Packaging is an important part of the semiconductor production process, and it is also the part that has the smallest gap between China and the world in the semiconductor industry. However, the sudden attack of the new crown pneumonia epidemic has affected China's packaging industry to some extent. However, with the continuous advancement of the domestic digital and intelligent wave, China's packaging industry has added more opportunities to break through the haze of the epidemic and expand its original advantages to achieve further development.

Industry upstream is greatly affected

The upstream and downstream of the packaging industry chain have suffered large or small impacts, and some of the impacts may even be "serious" in the short term. "In the short term, demand for the packaging terminal market is facing tightening. Both JPMorgan Chase and IDC predict that the global semiconductor market will decline by 6% in 2020. Although the domestic epidemic has been effectively controlled, the packaging industry is gradually resuming work and production, but with the overseas epidemic With the outbreak of OEMs, terminal demand has dropped sharply, which has had a big impact on my country's packaging industry." Xiao Zhiyi said.

Seize the opportunity to turn "danger" into "opportunity"

From the short-term impact, the epidemic has indeed had a great impact on the packaging industry. However, Xiao Zhiyi believes that from the long-term impact, the impact of the epidemic has brought many opportunities to China's packaging industry. "The outbreak of the overseas epidemic has caused many foreign packaging and testing manufacturers to reduce or close their production, overseas orders have been transferred to China, and domestic manufacturers such as Howe have also moved their supply chains to China. The domestic epidemic has gradually been brought under control, and the resumption of work and production is in an orderly manner. The labor issue has been basically resolved. Therefore, if domestic packaging and testing manufacturers can seize the opportunity to enhance product competitiveness, they are likely to reshape the industrial chain and transform from a follower of the packaging and testing industry to an industry leader."

At the same time, China, as the largest chip consuming country, has a huge packaging market space. Therefore, domestic packaging companies can increase orders by tapping potential domestic customers to make up for the lack of overseas orders. "In the coming period, the domestic packaging industry will rely more on the growth of domestic market demand. At present, China is focusing on digital and intelligent construction, and the pace of new infrastructure such as 5G is also getting faster and faster, and new application scenarios will continue to be born. With more chip packaging demand, the domestic packaging market will continue to increase in the future, and will gradually offset the risks brought by the decline in foreign orders to the packaging industry." Xiao Zhiyi said.

Tang Weiwei also believes that if the opportunity can be seized, the packaging industry may be able to turn the impact of the epidemic into an “opportunity”. "For my country's packaging industry, the epidemic is a great challenge, but if we can seize more opportunities for international production orders during this period, inertia will be formed after the epidemic is over. Now China's packaging industry basically resumes work The rate is above 85%, and many factories have adopted a centralized recruitment model to ensure human resources. Therefore, I believe that if the opportunity can be seized, the adverse impact of the epidemic on my country’s packaging industry will be greatly reduced, and it is even expected to usher in Better development opportunities." He said.

At the same time, Tang Weiwei also said that with the gradual relief of the epidemics in South Korea and Japan, the problem of the shortage of upstream packaging materials imports has been effectively resolved. As a globalized industry, the development of the semiconductor industry is inseparable from cooperation between multiple countries. Therefore, if you want to promote the development and progress of the packaging industry, it is certainly not enough to rely on your own strength, and you must rely on global forces.

5G+AI brings opportunities

China’s 5G has ushered in a blowout development. Whether China’s packaging industry can take this opportunity to gain a foothold in the overseas high-end product market has become a hot topic of discussion. Xiao Zhiyi believes that the development of SIP (system-in-package) technology is a good development opportunity for my country's packaging companies. In order to meet the development needs of 5G, wafer manufacturing plants have proposed SoC (system-on-chip) solutions, but SoC highly relies on expensive equipment such as EUV extreme ultraviolet lithography, which makes it difficult to improve yield. In order to meet the needs of multi-chip interconnection, low power consumption, low cost, and small size, SIP came into being. From the perspective of packaging, SIP integrates a variety of functional chips, such as processors, memories, etc., into one package module, and the cost is greatly reduced relative to SoC. 

In addition, the wafer manufacturing process has come to the 7nm era, and will be challenged to 5nm and 3nm in the future. However, the process difficulty will rise sharply, and the difficulty of chip-level system integration will become more and more difficult. SIP provides a solution for chip integration that not only meets performance requirements but also reduces size.

Yu Xiekang, vice chairman of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, believes that if China's packaging industry wants to vigorously develop in the future, it must realize the transition from rapid development to high-quality development. The rise of "Packaging Middle Way" and the advancement of advanced packaging technology are the development of packaging technology. Innovation opportunities brought by; high-performance computers, high-frequency, high-speed, high-reliability, low-latency, micro-system integration and other requirements promote the application of advanced packaging technologies such as AIP, FC, 2.5D/3D, and Fan-out fan-out packaging This is an opportunity brought by the development of 5G+AI.

my country's packaging industry has ushered in many opportunities in the 5G era, but it also faces certain challenges. Yu Xiekang believes that there are four main problems that need to be solved at present: first, we must further narrow the gap in advanced packaging technology; second, we must further make up for the shortcomings in the industry chain; third, we must solve the problem of introducing and training talents, and make packaging bigger and stronger. Enterprises; Fourth, we must solve the layout of advanced packaging platforms and realize the coordinated development of the packaging and testing industry.