Yin Zhiyao, Chairman and CEO of Zhongwei Semiconductor, said at the first investment forum of Lingang New Area: "The digital industry is a very great revolution. In the past 60 years, it has completely changed people’s production methods and lifestyles, and mobile phones are just one of the products. Internet, e-commerce, media, big data and other applications-oriented industries are estimated to be at least 20 trillion US dollars. The biggest promoter of this industry at present is 5G and artificial intelligence. "
Yin Zhiyao quoted American forecast data as saying that by next year, the output value of global digital industry will be equivalent to 41% of the total output value of global enterprises, and by 2035, the output value of digital industry will exceed half of the world GDP.
"5 nm" is about to enter mass production
Yin Zhiyao revealed that according to the development schedule of TSMC, the world’s most advanced integrated circuit manufacturer, after 18 months, the chip manufacturing process has developed from 14 nanometers to 5 nanometers and entered the mass production node. "At present, TSMC is still developing according to Moore’s Law. 3 nm has been in research and development for more than a year. It is estimated that 3 nm will enter trial production by the beginning of 2021. Zhongwei has also been following this route and now it is 5 nanometers. "
It is reported that at present, the etching machine of micro-semiconductor has successfully passed the verification of TSMC’s 5-nanometer process, and obtained four processes, creating another milestone of semiconductor equipment in China.
After nearly ten rounds of financing, one of the core products of Microsemiconductor, which finally landed in science and technology innovation board, is the core equipment etching machine in the semiconductor field. Etching machine is one of the three core equipments in the process of chip manufacturing, which determines the highest level of chip manufacturing to some extent.
At present, the market value of Zhongwei Semiconductor has exceeded 40 billion yuan, with a price-earnings ratio of 200 times. "But the scale of the company is still very small. We hope to develop more integrated circuit equipment and pan-semiconductor equipment through the coordinated development of organic growth and mergers and acquisitions." Yin Zhiyao said.
According to Shen Wan Hongyuan’s research report, the global market size of semiconductor equipment in 2018 is about 62.1 billion US dollars. Although the space is large enough, the barriers are high enough, and international giants such as ASML and Applied Materials firmly grasp the pricing power of the industry.
Yin Zhiyao also said that at present, the international output value of the semiconductor chip manufacturing industry has reached about 500 billion US dollars, but the annual output value of the semiconductor equipment industry is about 50 billion US dollars, and the investment in building a state-of-the-art semiconductor chip production line with an annual output of 50,000 wafers is about 10 billion US dollars. "The scale of the equipment industry (compared with the semiconductor industry as a whole) is still very small, which is generally not valued by many people, but there is a great amplification behind it, hundreds or even thousands of times." Yin Zhiyao said.
Moore’s law still works.
According to Moore’s Law, the number of transistors in the same area doubles every 18 months. Chip manufacturing companies try their best to put down as many transistors as possible in a narrow area and increase the number of transistors in the chip. In the process of shrinking transistor size, in order to achieve smaller line width, mask aligner and etching machine play a decisive role in the process.
At the recent annual meeting of TSMC, TSMC revealed that the second-generation 5-nanometer chip has entered production. TSMC’s investment in the chip field was originally $11 billion this year, but now it has increased to $14 billion to $15 billion. It is expected that this investment level will be maintained next year. In addition, after TSMC completes the production of 3-nanometer chips, a new 2-nanometer R&D center will be launched, and 8,000 R&D personnel will join.
With the continuous evolution of chip manufacturing process, the requirements for processing accuracy of equipment are also improved. "Now it has been proposed to achieve the uniformity of chemical film deposition of plus or minus 0.29%, and the uniformity of plasma etching line width of 0.1 nm, which is smaller than an atom." Yin Zhiyao said, "Plasma etching and chemical film are the most critical equipment. Building a 5-nanometer production line is 5.5 times more expensive than the original traditional production line, and the manufacturing cost of each wafer is 2.6 times more expensive. Now TSMC is technically feasible, but it is very expensive, so reducing costs has become their most important task at this stage. This is also an opportunity for our domestic equipment and materials, because we can achieve good quality and low price. "
Yin Zhiyao said that in the field of micro-processing equipment where Zhongwei Semiconductor is located, a complete industrial chain of materials and parts is needed, and key materials and parts must be supplied by world-class companies or even century-old stores. "It is a very complicated industrial chain structure. There are 700 international supply chain manufacturers in China and Micro who provide us with materials and equipment." Yin Zhiyao revealed, "Among them, 90 suppliers are key suppliers, and many of them are only one or two in the world."
However, he also said that after more than ten years’ efforts, Microsemiconductor has trained many high-quality suppliers in China and can provide excellent materials. "We have 61% localization on the plasma etching machine; MOCVD has achieved 80% localization, including domestic mechanical arms for vibrating robots, and the materials purchased in the United States have dropped to 5%. "
At the first investment forum of Lingang New Area, Zhongwei Semiconductor also expressed its interest in investing in the field of Lingang semiconductor equipment and materials. Yin Zhiyao told the First Financial Reporter: "The biggest advantage of Shanghai lies not in large-scale production, but in aiming at cutting-edge technology, supplying its high-end design, manufacturing, equipment, materials and the application of new technologies such as 5G and AI. In addition, the electronic bioengineering born from the combination of the most advanced technology and biomedicine in the digital age also has great potential and should be combined with cutting-edge development. "
Yin Zhiyao pointed out that industrial development needs agglomeration effect, and Lingang New Area provides a vast world and huge development space for this, such as the convenience of cross-border trade. "The advantage is that many of our parts are imported from abroad, and some of our products are sold abroad and some are sold at home. The two-way preferential policies in Lingang New Area are not only more convenient in importing parts and materials, but also in exporting."
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