Highlight Of Science And Technology Innovation Of NPC And CPPCC: How To Improve The Independent And Controllable Ability Of Industry Chain And Supply Chain?

In the 2021 government work report, "optimizing and stabilizing the supply chain of the industrial chain" is one of the key tasks in the new year, and it is emphasized to enhance the independent and controllable ability of the industrial chain supply chain.

During the NPC and CPPCC sessions, "chip" has become a hot word among the numerous suggestions of the representative committee members, who have put forward corresponding solutions to the chip problem one after another.

Focusing on the issue of strengthening the industry chain and the supply chain of the chip industry, 21st century economic report interviewed a number of NPC deputies, CPPCC members and industry experts to discuss in depth how the "neck sticking" technology in the chip industry can break the situation.

Integrated circuit included in the 14th five year plan

This year's government work report still emphasizes the importance of scientific and technological innovation: making science and technology self-reliance as a strategic support for national development. We will improve the national innovation system, speed up the construction of a strategic scientific and technological force led by the National Laboratory, make a good fight on key core technologies, and formulate and implement a ten-year action plan for basic research. In this year's key work, "optimizing and stabilizing the supply chain of the industrial chain" will be included, with special emphasis on "enhancing the independent and controllable ability of the industrial chain supply chain".

At present, the tide of chip off supply is becoming more and more serious. The development of integrated circuit industry has become the focus of attention of the whole people and the hot spot of capital pursuit. It is increasingly urgent to enhance the independent and controllable ability of supply chain of chip industry chain.

The 21st century economic reporter has found that the draft of the outline of the 14th five year plan has a programmatic effect on the integrated circuit industry. For example, "it is necessary to strengthen the research and development of key materials such as integrated circuit design tools, key equipment and high-purity target materials, breakthroughs in advanced integrated circuit technology and featured processes such as insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) and MEMS, upgrading of advanced storage technology, development of wide band gap semiconductors such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride, and accelerating the development of high-performance resins such as metallocene polyethylene and integrated circuits Key technology breakthroughs in electronic high-purity materials such as photoresist.

In addition, it is also necessary to "focus on key areas such as high-end chips, accelerate the R & D breakthrough and iterative application of basic theory, basic algorithms, equipment and materials," and build a number of national innovation platforms for Industry Education Integration and graduate joint training bases around key fields such as integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, industrial Internet and energy storage. We will build 100 high-level, professional and open training bases for the integration of production and education. "

In an interview, bu Rixin, a consulting partner of chuangdao investment, said: "integrated circuits have entered the draft of the 14th five year plan and become an important area to encourage development. It will play a positive role in guiding the development of industries, from guiding local industrial support, to industrial investment of financial capital, and enhancing the endogenous driving force of industrial development. ”

In fact, it is not difficult to see from the statement of the "14th five year plan" that the related technologies in the field of integrated circuits to be strengthened in the next five years are concentrated in the front-end links such as materials and equipment, which are easy to get stuck.

Where is the "neck jam"?

From the point of view of the chip industry chain, it can be roughly divided into EDA design, chip design, materials, equipment, wafer foundry, seal test, etc. A number of industry insiders pointed out to reporters that the integrated circuit industry has already been competitive in the design side, but the upstream equipment, materials, EDA software and other fields are still under the control of others.

Zhang Zhihe, chief consultant of Shanghai transfer point information, told the 21st century economic report that the most mature and competitive industrial chain in China is the later stage of packaging and testing; IC design is also a well developed field in China, and Hisilicon, which has the strongest design capability, has reached the international advanced level of 7Nm and 5nm; the wafer manufacturing sector is gradually shrinking to keep pace with the international level The gap of advanced level, but the accumulation of downstream customers and the capacity of advanced process are still relatively limited.

In terms of materials, Zhang Zhihe pointed out that some high-purity gas chemicals have gradually begun to be replaced by domestic products. At present, nearly half of the products can be completely or partially localized, but there is still a large gap in some core raw materials, which is related to the weak basic chemical industry capacity in China.

The most upstream EDA aided manufacturing design software is recognized as one of the weakest links in the domestic semiconductor industry chain. According to the public information, EDA market is highly monopolized by foreign investors. Synopsys, cadence and mentor occupy 90% of EDA market share.

Liu Weiping, chairman of the board of Huada Jiutian, a local EDA manufacturer, has publicly said that this situation is due to the early development of these leading manufacturers and also to the characteristics of EDA industry itself. As an algorithm intensive large-scale software system, EDA also has the characteristics of long R & D cycle, long industrialization cycle, long investment cycle, slow effect, and continuous capital investment; in addition, EDA also needs to establish an industrial ecosystem, get full support from the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, rely more on talents, and M & A integration is an important means of industrial development Sex. "

Even if it is very difficult, as a basic support, EDA is a technology that must be developed for China, which is making every effort to develop integrated circuits. In recent years, some local EDA companies, such as Huada Jiutian, Xinwei, Xinhe technology, Guangli microelectronics, Boda microelectronics and Gelun electronics, have emerged.

