Shanghai IC Industry Association to form alliance with neighboring Yangtze River Delta provinces

Editing by Kate Yuan/WM Zhang

Shanghai – China's largest IC industry base – celebrates the 20th year anniversary of its trade organization Shanghai IC Industry Association (SICA) this year. There was a celebration gathering to mark the event in late April. Representatives from neighboring provinces Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui industry associations attended the event. They signed to establish an industry alliance for more collaborative development in the IC industry in the Yangtze River Delta.

SICA was founded in April 2001. It now has 485 members of companies and institutions in Shanghai's IC industry, covering the entire industry chain from IC design and manufacturing to packaging and testing, to equipment and materials. Zhang Suxin, SICA president, who addressed the celebration event, said SICA has witnessed the robust rise of Shanghai's IC industry city in the last 20 years and "its total sales reached RMB207.1 billion($31.86 billion) in 2020, close to 40 times of those 20 years ago. The technological level grew from 0.25μm and 0.35μm to 7nm and 5nm. The manufacturing process technology progressed from 8 inches of 0.35 μm to 12 inches of 14nm, leading the developments in China."

At the 20^th anniversary event, SICA presented awards to 50 companies that made outstanding contributions to the city's IC industry. They include Shanghai Huahong (Group) Co., Ltd (华虹集团), Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (中芯国际), Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China (中微半导体), and UNISOC (紫光展锐), Shanghai IC R&D Center (上海集成电路研发中心有限公司), HiSilicon (上海海思技术有限公司), and Bright Power Semiconductor (上海晶丰明源半导体股份有限公司).

Shanghai's achievements are not only enviable but also inspiring to the neighboring provinces in the Yangtze River Delta, which covers 41 cities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui apart from Shanghai. The region generates 1/4 of China's total economic output and 1/3 of the total import and export volume, with less than 4% of the country's territory. The IC industry in the delta has made significant progress in recent years. As the country engages in a much stronger push for IC industry amid continued U.S.-China trade tensions, there came the signing of the agreement to establish "the Yangtze River Delta IC Integration and Innovation Industry Alliance."

Jiangsu Province boasts Wuxi City, which is the 3^rd largest IC industry in China after Shanghai and Shenzhen. The province's capital city Nanjing is the location for TSMC's fabs on the mainland.

Zhejiang Province is home to a group of well-known semiconductor companies, including Silan (士兰微), C-Sky Microsystems (中天微), and Silergy Corp (矽力杰).

Anhui Province, especially with its capital city Hefei, is a rising star in China's IC industry. Hefei has fabless memory player GigaDevice(兆易创新) working closely with 12-inch foundry CXMT(合肥长鑫) among a cluster of newly emerged IC businesses.