and transformation and upgrading, and have introduced new support measures, increased investment, introduced major projects, and strived to seize the initiative in the future layout of the integrated circuit industry. Against this background, Wuxi issued the "Policy Opinions on Further Supporting the Development of the Integrated Circuit Industry (2018-2020)" in 2018, seizing the commanding heights of industrial development and taking the integrated circuit industry as an important means for Wuxi to achieve higher urban energy levels.
In order to further support the comprehensive development of the chip industry chain, Wuxi also made it clear in its integrated circuit industry development opinions: support manufacturing enterprises to give priority to the procurement of chip products of local design enterprises in Wuxi, and encourage the research and development and industrialization of product fields such as intelligent sensor .
Secondly, Wuxi has the strength to attract large projects and is more capable of relying on large projects to leverage more industrial resources. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the implementation and construction of a number of major and major projects such as Huahong and Zhonghuan became the finishing touch of Wuxi's industrial development, laying a pile foundation for Wuxi to build a world-class integrated circuit industry chain with complete links, core technologies, scale effects and competitive advantages.This innovative attempt in the international supply chain of integrated circuits has become a "Wuxi experience" and "Wuxi sample" that can be promoted and referenced.
The escort of talents and funds is also a major feature of Wuxi's integrated circuit industry's "improvement". The proportion of high-end talents in is very low and is often criticized by industry insiders. To this end, Wuxi has specially established an integrated circuit public technology service platform. In the face of first-class international and domestic chip design talents, it has launched a special "talent-gathering" policy. It will not only establish a tens of billions of industrial funds, but also introduce new policies for the personal income tax of talents, carrier rent of entrepreneurial teams, and supporting support for registered capital. "The supporting policies that emphasize rent exemption and investment support are initially considered, so that first-class talents can be implemented in the park at zero cost."
An entrepreneur Zhao Xin (pseudonym), who was attracted by Wuxi's talent policy, said that Wuxi has a very good living environment and is also a very open city. At present, the company he founded has entered the new energy and industrial chain and has obtained orders from leading companies.
Of course, with capital as the link, Wuxi fully realizes the amplification effect of venture capital. As early as 2017, the Wuxi government issued a policy to establish an integrated circuit industry investment fund with a total scale of 20 billion yuan, and the scale of funds ranks among domestic cities.
After this, investors active in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen frequently came to Wuxi excavation projects -
html In July, Wuxi Disiwei, a leading company in the domestic semiconductor photomask field, completed an equity financing of 620 million yuan, led by Xingcheng Capital and Baoding Investment, and multiple investment institutions participated in the investment; in June, Wuxi Huachen Xinguang Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huachen Xinguang") completed an angel round of financing of 50 million yuan, led by Tongchuang Weiye and Puhua Capital, followed by Haisong Capital, Youran Nebula and others.In June, Wuxi Yourong Microelectronics Co., Ltd. completed a round A financing of tens of millions of yuan, and the investors were SMIC Juyuan, Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation, and Haiwang Capital. Moreover, the integrated circuit product developer Wuxi Silicon Power completed a B round of financing of tens of millions of yuan, led by Yida Capital . When capital with a keen sense of smell flows to Wuxi, the strong strength and development potential of this "landmark industry" will also be fully released.
In addition to these, Wuxi integrated circuits have achieved high-quality development, and cannot be separated from its own systematic industrial layout strategy. The most representative case of
is that Wuxi spares no effort to build the capital of the Internet of Things. As early as 2013, Wuxi clearly stated that the integrated circuit design industry should "focus on the application needs of strategic emerging industries and key areas such as the Internet of Things, the Internet, three-network integration, smart terminals, big data and cloud computing."
In recent years, Wuxi's Internet of Things town has become a grand event in the industry, and the World Internet of Things Conference located in Wuxi has become a grand event in the industry. All of this has driven the prosperity of the semiconductor industry to a certain extent, providing a clear direction for the upgrading of sub-industry such as equipment, design, packaging, and manufacturing.
In short, Wuxi keeps pace with the times, starts from multiple points and actively deploys the semiconductor industry. In this historical trend of domestic chip replacement, Wuxi, which has a complete semiconductor industry chain, is still full of potential.
Conclusion
This is Wuxi, which has an incomparable first-mover advantage, but is as low-key and down-to-earth as ever. Now, this seemingly inconspicuous prefecture-level city has single-handedly fought from the edge to the center of the stage.
After the heavens turn into a scene, everything in the world has suffered hardships. In the history of China's semiconductor development, Wuxi has worked hard, been brilliant, and experienced troughs. Now, with its deep industrial accumulation, Wuxi has set sail again with its solid "family foundation", and its strength remains unchanged from that time, and it is comparable to first-tier cities. The output value of 100 billion yuan is just a stage of acceptance, and Wuxi’s future is even more exciting.
This article comes from the WeChat public account: XinchaoIC (ID: xinchaoIC), author: Wang Yike
This content is the author's independent view and does not represent the position of Huxiu. Reproduction is not allowed without permission. Please contact the authorization matters. hezuo@huxiu.com
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