Semiconductor equipment is still the most "choke point".

According to Gartner data, American enterprises occupy a leading position in the field of semiconductor equipment, with a global market share of up to 40%, and have strong monopoly power in key links such as etching, deposition, ion implantation and process control.

"For example, for high-end lithography machines, theoretically speaking, no lithography machine with nodes below 90nm has been produced in France. At present, some overseas manufacturers are mainly used for special film deposition equipment and some etching process equipment with high requirements for process capability." Zhang Zhihe said.

The way to break the game

In order to get rid of the dilemma of being "stuck" by outsiders, leading companies in the domestic chip industry have begun to take actions.

The 21st century economic reporter noticed that since the end of last year, the industrial chain of many A-share companies began to extend to the upstream, including Zhuosheng micro, gekewei and xinjieneng, etc., and successively issued financing plans to build upstream production lines by themselves or jointly. The main purpose is to realize the control of key manufacturing links and independent supply.

Zhuosheng micro related personnel told reporters, "previously, the company was more in the design phase, manufacturing and sealing test were outsourced. Now we want to master the upstream link in our own, so as to realize the independent control of the supply chain."

Obviously, it is not enough to rely on the enterprise as a whole, and the top-level design is needed to coordinate the route.

Chen Hong, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of SAIC, said, "it is very difficult to promote the localization of vehicle scale chips by relying on market forces alone. It is necessary to form a strategy that the government takes the lead and vehicle enterprises unite to carry out key support for the head chip Enterprises."

Chen Hong suggested that support policies focusing on vehicle scale level chips should be introduced, including subsidies for R & D and production line investment at all levels, and application subsidies for the first set, so as to reduce enterprise investment and product price; and encourage insurance companies to design product liability insurance to guarantee the application of domestic chips in vehicles, so as to reduce the application risks of vehicle, system and chip enterprises.

Zeng Qinghong, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of GAC group, also suggested that we should increase precise support for the automotive electronics industry chain, formulate and implement special incentive measures for automotive semiconductors and key electronic components, accelerate the construction of domestic vehicle regulatory semiconductor standard system and the implementation of the roadmap for automobile key electronic components industry.

Financing support is also crucial. Deng Zhonghan, member of the National Committee of the Chinese people's Political Consultative Conference and academician of the Chinese Academy of engineering, suggested that the state should actively guide the "national team" related industry investment funds, cooperate with the national integrated circuit industry phase II investment fund, and continue to increase investment support for the integrated circuit industry. Local governments with conditions can be encouraged to support the rapid development of local integrated circuit enterprises by means of investment and financing. They can choose economically developed provinces and cities to carry out pilot projects, establish local special investment funds and loan risk compensation mechanism in pilot areas, support local integrated circuit enterprises in financing and listing, support local integrated circuit enterprises to obtain commercial loans through various ways, and focus on "necking" Subsidiary enterprises.

According to the 21st century economic report, the second phase fund of national integrated circuit industry has focused its investment on the field of integrated circuit equipment and materials, echoing the "neck sticking" link. Changchuan technology, nastar, SMIC international and other companies have obtained the second phase investment of large fund. In addition, EDA enterprises such as Huada Jiutian and gailun electronics have successively received listing guidance. With the subsequent support from the capital market, the industrialization of R & D and design software will accelerate.

Zhou Yumei, member of the National Committee of the Chinese people's Political Consultative Conference and researcher of the Institute of microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, suggested a breakthrough in talent cultivation. "We hope that more excellent students will apply for the integrated circuit industry. We believe that under the advantages of our new national system, we will make greater breakthroughs in key issues and neck problems."

On the whole, domestic semiconductor equipment and semiconductor materials companies are constantly improving the level of self-study, and industrial policies are also ushering in significant benefits. Although it is not possible to completely De-a in a short period of time, the development speed of self-study is growing rapidly, ushering in the upsurge of domestic substitution.

Zhang Zhihe believes that "from the perspective of enterprises, although there are some external objective factors to support, including government subsidies, higher emphasis on capital, more open financing channels, etc., in the final analysis, people who need to be engaged in this industry have a peaceful and stable mentality, and need to spend a long time to do a good job, refine and strengthen a subdivision field. This is the domestic semiconductor industry The most fundamental foundation for the chain to ultimately occupy an important position in the world. "

Bu Rixin also pointed out that "the industrial fields that have entered the draft outline of the 14th five year plan are areas worthy of long-term attention of the capital market and investors. Once breakthroughs are made, there will be explosive growth. However, it should be noted that all these enterprises are faced with the risk of long cycle, large investment and high uncertainty, which is suitable for long-term investment rather than short-term speculative speculation. "