Smart city, 5G Internet of Things, virtual reality… These attractive future landscapes are drawn by chips and circuit boards. The microelectronics industry, represented by integrated circuits, is the core of high-tech industry, the key technology for informatization to drive industrialization, accelerate the optimization and upgrading of traditional industrial structure, and the cornerstone of the development of information society. In recent years, the contribution rate of scientific and technological progress in Jiangsu has continued to rise, and the construction of a number of landmark innovation platforms has made significant progress. Under the support and guidance of the Several Policies on Further Promoting the High-quality Development of the Integrated Circuit Industry and other policies, a number of new “small giants” specialized in the microelectronics industry in our province are making efforts to develop and become the backbone of domestic and even worldwide related industries.
Circuit as a pen, drawing a smart future
Integrated circuits are the basis for realizing intelligence and digitalization in all walks of life, and important scientific and technological fields are almost inseparable from the support of microelectronics technology.
5G has opened a new era of the Internet of Everything, and also opened a new outlet in the market of related microelectronic products. “Since the 3G era, our company has been following the development trend of PCB technology for base station antennas, focusing on the research and development of PCB technology for base station antennas for a long time, and is one of the first few manufacturers in the industry to conquer the production technology of medium-high frequency multilayer boards for 5G base station antennas.” Yang Xiaohui, executive director of Jiangsu Benchuan Intelligent Circuit Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters.
The reporter learned that the high-frequency high-speed board developed by the company is an important part of the base station antenna and the base station radio frequency. It is mainly used for the transmission of high-frequency signals and high-speed circuit signals, including communication equipment, automotive electronics and other fields and the construction of 5G base stations.
Lianyungang Jerry Electronics Co., Ltd., one of the first batch of suppliers of military electronic components in China, is mainly engaged in the research and development, production, sales and technical services of the shaft angle conversion industry. Its monolithic integrated circuit, hybrid integrated circuit, servo driver and other series products have also been widely used in industrial robots, new energy electric vehicles, marine engineering, aerospace and other industries, with a market share of more than 70% for consecutive years, and have played an important role in many major national projects.
As a city concept in the future era, the construction of smart city needs the support of new infrastructure, satellite navigation, the Internet of Things, intelligent transportation, smart grid, cloud computing, software services and other industries, which are inseparable from the development of microelectronics technology. Relying on its software and hardware technology advantages in the electronic information equipment industry, Jerry Electronics provides a “1+2+N” overall solution for the construction of smart cities, from the smart city brain (smart city operation center), to the smart city data factory (big data cloud computing platform) and service bus (public information service platform), and then to the smart city industry application (N application subsystems), and has launched a comprehensive control system covering intelligent transportation The overall solution for urban intelligent transportation of services, products, and systems such as traffic signal control systems and equipment, intelligent parking management systems and equipment, travel service systems and equipment, and intelligent sensors.
Technology first, solve the pain of broken chain
At present, integrated circuits have penetrated into all industries in China, which is particularly important for the development of China’s science and technology, industry and other fields. However, in the face of technical barriers, especially in the key technology fields with high precision such as 7nm, China’s integrated circuits rely heavily on imports. Most specialized and specialized “small giants” are concentrated in the four basic fields of core basic components, key basic materials, advanced basic processes, and industrial technology foundations. It is the responsibility of the “little giants” to solve the “bottleneck” problem of industry technology and break the foreign technology monopoly.
Changjing Technology Co., Ltd., headquartered in the Research and Innovation Park of Jiangbei New Area, Nanjing, has independently researched and developed key core technologies of a number of products in recent years on the basis of maintaining the advantages of traditional products such as diodes and triodes, comprehensively replacing imported power device products, creating an independent and controllable semiconductor industry chain, and has carried out forward-looking research and product layout in emerging technology fields including third-generation semiconductors. In 2021 alone, the company’s power transistor products accounted for 11.2% of the global market, ranking third.
