The China Semiconductor Materials Innovation and Development Conference was held in Ningbo. Industry insiders recommend simultaneously pursuing both innovation and cooperation.

Currently, industries such as chips and integrated circuits—often referred to as “bottleneck” sectors—are receiving widespread attention, yet breaking through these bottlenecks remains a major challenge. "Facing the strategic development opportunity period up to 2030, to address the bottleneck issues and achieve independent development, we must rise to the challenges, shift from high-speed growth to high-quality development, build a robust portfolio of key materials, pursue specialized and high-value-added products, secure better profit margins, foster a healthy development ecosystem, collaborate more closely with our customers, and broadly attract talented individuals to jointly contribute to the development of new customer products. The industry needs to integrate resources, avoid duplication, and foster strong partnerships among leading enterprises, thereby forming several large-scale companies that can provide solid support for the development of the integrated circuit industry," said Ye Tianchun, Chief Technical Advisor of China’s National Major Science and Technology Project 02 and Director of the Institute of Microelectronics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at the recent China Semiconductor Materials Innovation and Development Conference held in Beilun District, Ningbo.

Conference venue

Recently, the China Semiconductor Materials Innovation and Development Conference, jointly organized by the Integrated Circuit Materials Industry Technology Innovation Alliance in collaboration with the Beilun District Government and the Ningbo Electronics Industry Association, was held in Beilun District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province.

This conference is themed “Strengthening International Cooperation, Accelerating Technological Upgrades, and Promoting the Development of Industrial Ecosystems,” and explores a path for the semiconductor materials supply chain characterized by “innovation, integration, openness, and win-win cooperation.”

At the scene, reporters learned that more than 300 representatives—including end-users such as Huawei, HiSilicon, SMIC, HuaLi Shanghai, Yangtze Memory Technologies, CR Micro Wuxi, CR Micro Chongqing, SK Hynix, SMIC (Ningbo), Hefei Changxin, and Tongfu Microelectronics; equipment manufacturers; alliance members; and representatives from semiconductor support industry associations—attended the conference. Participants engaged in discussions and exchanges on topics including the development and demand for advanced international semiconductor manufacturing technologies, trends in the development of China’s local semiconductor material supply chain ecosystem, the driving force of emerging technologies such as 5G communications and automotive electronics on the integrated circuit industry, and the integration of international cooperation with localization.

Regarding the current state of China’s semiconductor materials, Dr. Zhang Rujing, Chairman of Xinxin (Qingdao) Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd., believes that the country still lacks photoresists, specialty chemicals, and photomasks. However, domestically produced silicon wafers and specialty gases have developed very well. He also called on Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturers to give Chinese-made specialty gases a try.

In addition, Zhang Rujing also stated that domestically produced polishing liquids have already met the required standards. China’s chemical industry is remarkably strong, and its chemicals for wet-process applications are also of very high quality.

“Semiconductor materials are the foundation of the integrated circuit manufacturing industry. Driven by advancements in cutting-edge technologies and boosted by market growth in areas such as 5G and artificial intelligence, China’s domestic semiconductor materials industry has experienced rapid development,” said Wang Weiwei, Director of the Electronic Information Department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

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