Semiconductor design is a collection of cutting-edge technologies in electronics, materials science, computer science and other fields. With the advent of the intelligent era, such as 5G communication, smart cars, smart wearable devices, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things, higher requirements have been put forward for high integration, high efficiency, and low power consumption of electronic components and systems, and the importance of semiconductor design technology is self-evident.
Historically, U.S. companies have played a leading role in semiconductor design. In recent years, Chinese mainland enterprises, as a rising star, have also achieved remarkable results. However, the complex and volatile global geopolitical relationship makes it more challenging for Chinese mainland enterprises to participate in the future global market competition. For example, in August 2022, the CHIPS and Science Act, officially approved by the United States, is accompanied by more than $52 billion in subsidies, many of which explicitly restrict relevant chip companies from carrying out normal economic, trade and investment activities in China. Catching up with and surpassing in technological strength is the key for Chinese mainland enterprises to break through the obstacles of local protectionism and remain invincible.
It has become a common practice for enterprises in the industry to protect the innovative achievements in R&D and production by applying for patents. To a certain extent, patent achievements can be used as an external reflection of enterprise technological innovation. Aiji Micro Intellectual Property Consulting has conducted a comprehensive review of the patent situation of semiconductor design enterprises in Chinese mainland, and authoritatively released the patent strength list, taking patent strength as a reflection of the technological innovation level and market potential of related enterprises in the industry, providing an intuitive reference for the public and investment institutions to understand the competitiveness of domestic semiconductor design enterprises.
The rules for the statistics of patent data involved in the following are described below:
1. Unless otherwise specified, patent data includes the patent data of entities with more than 50% of the "shareholding ratio" or "foreign investment ratio" of relevant enterprises according to the statistics of "Enterprise Chacha";
2. Patent data as of September 30, 2023 as of the announcement date, **INCOPAT patent database, Aijiwei intellectual property consulting collation;
3. Overseas patents include patent applications filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WO) and patents in Taiwan, China
4. Based on the same rules of comparison between enterprises, but the data sources included in the database, the setting of retrieval methods and other factors may cause deviations in the data results, and Aijiwei Intellectual Property Consulting reserves the right of final interpretation.
Top 20 patent innovation list of semiconductor design enterprises in Chinese mainland
Aijiwei intellectual property consulting selects objective indicators from the five dimensions of patent layout, validity, technology, law and economy, and generates the value of Aijiwei's patents based on reasonable weights, which is used to quantify the value of enterprise patents. The patent value of Aijiwei takes into account multiple factors such as the health of the company's patent layout strategy, international vision, and the quality of patent document drafting. According to the total number of patents of enterprises and the value of Aijiwei patents, the patent innovation score of each enterprise is calculated, and on this basis, the top 20 patent innovation lists of semiconductor design enterprises in Chinese mainland are released.
Weir Semiconductor ranked first on the list with a patent innovation score of 4,270 points. On December 20, market research agency Trendforce released the revenue ranking of the world's top 10 semiconductor design companies in the third quarter of 2023, and Weir Semiconductor's revenue in the third quarter reached 7US$500 million, ranking ninth in the world. The guarantee of patent strength may be the key to differentiating Vail Semiconductor in the global market competition.
Goodix Technology and UNISOC followed closely behind, with patent innovation scores ranging from 3,600 to 4,000, and ranked first in the rankings together with Weir Semiconductor. Jihai Microelectronics, ZTE Microelectronics, Zhixin Microelectronics, Silergy Corp., and Cambrian patent innovation scores are distributed between 1300 and 2400, ranking in the second echelon of the rankings.
The patent innovation scores of National Technology, GigaDevice, Jiefa Technology, Wingtech Technology, Silan Micro, Yuntian Lifei, Zhuhai Yiwei, Haiguang Information, Chipone North, Anbao Electronics, Centec Network, and Geke Micro are distributed in the range of 500-900, ranking in the third echelon of the rankings. Compared to the first.
The first and second echelon enterprises, they lack obvious patent strength;In addition, the difference in patent innovation scores among the third-tier enterprises is small and the strength is similar, so it is foreseeable that the possibility of patent conflicts between them may be greater.
Chinese mainland semiconductor design enterprises patent international vision of the top 20 list
The overseas patent layout is of great significance to the intellectual property protection and international market discourse power of domestic semiconductor design enterprises to participate in the global market competition, reflecting the international vision of the enterprise. At the same time, overseas patents are also an important part of enterprises to achieve technology going overseas and compete with international giants. In view of the statistics of the overseas patent layout of domestic semiconductor design enterprises, Aiji Micro Intellectual Property Consulting released the list of the top 20 domestic semiconductor design enterprises with international vision.
