Yangtze River Storage Huali Phase 2 starts on the same day The IC industry will reach an important construction period

Introduction: Yangtze River Storage is one of the largest memory projects in China, aiming at 3D NAND technology, and it will reverse the dilemma of China's memory market without products; Huali Microelectronics 12-inch production line construction project is the second upgrade of “909 Project”. The transformation, will build the foundry production line of the logic chip, will enable our country to have the production platform from 0.5 micron to 14 nanometre each craft node after catching up, catch up with international advanced level.

 http://d1.ofweek.com/www/delivery/lg.php?bannerid=4208&campaignid=1171&zoneid=454&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fee.ofweek.com%2F2016-12%2FART-8440-2801-30086341. Html&cb=99b422976a

OFweek Electronic Engineering Network News Perhaps it was a coincidence that on December 30th, the National Storage Base in the Yangtze River and the 12-inch production line of Huali Phase II, two major projects that continued to receive attention from the industry, held a launching ceremony on the same day.

The Yangtze River Storage is one of the largest memory projects in China. It aims at 3D NAND technology, and will complete the market's dilemma of having no products in the market after completion; Huali Microelectronics' 12-inch production line construction project is the second upgrade of the “909 Project”. The foundry production line for the construction of the logic chip will enable China to have a production platform with process nodes from 0.5 to 14 nanometers to catch up with the international advanced level.

With the advancement of the “National Outline for the Development of the Integrated Circuit Industry”, the Chinese IC industry has initiated a round of rapid investment booms, with wafer manufacturing as the key development area. After nearly two years of development, a number of major projects have gradually entered the construction phase. It is expected that 2017 will be an important construction period for the Chinese IC industry. In the future, with the production of these production lines, spelling technology, processes, yields, and costs will become the “main theme” and will also be the key to verifying the success of these projects.

The two major projects started on the same day

On December 30th, the National Memory Base Project jointly invested by the United Nations Home Integrated Circuit Industry Fund, the Hubei Provincial Local Fund, and the Hubei Provincial Branch Investment Project of Ziguang Group was formally constructed in Wuhan East Lake High-tech Zone. It is understood that the national storage base project officially started construction is located in Wuhan Future Technology City, Donghu Hi-tech Zone, Wuhan. It will build 3 global single-seat 3D NAND Flash FAB plants with the largest clean area, a headquarters R&D building and other supporting facilities. Construction, its core production plant and equipment investment intensity per square meter more than 30,000 US dollars. The project has a total investment of 24 billion U.S. dollars and mainly produces memory chips. It covers an area of 1968 acres. The first phase of the project is planned to be completed and put into operation in 2018, and the entire project will be completed by 2020. The total production capacity will reach 300,000 tablets/month, and the annual production value will exceed 10 billion US dollars.

Zhao Weiguo, Chairman of China Everbright Group and President of Changjiang Storage Corporation, stressed that the official start of construction of the national memory base is not just a project start, but also of special significance: First, the memory base project is the scale development of China's IC memory chip industry. The breakthrough is equivalent to the trial flight of the aircraft carrier Liaoning in the field of science and technology in China; the second is the operation of the memory base project, which is a successful exploration of a new model. This new model is “national strategy promotion, local support, and enterprise marketization.” The "three-in-one" operation; third, the investment intensity of the memory base project is the largest single investment in China's integrated circuit industry. It is also the largest investment project in Hubei Province and the largest single investment project in China.

On the same day, the Hualiwei 12-inch advanced production line project also held a groundbreaking ceremony. The total investment of the project is 38.7 billion yuan. It will build a 12-inch integrated circuit chip production line with a monthly production capacity of 40,000 chips. The process starts with 28 nanometers and finally has a high-performance chip production capacity of 14 nanometer three-dimensional process. The Huali 12-inch advanced process integrated circuit production line started construction was the second upgrade project of the “909 Project” and it was listed as a key project of the National “13th Five-Year Plan for the Major Productivity Layout of the IC Industry”. Shanghai's largest industrial investment project during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period. After the project is completed, Hua Hong Group will have production platforms with process nodes ranging from 0.5 to 14 nanometers. According to the project plan, the project will complete the infrastructure project by the end of 2017. By the end of 2018, the process integration and trial production will be completed, and the process level and production capacity will be gradually improved and the project will be completed.

Reducing costs is the key

As global IC manufacturers are optimistic about the Chinese mainland market, they have successively established 12-inch plants in mainland China, including TSMC Nanjing Plant, UMC Xiamen Plant, Intel Dalian Plant, Samsung Electronics Xi'an Plant, and Powerchip Hefei Plant, which cover advanced technologies respectively. Logic technology, NAND Flash, DRAM and LCD driver ICs and other product areas. China's integrated circuit industry is currently facing a severe “two out of the box” challenge, that is, the products of integrated circuit design companies are mainly processed overseas; the main business of integrated circuit manufacturing companies is also overseas. The production capacity and process technology capabilities of IC manufacturing companies cannot meet the needs of domestic design companies. In response to international competition, based on improving chip self-manufacturing capabilities, in recent years, China's integrated circuit manufacturing companies are also constantly seeking for capacity expansion and process technology capabilities. Major manufacturers have successively launched new expansion plans.

The two projects started this time are highly representative. Memory is one of the most widely used chip products and its importance is not under the CPU. Under the impetus of large-scale construction of data centers, the market size is still expanding. Wafer manufacturing is one of the most important links in the IC industry chain. In the Outline for Promoting the Development of the National IC Industry, it is emphasized that the IC industry in China must be developed based on manufacturing.

However, the challenges are also very serious. According to Gu Wenjun, chief analyst of the core consulting firm, “The Yangtze River is easy to store, easy to start, and difficult to research and develop; the ceremony is easy and difficult to do; the starting point is easy and the end point is difficult.” How can we improve the rate of finished products as soon as possible after China’s large-scale investment in these production projects? The achievement of a break-even balance will be the most important test that companies will face in the future. According to SEMI data, 62 semiconductor fabs are expected to be put into operation between 2017 and 2020, which are currently in the planning or construction phase. Of these, 26 are located in mainland China, accounting for 42% of the global total. In this market environment, China's integrated circuit companies want to continue their operations and continue to expand their investment is an inevitable move. However, Guan Jian is to solve the balance between accumulation and expansion in order to resolve the issue of break-even as soon as possible.

Semiconductor expert Mo Dakang also pointed out that the rapid reduction of costs is the most critical aspect. In particular, for memory, the fight is the process and cost. Only when the yield is brought up, the cost will drop and the development will have continuity. "In the initial stage of production, the cost will have to be controlled at least one to two times that of international companies. Otherwise, any company will not be able to continue to invest and will not be able to withstand long-term losses," he said.