In recent years, in order to design more competitive products and ensure production capacity, domestic semiconductor companies have gradually begun to develop from a division of labor to a vertical direction.

mode change

In 1987, the establishment of TSMC marked the transformation of the semiconductor industry from vertical to division of labor.

With rapid design capabilities, IC design manufacturers can adapt to rapidly changing market needs more than IDM, and have lower entry barriers, which can diversify investment risks. IDM involves the entire industry chain technology, with huge investment scale, and market response speed. It is also far behind IC design vendors.

Benefiting from this model, a series of outstanding IC design vendors such as Qualcomm and Nvidia have emerged in the market. During this period, companies with IDM models have gradually changed to Fabless models, such as AMD. It can be said that the emergence of the professional foundry model of integrated circuits has created a professional division of labor in the industry chain and has also promoted the prosperity of the semiconductor industry.

Today, the semiconductor industry is a highly specialized industry. From the upstream IP and IC design industry, to the foundry at the core of the industry chain, to the downstream testing and packaging, each link reflects the specialization. The characteristics of the division of labor.

However, in the domestic semiconductor industry, this situation is quietly changing.

It is understood that the professional foundry model has the advantages of large-scale production for standardized production, single-purpose, and large-volume products. In the fields of memory, analog IC, MEMS, radio frequency devices, power devices, etc., due to the extremely complex production process, the coordination of design and manufacturing and the accumulation of experience are very important. IDM manufacturers have their own unique advantages. The leaders in the above fields are basically IDM vendor.

With the continuous escalation of the Sino-US trade war, domestic manufacturers have ushered in the trend of domestic substitution. Some manufacturers are the first to make breakthroughs and enter the golden development period. How to design more competitive products, ensure production capacity and control the supply chain has become Key issues that domestic manufacturers need to consider.

Under this circumstance, domestic semiconductor companies have begun to develop from the division of labor to the vertical direction. Silicon Lijie and Zhuosheng Micro have successively announced the construction of wafer fabs and packaging and testing production lines, which will gradually evolve from Fabless to IDM mode. In addition, Howe Many IC design manufacturers such as Minxin Microelectronics, Ming Microelectronics, and Fuman Electronics have also increased their packaging and testing, and gradually formed a vertical industrial layout integrating "chip design, packaging and testing, and chip sales".

Productivity guarantee

Since 2018, the industry has continued to report that Silicon Power has invested in fabs in Qingdao and other places; however, the actual progress of the project has not been satisfactory.

Until March 17, 2020, Fuxin Semiconductor's analog chip IDM project with a total investment of about 40 billion officially started in Hangzhou High-tech Zone (Binjiang) Fuyang Special Cooperation Zone. It will produce automotive electronics, artificial intelligence, mobile digital, smart home appliances and Industrial-driven high-power power management analog chip.

It is worth mentioning that the analog IC industry has typical characteristics such as multiple product types, wide application fields, scattered customers, and high technical thresholds. This has led to the formation of an overall pattern of multiple varieties and small batches of analog IC manufacturers. The factory's demands for mass production are in conflict, and the technology, capital and other resources of the foundry will be more inclined to products suitable for mass and standardized production.

In addition, advanced wafer manufacturing processes and processes for high-end analog ICs, MEMS, radio frequency devices, power devices and other products are all in the hands of international leading companies with IDM as their business model. The market is naturally occupied by IDM, and foundries are not enough. The market space and power of the company drive it to invest in advanced equipment, iterate and improve the level of manufacturing technology.

Similarly, in the field of high-end filters, the manufacturing process level of the foundry model has not yet developed sufficiently mature. Therefore, Zhuo Shengwei will cooperate with Foundry to build its own production line to produce RF device products.

In order to enhance product competitiveness and compete with international head manufacturers, SiLijie and Zhuoshengwei choose to directly build their own wafer and packaging and testing production lines, while small and medium-sized IC design manufacturers do not have the corresponding capital and technical strength, so they must directly build their own wafer and packaging and testing production lines. The fab is obviously unrealistic.