Judging from the statistics, the number and proportion of overseas patent layouts of domestic semiconductor design enterprises have shown a steady increase trend, reflecting the importance of enterprises in the industry to intellectual property protection. Weir Semiconductor, Goodix Technology, Montage Technology, and Yunyinggu all account for more than 50% of their overseas patents. Silergy Corp., Innoscience, ZTE, Angbao Electronics, Chipone, Xingchen Technology, Broadcom Integration, and Dongwei Semiconductor also account for more than 40% of overseas patents. Cambrian, Langke Technology, Weijie Chuangxin, Canaan Yunzhi, Jihai Microelectronics, Huizhi Microelectronics, Beijing Junzheng, and Feixiang Technology are slightly inferior in the proportion of overseas patents, but they still have good results.
Chinese mainland semiconductor design enterprise patent industry influence list
The patent citation is used as a reference for the contribution of the enterprise's technology to the industry's technology. The circumstances in which a patent is cited include being publicly cited by other patent documents, or in the substantive examination procedure of other patents, the examiner cites this patent document as a comparative document in a notice or search report. The proportion of patents cited reflects the research enthusiasm and industry attention activity of the technical solutions corresponding to the patents disclosed by the enterprise, and reflects the technological advancement of the enterprise's patents, which can be used as a reflection of the contribution of the enterprise's technology to the industry. Based on the comprehensive consideration of the number and proportion of patents cited by domestic semiconductor design enterprises, Aiji Micro Intellectual Property Consulting released the list of the top 20 influential enterprises in the industry technology.
From the statistical point of view, the number of cited patents and the proportion of cited patents in all patents of domestic semiconductor design enterprises are ideal, reflecting that the content of patent disclosure of relevant enterprises has received extensive attention from the industry. Among them, although the two companies are relatively small in size and have a small number of patents, their cited patents account for 100% and 97% respectively. Zhongke Jingshang also reached more than 80%. Silan Micro, National Technology, Jingfeng Mingyuan, Xinjieneng, Quantum Microelectronics, Fuman Microelectronics, Maxic, and Wuxi Silicon Power accounted for more than 40% of the cited patents. In addition, in the top 20 list, Shanghai Belling, Weir Semiconductor, Xinhai Technology, Tongxin Micro, Jiehuate, Jiefa Technology, Ziguang Guowei, Geke Micro, and Xi'an Ziguang Guoxin also have outstanding advantages in terms of the number of cited patents or the proportion of cited patents, reflecting their contribution to the industry.
Chinese mainland semiconductor design rookie enterprise patent strength list
In order to promote the development of China's integrated circuit industry, in September 2014, the first phase of the national integrated circuit industry investment (National Congress) was established. Since the establishment of the National Congress, many rookie integrated circuit enterprises have emerged in various places. For semiconductor design enterprises established after September 2014, based on multi-dimensional data such as the annual output of enterprise patents and patent value, Aiji Micro Intellectual Property Consulting released the list of the top 20 patent strength of rookie enterprises.
From the dimensions of the number of patents and the annual output of patents, it can be seen that since the establishment of the national university for nearly ten years, the industry has been booming, and rookie enterprises such as Cambrian, Haiguang Information, Horizon and Innoscience have also achieved good results in their respective tracks. Feixiang Technology, Hikvision Microfilm, Smartway, Jingwei Qili, Dapu Microelectronics, Hengxuan Technology, and Zhuhai Zero Boundary are also outstanding in the patent strength of rookie enterprises. In comparison, Xinxin Micro, Xingchen Technology, Basic Semiconductor, Aojie Technology, Yingjixin, Nanxin Semiconductor, Ruineng Semiconductor, Dongxin Semiconductor, and Huinetai Semiconductor are relatively inferior, and there is more room for improvement.
Chinese mainland semiconductor design enterprises Aiji Micro patent strength star list
Finally, for 220 semiconductor design enterprises in Chinese mainland, Aijiwei Intellectual Property Consulting conducted a star evaluation of patent strength based on comprehensive consideration of the number of patents, the proportion of invention patents, the proportion of authorized patents and effective patents, the overseas layout of patents, the proportion of citations, patent litigation, patent transfer, patent licensing, patent pledge, patent drafting level and other indicators, and the results are as follows.
The list released this time is aimed at semiconductor design enterprises in Chinese mainland, due to the development history, technology accumulation, industrial scale and other factors of the enterprise, there are certain differences in scores. The public can compare the data between various enterprises as a reference for the technological innovation ability, the importance of intellectual property rights and the investment of enterprises.
Aijiwei Intellectual Property Consulting will continue to pay attention to the patent data update and patent technology disclosure of each enterprise, and regularly update the list, and dynamically monitor the ranking changes of each enterprise, as a reference for the technological progress and development of the enterprise.