The manufacturer of power electronic test instruments, Edex Electronics, focuses on the technical research of its core business, and has established a national post-doctoral research workstation, a national intellectual property application pilot and a number of provincial research and development centers. Its independently developed power electronic test instruments have reached the international advanced level, got rid of the constraints of Europe and the United States, and ensured that the key test link technology of the industrial chain is independent and controllable, It solves the “broken chain” problem of China’s high-end power electronic testing technology.
“From a few people at the beginning to more than 200 employees, the company’s product series and business fields are more diversified, while the relevant technologies and products are also constantly upgrading,” Pan Zhiwei, director of intellectual property of Wuxi Shengjing Microelectronics Co., Ltd., told reporters. The main business products of Shengjing Microelectronics are electronic control module and detonating controller. As the core component of electronic detonator, the electronic control module mainly plays the role of delayed detonating control, ignition status detection, data storage and communication; The detonating controller is used together with the electronic detonator, which mainly plays the role of detonating command control, identity recognition, network status detection and data transmission.
Through the research of chip high, low and ultra-low power design technology and module anti-high impact design technology, Shengjing Microelectronics has successfully developed electronic control module products applied to electronic detonators. Through product upgrading and iteration, the working current has been significantly reduced, not only reaching the domestic leading level, but also improving the safety, reliability and detonating network load, Moreover, it has realized the localization replacement of the leading product electronic detonator electronic control module, and led the healthy development of the civilian detonator industry with chip technology.
Driven by innovation, microelectronics leverages the big market
One cutting robot rolls up the mechanical arm to carry out automatic plate grinding on the circuit board, and one AGV carrying robot shuttles back and forth to automatically transfer the products of various production processes. In the production workshop of the automatic production line project of the circuit board with an annual output of 480000 square meters, a large number of automatic equipment and automatic industrial control software allow a worker to operate six CNC drilling equipment at the same time, The labor force has been greatly reduced.
At present, the microelectronics industry has entered a promising but more competitive market. To stand out from the “Red Sea”, enterprises need continuous innovation in technology, production and other aspects.
“Through the intelligent manufacturing project, the company, on the one hand, uses advanced equipment to replace the original backward equipment, improve the automation and intelligent level of the production line, so as to improve the stability of production efficiency and product quality; on the other hand, it improves the company’s technological level and production management ability, improve product quality, shorten product delivery time, improve customer service satisfaction, meet customers’ personalized and diversified product needs, and enhance customer stickiness To achieve the strategic goal of sustainable development. ” Yang Xiaohui said.
In order to maintain product competitiveness, Jerry Electronics vigorously promotes collaborative innovation between industry, university, and research institutes. It has established research and development centers with scientific research institutions such as Southeast University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the 716th Research Institute of China Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, to accelerate the expansion of cutting-edge disciplines, the construction of emerging industries, and the tackling of bottleneck technologies. It has also established platforms such as the Provincial Enterprise Technology Center and the Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center. Shengjing Microelectronics has established the Jiangsu High Performance Digital Electronic Detonator Engineering Technology Research Center, and owns nearly 100 pieces of independent intellectual property rights such as the exclusive right to integrated circuit layout design. It has developed a full life cycle data management and service platform for electronic detonators. “As a company that has been established for less than 7 years, in addition to social recruitment, we have also carried out campus recruitment, and also carried out joint postgraduate training with some colleges and universities, and provided off-campus internship bases for students. The company promotes the effective use of research and development and human resources through various forms of industry-university-research cooperation, enabling the company to continuously improve its innovation ability,” said Pan Zhiwei.
“Electronic products are composed of a large number of electronic components. As a bridge to carry electronic components and connect circuits, printed circuit boards are used in almost all electronic products. Therefore, printed circuit boards are known as the ‘mother of electronic products’ and are indispensable electronic components in modern electronic information products.” Speaking of the future of the industry, Yang Xiaohui is full of hope. Thanks to the optimization and adjustment of epidemic prevention and control policies, the domestic economy has begun to recover, and the market demand has begun to warm up. The microelectronics “little giants” in Jiangsu are constantly increasing their investment in research and development, improving the level of enterprise management, and making breakthroughs in more fields; At the same time, adhere to “going out”, increase the development of European and American markets, actively seize the overseas market share, and leave more footprints in Jiangsu in the world microelectronics industry.