Recently, China Semiconductor Packaging and Testing Technology and Market Annual Conference was held in Wuxi. With the theme of "integrated innovation, intelligent manufacturing, collaborative development, sharing and win-win", industry experts and scholars focused on the core aspects of the semiconductor packaging and testing industry and discussed hot issues in the industry such as advanced packaging process technology, the correlation between packaging and testing technology, equipment and materials.
Growth of China's packaging and testing industry is slowing down
5G+AI brings a new round of development opportunities
According to the statistics of China Semiconductor Industry Association Packaging Branch, the growth of domestic IC packaging and testing industry slowed down in 2018, and the sales revenue of packaging and testing industry increased from 181.66 billion yuan in 2017 to 196.56 billion yuan, up only 8.2% year-on-year.
By the end of 2018, there were 99 domestic IC packaging and testing enterprises of a certain scale, with a slight increase year-on-year. The annual productivity growth rate was significant, reaching 25%.
Liu Dai, the current rotating chairman of the China Semiconductor Industry Association Packaging Branch, said in his speech that with the arrival of the 5G and AI era, and the continuous advancement of enterprise technology, as an important part of the IC industry chain, the field of packaging technology is ushering in a new round of development opportunities.
The revolutionary changes in 5G communication, big data, cloud computing, IoT, automotive electronics, medical, industrial automation, smart cities and other fields will further drive the growth of the emerging market for semiconductors.
Liu Dai pointed out in the guest speaker session that there is still a big gap between China's IC packaging and testing industry and the world's top level, and the future development should continue to vigorously strengthen the innovation construction. Driven by the emerging market of 5G+AI, with the strong support from the state and the enterprises' own efforts, the future development of IC industry should build a global collaborative platform through integrated innovation, intelligent manufacturing, collaborative development and win-win sharing, improve the independent core technology R&D capability, strengthen talent training and management innovation, grow stronger and bigger, and promote the high-quality development of IC packaging and testing industry.
Solve the neck problem
Achieve high-quality innovation development
Ye Tengchun, head of the overall group of the National Science and Technology Major Project 02 Special Expert Group, said at the annual meeting that during the golden period of the past ten years, China's packaging and testing industry has completed the process from catching up to entering the world first. In the new round of planning, the packaging and testing industry should solve the problem of necking, achieve high-quality development and highlight innovation by 2035.
According to Ye Tengchun, China's IC industry has entered a new stage and has established a more complete technical system and industrial strength. Under the current situation, what is needed most is strategic stamina and the courage to adhere to the effective practices proven in practice and improve them.
The problem of "short board" cannot be dealt with in an isolated and passive manner, but must be planned in a systematic way, relying on the improvement of overall capability and the establishment of local advantages to form competitive checks and balances in order to solve the problem.
Independent innovation is not "own innovation", open cooperation must be insisted. The key lies in how to play the potential of Chinese market, open up new space, master the core technology, and move from the low end to the high end of the value chain in the global industrial division of labor.
In the development of IC industry, the integration of industry chain, innovation chain and financial chain is the way to go, and China needs more professional investment and financing platform and more relaxed credit policy support.
Opportunity and challenge coexist
New trends in packaging and testing industry
Data show that global IC industry sales declined by more than 14% from 2013-2019. According to the China Semiconductor Industry Association, the growth rate of sales of China's IC industry from 2013-2019 is about 7%.
China's IC industry has shown a rapid development momentum, but at the same time, it is also facing the negative impact caused by internal and external factors such as the lack of its own accumulation and weak integration of the value chain. The lack of innovation genes requires inheritance and patience; the weak industrial foundation makes it difficult to catch up in the short term; insufficient R&D expenses make it difficult to form economies of scale; the industry is weak and scattered, and enterprises face homogeneous competition; the lack of talents in the IC field restricts the industrial development.
In his speech, Navy Zhao, CEO of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, shared five points on the development trend of IC packaging and testing industry: First, Moore's Law dividend is gradually lost, but the complexity demand of the system will still continue on the original track. Second, the learning curve cost of process technology is too high, and a large chip can be divided into several small chips to produce, and the finished product rate has increased dramatically, completing the upgrade ahead of schedule. Third, the new generation of large chip full coverage development costs are too high, reuse the original node design IP can effectively save money and time. Fourth, the single-chip performance in the combination of functions lost seriously, the need for multi-chip solutions. Fifth, different Chiplets need to be designed together, and OSAT can provide common IP.