Guide: this year is the 60th anniversary of the birth of integrated circuits, the semiconductor industry in China is also a year of special significance. On the one hand, the United States, Japan, South Korea and other world-renowned enterprises have accelerated their industrial layout to strengthen their position and voice in the industry; on the other hand, with the development of the Internet of things and artificial intelligence, the Chinese IC industry has ushered in the best opportunity. Seize this opportunity, the realization of "bend overtaking" is not impossible.

This year is the 60 th anniversary of the birth of integrated circuits, and it is also a significant year for China's semiconductor industry. On the one hand, the United States, Japan, South Korea and other world-renowned enterprises have accelerated their industrial layout to strengthen their position and voice in the industry; on the other hand, with the development of the Internet of things and artificial intelligence, the Chinese IC industry has ushered in the best opportunity. Seize this opportunity, the realization of "bend overtaking" is not impossible.

The birth of the first IC in the World

In 1958, Kilby, a young engineer at Texas Instruments, successfully realized the idea of integrating electronic devices on a piece of semiconductor material. He integrated five components, including germanium transistors. Based on germanium, a simple integrated circuit called a phase shift oscillator was made, which was the birth of the first integrated circuit in the world, and that day was seen as the birth date of the integrated circuit, this tiny chip. Opened a new era in the history of electronic technology.

Integrated circuits are widely used

A group of microelectronic circuits integrated on a small piece of semiconductor (such as silicon, germanium, etc.) by special circuit design and semiconductor processing. In volume, monolithic integrated circuits are several times smaller than discrete circuits with the same functions. In structure, integrated circuits are very compact, allowing up to billions of transistors and other elements to exist on a human fingernail size area.

With the superior technical performance of semiconductor, the rapid development of semiconductor equipment manufacturing technology, the large-scale production of integrated circuit with high efficiency and the circuit design method of adopting structural unit, Standardized integrated circuits have rapidly replaced the traditional circuit designs that used discrete components in the past.

Now integrated circuits have been widely used in all electronic devices, and have promoted the arrival of the electronic age. The development of media, education, entertainment, medical, military, communications and other fields can not be separated from the excellent performance of integrated circuit equipment. At the same time, because of the low cost and high performance of IC, computers, mobile phones and other household electronic appliances have become an indispensable part of social life today.

Three revolutions of integrated circuit industry

I. Standardization of computer components

From 1960 to 1970, the system manufacturer arranged all the design and manufacture. As the function requirement of the computer became more and more, the whole design process took a long time, so that some of the system manufacturer's products were out of date when they were launched. Many manufacturers began standardizing the hardware they used, and in about 1970, microprocessors, memory, and other small IC components became standardized, distinguishing systems companies from professional integrated circuit manufacturers.

The birth of ASIC (Special Application IC) Technology

Although some integrated circuits are standardized, there are still many independent IC, IC in the whole computer system, which makes the operation efficiency less efficient than expected. At the same time, system engineers can directly use the logic gate component database to design IC, without having to know the details of transistor circuit design. The change in design concept has led to the emergence of a full-time design company called Fabless. The appearance of Foundry, a professional wafer factory, fills the capacity needed by Fabless.

The rise of three IP (Integrated Circuit Design intellectual property Module)

Because of the continuous contraction of semiconductor process, the integration on single wafer is increased, so it is very difficult to launch the product with ASIC technology. At this time, the concept of IP rises, and the circuit with certain function will be immobilized. When IC design needs to use this function, you can use this part of the circuit directly, followed by the emergence of professional IP and design services companies.

China's Integrated Circuit Industry ushered in New opportunities

China's integrated circuit industry started in the mid-1950s. In 1956, China successfully developed the first batch of semiconductor devices-germanium alloy transistors; in 1961, the first integrated circuit development group in China was established; in 1965, China's first generation of monolithic integrated circuits in Beijing, Shijiazhuang and Shanghai came out one after another.

China's integrated circuit market is the world's largest integrated circuit market, its demand ratio accounts for 62.8 percent of the world. Against this background of strong market demand, the state has issued related policies to vigorously support the development of the integrated circuit industry. According to the requirements of the new tax policy, the new integrated circuit line width invested after January 1, 2018, is less than 130 nanometers. And the integrated circuit manufacturing enterprises or projects whose operation period is more than 10 years shall be exempted from enterprise income tax from the first year to the second year, and the enterprise income tax shall be levied by half in accordance with the legal tax rate of 25% from the third to the fifth year, and shall be enjoyed until the expiration of the period.

In recent years, China's integrated circuit industry has maintained rapid growth, technological innovation ability has been continuously improved, backbone enterprises strength has been greatly enhanced, industry development support capacity has improved significantly.

In general, the integrated circuit industry in China is developing in the direction of higher technology content, and the industrial structure is becoming more and more rational. A typical performance is the increasing share of the chip design industry. Because the technical threshold is relatively low, the investment is relatively small and the effect is fast, the closed test industry has been occupying a high proportion in the integrated circuit industry of China for a long time. With the increasing strength of domestic chip design enterprises, the proportion of the design industry in the industrial chain is increasing steadily, and the proportion in the industry has exceeded the closed test industry since 2015.

Chinese IC Enterprises will go to the World

The integrated circuit industry is a global industry. With the transfer of the international integrated circuit industry, the proportion of China's integrated circuit market in the world will become larger and larger. Because of the relatively weak basic level in China, China can supply less than 10% of its semiconductor equipment and material products on its own (in terms of the amount of money), and it often faces problems of equipment and materials shortage in the process of establishing semiconductor production lines. At present, many of the investment benefits are foreign equipment and materials enterprises, so we should look for a better cooperation model. A major trend in the future is the globalization of a domestic IC enterprise. It is not that Chinese companies acquire foreign enterprises and then turn them into domestic companies, but that they are in China. The enterprise goes out and grows into a big international company.