Nanjing is gaining momentum to become a "chip city" in China, as many semiconductor firms have newly announced plans to set up operations in its Jiangbei New Area, including China's Solomon Systech, and US-based leading EDA players Synopsys and Cadence, according to industry sources.

In addition to the newcomers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has established a 12-inch wafer foundry fab in the Jiangbei New Area, while Tsinghua Unigroup Semiconductor, leading lithography equipment supplier ASML, and many other players in the semiconductor upstream and downstream supply chains have also set up production or service bases there.

Statistics showed that semiconductor revenues generated in the Chinese city in the eastern province of Jiangsu posted a sharp annual growth of over 20% in 2016, making the sector No. 2 among the city's 14 new strategic industries.

As the semiconductor supply chains are shaping up significantly, the city government plans to solicit more than 100 semiconductor firms to set up operations in the Jiangbei New Area, aiming to achieve annual production value of over CNY100 billion (US$15.05 billion) by 2020, according to industry sources.

So far, in the core sub-Gaoxin area of the Greater Nanjing Jiangbei New Area, three of China's top IC design houses have established their operations there: Huada Semiconductor, Spreadtrum Communications and Vimicro, the sources said.

With an increasing number of IC design houses clustering in Nanjing, how to build a large pool of IC design talent has become a pressing issue that should be addressed as soon as possible. It is estimated that for Nanjing to become China's "chip city," more than 1,000 IC R&D and design engineers and a general workforce of at least 20,000 people are needed to join the semiconductor industry chain there, the sources added.

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved