Rethinking the development path of integrated circuits, how the national system can support the "big chip"

At this year's National Two Sessions, the number of representatives and committee members from the fields of chip semiconductors and electronic devices has increased significantly. In terms of high-level technological self-reliance and self-improvement, integrated circuits are an important field. They have played a fundamental, functional and carrier role in the technology industry, and have empowered many fields such as industrial production, consumer electronics, and national defense, which are of great significance to social development.

When sorting out the list of representatives and committee members, the China Business News reporter noticed that Zhang Suxin, chairman of the Chinese semiconductor giant Huahong Group, Chen Tianshi, chairman of the AI chip startup Cambricon, Jiang Bin, chairman of Goertek, and Deng Zhonghan, founder of Vimicro, etc. People from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as academics including Li Shushen, president of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wang Xiqin, president of Tsinghua University, and Liu Zhongfan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, are all listed.

The national system should also avoid "big iron and steel smelting"

When mentioning the development of the science and technology industry in the government work report, Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council stated that science and technology policies should focus on self-reliance and self-improvement, improve the new national system, give full play to the organizational role of the government in key core technology research, and highlight the dominant position of enterprises in technological innovation .

Zhang Suxin, a representative of the National People's Congress and chairman of Huahong Group, suggested that a joint force should be formed in the strategic positioning, promotion and implementation of the chip industry; the formulation of policies should give priority to "controllable" technology over "independent"; Scale reserve and training path.

"At the two sessions, the development of integrated circuits was raised to a very important level, especially emphasizing the national system to develop semiconductors, the government supports the industry, and encourages the cultivation of more high-end chip talents through school-enterprise cooperation." Market research agency Omdia chip analyst He Hui told the first financial reporter.

However, some experts reminded that in the development of my country's integrated circuits, low-level redundant construction of "swarming up" should be avoided. Liu Zhongfan, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Jiusan Society, and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "We must cultivate leading companies in the chip field, create a sustainable 'core-shell' chip industry ecology, and avoid the 'core-making movement' of the big steelmaking style." He also suggested that the establishment of integrated circuit colleges in colleges and universities should focus on cultivating innovative and compound talents based on long-term and forward-looking layout.

Vice Premier Liu He of the State Council emphasized earlier this month that in addition to developing the integrated circuit industry with a new nationwide system, we must attach great importance to the important role of market forces and industrial ecology, establish a research mechanism with enterprises as the main body, and rely on entrepreneurs to realize the integrated circuit industry. For the healthy development of the company, we must be good at discovering and cherishing leading talents who both understand technology and have strong organizational skills, and give them full room for development.

Deng Zhonghan, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, founder of Vimicro, and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, gave special advice on building a high-level chip talent team at this year's two sessions. He said that in order to occupy the commanding heights in the field of new technologies, especially disruptive and strategic technologies, government departments and leading technology companies must further strengthen the construction of core technology standards and implement the strategy of strengthening the country through talents.

Play the role of capital and enterprise

In recent years, a large amount of money has poured into the field of semiconductor chips. According to statistics from analysis company ITjuzi, in 2020 and 2021, the investment and financing volume of Chinese chip companies will exceed 200 billion yuan. In 2022, even under the impact of the epidemic, the annual financing amount of integrated circuits will still reach 97.12 billion yuan.

Recently, China's National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund has invested an additional 12.9 billion yuan in Yangtze Memory, the country's largest memory chip maker.

According to public information, on February 27, Changjiang Memory Technology Holdings Co., Ltd. underwent industrial and commercial changes, and the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Phase II Co., Ltd., Changjiang Industry Investment Group Co., Ltd., and Hubei Changsheng Development Co., Ltd. were added as shareholders. . At the same time, the company's registered capital increased from about 56.27 billion yuan to about 105.27 billion yuan, an increase of over 87%.

Industry insiders told CBN reporters that for semiconductor chips, which have a long cycle and are responsible for the key basic tasks of China's high-tech development, funds are indispensable, but they also need to be vigilant and prevent excessive investment from leaving behind "one place". chicken feather” phenomenon.

Song Changgeng, research director of Xinmou, previously analyzed to a reporter from China Business News: "Considering the long cycle of chip investment, the support policy for the semiconductor industry should be sustainable, which can give full play to the advantages of state-owned capital."

He also said that the investment of state-owned capital can often bear a relatively long investment return cycle, which is lack of social capital. Private capital pursues shorter-term commercial returns, and often values the ability of enterprises to achieve profitability in the short term.

The development of the industry must try to give full play to the main role of the enterprise. In addition to funds, talent reserves, management operations, etc. are also key factors that determine success or failure. A senior person in the chip industry told the first financial reporter: "Some large and powerful enterprises can play a role in industrial planning and organization of government fund allocation, because these enterprises have technical strength and management and operation capabilities, as long as they are fair, transparent and Strengthen supervision and auditing, and the professionalism of enterprises in operation will be higher than that of administrative departments and experts and professors.”

Rethinking the development path of integrated circuits

Deng Zhonghan pointed out that in the post-Moore era, my country's scientific and technological talents have always been insufficient. Citing data, he said that around 2022, my country's chip talent gap will exceed 700,000, including more than 40,000 high-end talents. "At present, there is not only a lack of leading and backbone talents, but also a lack of general engineering and technical talents." Deng Zhonghan said.

Some experts have previously suggested that rethinking the development path of China's integrated circuits, especially in the "core-making" pattern in the post-Moore era, the path to occupying the commanding heights of the market will no longer be to try to make the circuits on the chip more and more dense.

Last month, Academician Li Shushen and Luo Junwei, a researcher at the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, published an article in the "Proceedings of the Chinese Academy of Sciences" entitled "Strengthening the basic capacity building of semiconductors and lighting up the "beacon" of semiconductor self-reliance and self-improvement". The article advocates refocusing the development of integrated circuits on the research and development of new technologies and materials, rather than imitating existing foreign technologies.

The above article believes that my country's investment in semiconductor research and development has long been less than 5% of that of the United States. The article also cites reports that the US Department of Energy received $67.9 billion from the "Chip and Science Act" will be mainly used for research on semiconductor technology in the "post-Moore era" to build deep synergy from semiconductor material physics, device physics, circuits to systems. Design innovation framework.

They suggested that China should set up its own technical bottlenecks and barriers in the global chip supply chain by accumulating patents and managing their use overseas, and formulate countermeasures against current technical pain points.

Zhang Ying, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Economic and Information Commission, and deputy chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Peasants and Workers Party, suggested that efforts should be made to promote the coordinated development of manufacturing and design and the development of independent and controllable IP for integrated circuits, and promote the digital empowerment of integrated circuits by artificial intelligence And the integrated circuit ecology continues to improve.

Zhang Ying said that at present, my country's integrated circuit research and development industrialization capabilities are benchmarked against international advanced enterprises, and there are four "urgent improvements": the safety and controllability of the core of integrated circuits and the industrial chain of bulk products need to be improved urgently; Capabilities need to be improved urgently; artificial intelligence’s empowerment of integrated circuit development needs to be improved urgently; and the completeness of the integrated circuit ecosystem needs to be improved urgently.

"The coordination of platforms, software and hardware, and the matching of chips and applications are important links in the development of integrated circuits in my country, which will help create a sound ecosystem." He Hui told the first financial reporter.

(Source: China Business News)

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