By Mikkel Larsen, Yiling Wang
The semiconductor industry is one of China's critical strategic interest points and one that is getting more and more attention in recent years.
The growth of the global semiconductor market is expected to see a downturn in 2019 compared to recent years, but the Chinese Integrated Circuit industry intends to stay on course and continue to enjoy its rapid development momentum. Emerging technologies such as 5G and Artificial intelligence make considerable strides in development and come closer to being part of our everyday lives, but the infrastructure to support these new technologies is not yet entirely in place. But these new technologies are helping to fuel China's product development, which has already seen significant breakthroughs.
Chongqing is one of the first cities in China to adopt and develop an Integrated Circuit (IC) industry, and China's first large scale chip producer is in Chongqing. Chongqing has been able to form a complete IC industrial framework from sourcing raw materials, producing the chips, integrated circuit design, wafer fabrication, packaging, testing, and support. In 2018, the Chongqing Municipal People's Government established a 50-billion yuan Chongqing Semiconductor Industry Development Fund, to accelerate the development of the IC industry. The successful hosting of the first Smart China Expo in 2018 has also provided positive energy and innovation-driven development to the industry.
The introduction of world-class integrated circuit enterprises is an important way to measure the success of this process, and in 2013, the Chongqing local government was able to sign a contract with Korean chip manufacturer SK Hynix. The Korean manufacturer is at the forefront of the global semiconductor industry, and its plant in Chongqing mainly works with probe testing, packaging, and module assembly. The first phase of the complex has been completed and the second phase will be put into operation later in 2019.
In this episode of A New Corridor for New Energy, we will take a look inside SK Hynix located in the Xiyong Comprehensive Bonded Zone of Shapinba. They are mainly part of producing flash memory products for mobile terminals such as phones, tablets, and laptops, for clients such as Huawei, Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi. The construction of their plant in Chongqing is conducive to attract more talent and more companies, making Chongqing a more sought after location for future semiconductor enterprises.