According to the Star Daily on December 6 (reporter Guo Hui), with the usa BIS issuing a new round of export control entity lists and focusing restrictions on upstream materials and equipment companies in the industry chain, fostering and supporting the development of a domestic supply chain has once again become a consensus in the industry.

At the closed-door exchange meeting "Creating Core Synergy, Navigating the Future" held on December 4, new players in the semiconductor industry, such as Yudu Semiconductor, Zeshi Technology, and Huajin Semiconductor, conducted offline roadshows. Many companies stated that the domestic semiconductor equipment and storage chip market is vast, and small and medium-sized enterprises have the resilience for growth and development through independent innovation.

This closed-door event also attracted the attention and participation of investment institutions such as Lingang Group, Rongqi Holdings, Yancheng Guotou, SMIC Juyuan, Zhongke Lerun Capital, Hangzhou Cheng Investment, and Suzhou Yuanfeng Capital, who collaborated to plan and contribute to the independent development of domestic semiconductors.

Wu Kai, the business deputy general manager of Yudu Semiconductor, stated at the exchange meeting that as integrated circuit processes become increasingly complex, the time for mass production of chips will be more influenced by the efficiency and performance of chip testing equipment, and testing should become a significant aspect that should not be overlooked in the future development of the domestic semiconductor industry.

Wu Kai indicated that chip costs include manufacturing costs, testing costs, and more. Before 2012, chip costs were primarily accounted for by the manufacturing side, but after 2012, the cost ratio of manufacturing to testing for a single transistor is approximately 1:1, and reducing testing costs has always been a goal pursued by the ATE (automatic test equipment) industry.

In the ATE industry, the market share of testing machines is the largest, and their unit price is also the highest. Yudu Semiconductor is a semiconductor testing equipment company co-founded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, established in 2014, and is currently undergoing a new round of financing.

It is understood that relying on innovative breakthroughs in the fields of storage chips and system-level chip testing, the products launched by Yudu Semiconductor fill the gap in the domestic mid-to-high-end testing equipment market and break the dependency on imported equipment. Its devices are widely used in multiple fields including storage chips, smart card chips, and mobile phone chips. Yudu Semiconductor was also recognized as a national specialized, special and new "little giant" enterprise in September this year.

Wu Kai stated that in the current political and business environment, the market share of domestic equipment in the semiconductor industry is becoming increasingly important, and it is also the direction they need to work hard towards in the future. With the emergence of new technologies, the functions of chips are becoming more complex, and testing technology requires continuous innovation and adaptation. There is a need to invest in the layout of new product development in advance. To meet the increasingly complex testing demands, ATE companies need to invest continuously in innovation, which comes at a significant cost. However, the path to industrialization of a new domestic testing device is exceptionally challenging, hence companies along the industry chain need to support each other and achieve mutual success while the industrial ecosystem needs improvement.

It is noteworthy that in addition to semiconductor equipment materials, the latest entity list from the usa also for the first time includes export controls on advanced AI storage HBM.

"Data has become a new factor of production in the context of the digital economy, and the safety and reliability of its storage will impact national security," said Shen Li, deputy general manager of R&D at Zeshi Technology. As the technical strength of domestic storage manufacturers increases, there is a broad space for localization development, and the main line of storage localization has been established. Currently, the localization of key information infrastructure supply chains in key industries is becoming clearer, and the storage industry in china is expected to seize this opportunity to break the monopoly.

However, Shen Li also stated that most SSD main controls currently are from foreign manufacturers, and there is still a gap compared to domestic main control technology. Therefore, the scope for domestic main control substitution will increasingly expand.

Zeshi Technology is a high-tech storage company initiated by the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and its team, and is an important industrialization layout of the national storage strategy. Since its establishment in 2018, Zeshi Technology has completed five rounds of financing, with investors including SK China, ZK Yingzhi, Oriental Fuhai, and Changda Investment. In May of this year, Zeshi Technology received over 100 million yuan in financing from Changda Investment. In July last year, Zeshi Technology also obtained the national-level title of "specialized, special and new" small giant enterprise.

According to Shen Li, Zeshi Technology has ample experience in productization and has conducted in-depth research on commonly used domestic NAND Flash. Their self-developed PCle3.0 main control chip has been mass-produced, and they are currently developing the PCle5.0 chip, which is set to be launched within this year.

Shen Li stated that the entire storage market capacity is very large and has clear demands for updates and replacements. Taking Flash as an example, one of its main characteristics is the frequent reading and writing, especially in the enterprise market, where SSD planning must be conducted every 2 to 3 years. Additionally, the demand for high-performance storage driven by AI is further expanding, creating opportunities for enterprise growth. Furthermore, Shen Li mentioned that the current SSD market has a significant presence of vertical users, and customized demands will provide more opportunities for small and medium enterprises, allowing them to penetrate the market by establishing collaborations with other manufacturers and gradually expanding their product offerings.

During this event, Huajing Semiconductor also shared insights on the development trends and challenges of advanced packaging technologies in china.

Huajin Semiconductors was established in September 2012, jointly invested by the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and leading enterprises in the integrated circuit packaging and testing industry including jcet group co., ltd., tongfu microelectronics, tianshui huatian technology, shennan circuits and thirty other units. In 2022, it was selected as a national-level specialized, special and new "little giant" enterprise.

It is understood that the company, as a national integrated circuit specialty process and packaging testing innovation center, conducts research and development of key core technologies such as system packaging design, 2.5D/3D integration, HBM, wafer-level fan-out packaging, large-size FCBGA packaging, optoelectronic packaging, and SiP packaging through a model that combines industry, academia, research, and application with enterprises as the main innovation body, providing the industry with related services in intellectual property, technical solutions, mass production, and process development and verification of new equipment and materials.