(1) Introduction to the semiconductor industry
Semiconductors refer to materials with conductive properties between conductors and insulators at room temperature, and are the core components of many electronic products, common semiconductors include silicon, germanium and other element semiconductors and silicon carbide, gallium arsenide, gallium nitride and other compound semiconductors. Silicon is one of the most influential semiconductor materials in commercial applications. The semiconductor industry is a strategic, basic and leading industry that supports economic and social development and guarantees the best industry, and its downstream includes mobile communications, computers, automotive electronics, medical electronics, industrial electronics, artificial intelligence, aerospace and other industries.
(2) The development direction of the semiconductor industry
According to the international semiconductor technology development roadmap released by IRDS, the development of the semiconductor industry is mainly divided into two major directions: one is the direction of more Moore, which is characterized by the continuous reduction of process line width, and the other is the direction of more than Moore, which is characterized by the diversification of application functions. Issuers' products are focused on going beyond Moore's Law, and these markets need to consider more of the product's features and applications.
The direction of Deep Moore's Law mainly includes market segments such as CPUs, logic chips, and memory chips, and its core is to follow the path of Moore's Law, through the continuous shrinking of feature sizes, and have more circuits on one chip, and 12-inch silicon wafers currently dominate this field.
Beyond Moore's Law direction includes market segments such as power devices, analog chips, sensors, etc., focusing on functional diversification, driven by application needs, and its core is to have more functions on a chip, and 8-inch silicon wafers still occupy a dominant position in this field. Beyond Moore's Law, it no longer relies solely on the enlargement of reducing the size of transistors and silicon wafers, but comprehensively improves performance through circuit design, system algorithm optimization, and advanced packaging technology to integrate a larger number of transistors.
At the same time, according to the application scenarios, the diversification of chip functions is realized, to meet the development and application needs of various emerging fields such as the Internet, the Internet of Things, biomedicine, new energy, etc., and to focus on mining and developing chips with huge market scales such as analog devices, power semiconductors, and sensors. Source**: IRDS International Semiconductor Technology Roadmap.
(3) The development status of the semiconductor industry
The global semiconductor market size is growing along with the demand for end products. In recent years, the development of downstream markets such as 5G mobile phones, laptops, servers, automobiles, industrial equipment, smart homes, gaming devices, wearables, and others has driven the growth of the semiconductor market. According to WSTS statistics, the global semiconductor market size reached $555.9 billion in 2021, with a growth rate of 2623%。The semiconductor industry is expected to continue to grow with the adoption of 5G communication applications, the spread of digital smart living, the strong development of the intelligent connected vehicle sector, and the increasing automation in the industrial sector, with the market size expected to reach $658.8 billion by 2025.
In recent years, China's integrated circuit industry is generally in a stage of rapid development, the scale of the industry continues to increase, and China has become an important global consumer market. According to the statistics of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, the scale of China's integrated circuit industry in 2021 was 1,045.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1820%。With the further rise of downstream industries such as 5G, consumer electronics, and automotive electronics, the overall scale of China's semiconductor market has maintained a steady development trend. By 2025, the size of China's integrated circuit industry is expected to reach 1,472.9 billion yuan.
Although the sales scale of China's semiconductor industry continues to expand, China's semiconductor industry is still heavily dependent on imports. According to the statistics of the General Administration of Customs, in 2021, China's integrated circuit imports reached US$432.6 billion, exceeding the import value for the seventh consecutive year, ranking first in China's imports, and the deficit is still widening. The localization process of China's semiconductor industry is seriously lagging behind the rapid growth of domestic market demand, and there is huge room for import substitution of Chinese semiconductor enterprises. At present, China's semiconductor industry is in a critical stage of industrial upgrading, and realizing the "independent and controllable" core technology is an important goal of China's semiconductor industry at this stage.