What is China's chip manufacturing level?

1. Rapid development, two generations behind, limited technology, low-end products

In general, China's chip manufacturing technology is developing rapidly, while there are problems such as backward technology, insufficient production capacity and shortage of talents.

China's integrated circuit industry is divided into three parts: chip packaging, design and manufacturing, showing a high-speed growth overall. From 2004 to 2017, the average annual growth rate was close to 20%. From 2010 to 2017, the compound annual growth rate reached 20.82%, which was only 3% - 5% globally in the same period.

On the other hand, China's IC manufacturing process lags behind the international counterparts by two generations. It is estimated that China can complete the manufacturing of 14 nanometer products in January 2019, while foreign countries can complete the manufacturing of 7 nanometer products in the same period; The production capacity is seriously insufficient, and 50% of the chips depend on imports; At the same time, there is a structural mismatch between China's capacity and demand, and the products that can actually be produced do not match the market demand; Long term OEM mode leads to mismatch between design capability and manufacturing capability, and lack of core technology; Problems such as confusion in investment, lack of investment in R&D and talent have led to the fact that China's integrated circuit industry is still in a state of "core technology is under the control of people, and products are at the middle and low end", and cannot be fundamentally changed for a long time.

More specifically, we can copy and catch up with the chip design of the digital circuit part, but in the analog circuit part, the precision of our crystal oscillator, AD acquisition card and other products is not high enough, the accumulation is not enough, and the core technology is not yet in hand.

2. In the field of mobile phones and mining machines, "China Core" has occupied a place

Although China's chip industry as a whole is still relatively backward, this does not prevent us from building our own chips in some specific application scenarios.

Take two examples, one is the mobile phone chip, and the other is the computing chip for "mining", the bottom layer of the emerging blockchain technology.

In the spring tide of mobile Internet, Chinese enterprises have been involved in the research and development of mobile phone chips early, occupying their own position in the application scenario of mobile phones.

Today, the blockchain technology is popular, and the chips dedicated to mining machines have basically been monopolized by Chinese products. At first, the chips used for mining were just the CPU of ordinary computers. Later, they were GPU and FPGA chips. Later, Chinese entrepreneurs created chips specially used for mining by eliminating all unnecessary components, which maximized computing power and energy consumption. In addition, China's powerful basic manufacturing system monopolized this emerging market at one fell swoop.

Today, the traditional chip field has been monopolized by giants, and some chips oriented to specific application fields are the key points for China to achieve curve overtaking in the future. In addition to the above-mentioned mobile phone chips, mining machine chips, and AI chips dedicated to artificial intelligence computing, etc.

3. The three-dimensional "chip" under the Internet of Things has the advantage of dimensional compaction

Traditional chips mostly draw two-dimensional circuits on silicon chips. With the rise of the Internet of Things technology, the Internet of Things has put forward a huge demand for sensor technology. A new technology "MEMS" (Micro Electro Mechanical System), which carves three-dimensional mechanical structures on silicon chips, has gradually come into people's view.

MEMS accelerometer

Compared with traditional sensors, MEMS sensors have the advantage of dimensional rolling. The gyroscope, microphone, manometer and other sensors made with MEMS technology are used in missiles, mobile phones and wearables, playing a huge role.

At present, the MEMS field is experiencing a rapid growth of 200% - 300% annually. China's research in this field is in the forefront of the world.

epilogue

Chip manufacturing is an industry highly dependent on technology, capital and talents. Especially in the process, the precision of the lithography machine is the key to restricting chip manufacturing. Today, the traditional chip field is monopolized by international giants, and some emerging chip fields are important breakthrough points for China to overtake at corners. At present, China has occupied a place.