China's semiconductor industry chain is gradually improving, and the industrial ecosystem is gradually taking shape

At present, China's vertical division of labor mode of the chip industry chain has taken shape, the upstream, middle and downstream of the industry has been opened up, and a number of strong representative local enterprises have emerged. Integrated circuit is a basic and leading industry, which involves national information security. To make the integrated circuit industry bigger and stronger has become the strategic leader of national industrial transformation.

In recent years, the gap between China's IC technology level and the international level is gradually narrowing, and the industry has entered the track of rapid development.

They mainly include: 1) chip design enterprises represented by Huawei Hisilicon, Ziguang zhanrui, etc; 2) Wafer foundry enterprises represented by SMIC international and Huahong semiconductor; 3) Chip packaging and testing enterprises represented by Changdian technology, Huatian technology and Tongfu micro power; 4) China Resources Microelectronics and Swaziland microelectronics adopt IDM mode.

The increasingly complete industrial ecosystem provides a good foundation for the import substitution of semiconductor equipment and the solution of large domestic market gap.

China's local equipment enterprises: opportunities and challenges coexist, the worst era is also the best era

Equipment manufacturing industry is the foundation of semiconductor industry, and it is the key to complete wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing, and realize the progress of integrated circuit technology.

The required special equipment mainly includes lithography machine, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) equipment, etching machine, ion implantation machine, surface treatment equipment, etc; Cutting and thinning equipment, measurement defect detection equipment, bonding and packaging equipment, etc; Testing machine, sorting machine, probe table, etc.

As well as other front-end processes required by the diffusion, oxidation and cleaning equipment. The manufacturing of these equipment requires the comprehensive use of optics, physics, chemistry and other science and technology, which has the characteristics of high technical barriers, difficult manufacturing, high equipment value and high R & D investment.

The global semiconductor equipment market is highly concentrated, and the five giants of the United States, Japan and Europe lead the global semiconductor equipment market.

According to the data of blog, in 2017, the five largest semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the world were applied materials (Amat), ASML, lamresearch, TLE and KLA. These five semiconductor manufacturers accounted for more than 70% of the global semiconductor equipment manufacturing industry in 2017 with their leading technology and strong financial support.

Among them, ASMC is the only company in the photoresist equipment, and has more than 18% of the global semiconductor equipment market share from 2013 to 2017. With its monopoly position in the high-end photoresist market and continuous high R & D investment, ASMC maintains a high degree of market recognition in the equipment market.

At the same time, the R & D of Applied Materials and ram research for other manufacturing process equipment. The two companies have also maintained steady market share growth in the past five years.

Applied materials company has a comprehensive and stable performance in its strong field, and has always occupied the top three position of semiconductor equipment sales.

The world's leading equipment companies have their own magic power, occupying a leading position in the world.

In the value chain of semiconductor industry, photoresist, as the core of the industry, accounts for a large share of semiconductor equipment investment. With its leading technology and excellent products, ASML of the Netherlands occupies more than most of the market share in the high-end photoresist market with processes below 45nm, while it is in a monopoly position in the field of EUV photoresist, with a market share of 100% (exclusive in the industry).

Applied materials company has strong competitiveness in other core semiconductor equipment fields except photolithography. In PVD equipment, applied materials, as the industry leader, occupies most of the market share. In CVD and etching equipment, applied materials compete fiercely with LAM research, Tokyo electronics and other enterprises. At the same time, applied materials are widely used in CMP, inspection and measurement (including semiconductor, silicon, silicon and silicon) Mask and photovoltaic, electrodeposition, ALD, ion implantation, epitaxy and RTP.

The import dependence of China's semiconductor equipment is relatively serious, and the localization rate in 2017 was only 9%. Semiconductor equipment industry has high technical barriers, market barriers and customer cognitive barriers. Due to the late start of China's semiconductor equipment industry as a whole, the domestic scale is still small.

China's China China semiconductor equipment sales volume was 8 billion 230 million US dollars in 2017, according to the China Electronics Equipment Industry Association (SEMI). In 2017, the Chinese mainland semiconductor equipment (excluding PV equipment) was 4 billion 807 million yuan. According to this calculation, the localization rate of China's semiconductor equipment market was only 9%.

The domestic equipment market is still dominated by such well-known foreign enterprises as applied material, Lam research, Tokyo electron, Advantech and KLA Tencer.

Integrated circuit equipment is an important cornerstone of the development of the integrated circuit industry. The import of special equipment not only seriously affects the development of China's integrated circuit industry, but also causes major hidden dangers to China's electronic information security.

A number of local equipment manufacturers, such as China micro semiconductor, North Huachuang and Changchuan technology, are catching up and are expected to gradually realize import substitution.

Among the local enterprises, including a small number of special equipment manufacturers in the industry such as Shanghai Zhongwei semiconductor, North Huachuang, Changchuan technology, Beijing Huafeng, etc., through years of research and development and accumulation, they have mastered the relevant core technology, have independent intellectual property rights, have a certain scale and brand awareness, and occupy a certain market share.

With the support of 02 special project and large fund, domestic semiconductor manufacturing enterprises such as Huachuang, Zhongwei semiconductor and Shenyang tuojing have made a series of breakthroughs in technology and successfully developed a variety of semiconductor equipment.

In addition to the small breakthrough of lithography equipment, the etching and film precipitation equipment can be used in batch on the 12 inch 28nm production line, and a batch of 14nm equipment has entered the production line process verification stage.

Although there is still a certain distance from the latest 7Nm / 10nm technology in the world, with the growing semiconductor market in China, the domestic semiconductor equipment manufacturing enterprises are expected to rise rapidly with the advantages of geography, service and price, or to catch up with the technology and business of foreign leading companies.

In recent years, the development of domestic equipment technology is steady, and the key equipment of 12 inch 28nm wafer (outside the lithography machine) has entered the mainstream

The production line has achieved mass production, and the etcher has entered the 7Nm production line.

According to the data of China Electronic Special Equipment Industry Association, in 2016, SMIC International Beijing wafer factory used domestic IC wafer equipment to process more than 10 million pieces of 12 inch official products, marking that the domestic IC equipment has been fully verified in the large-scale market production line.

In 2017, the 7Nm plasma etcher developed by medium and micro semiconductors has been used in the mass production of the world's top IC production lines, reaching the international advanced level; 17 kinds of 12 inch wafer advanced packaging and testing production line equipment have been localized, and the localization rate of equipment is more than 70%.

IC test equipment is expected to become the first link to achieve large-scale import substitution. As the test link is an important process throughout the IC production process, the test equipment manufacturing enterprises also occupy an important position in the industrial chain, which is a strong support for the upstream, middle and downstream enterprises to complete the test process.

IC test equipment is mainly used in packaging and testing industry. Its customers include downstream packaging and testing enterprises, wafer manufacturing enterprises and chip design enterprises. At present, packaging and testing has become the most internationally competitive link in China's IC industry chain, and test equipment is expected to benefit from capacity transfer.

At present, domestic manufacturers have mastered the core technology related to test equipment, and the production of test machines and sorting machines have been used and recognized by Changdian technology, Sunmoon and other enterprises. Compared with foreign well-known enterprises, domestic advantageous enterprises have better understanding of customer needs, more flexible service methods, higher cost performance of products, and strong local advantages.

Thanks to domestic demand, policy support, capital and talent reserve, China's semiconductor manufacturing has a breakthrough foundation. China's IC industry is in the international pattern of "catching up with the target before, but no potential rival after". The position of "the world's largest semiconductor consumer market" is one of the important foundations of China's "late development advantage".

With national strategy, capital strength, global mainstream enterprises and R & D talent reserves at home and abroad, the foundation for promoting the localization of silicon materials, design, manufacturing, packaging testing and equipment is solid and stable.