China needs ‘five to 10 years’ to catch up in semiconductors, Peking University professor Zhou Zhiping says
- China was not that far behind the West in semiconductors in the 1970s, but fell behind
- Semiconductor veteran says the mainland is at least two to three generations behind the US and Taiwan
Semiconductors represent the cornerstone technology of the information age. These tiny devices power the world’s modern economies by serving as the data-processing brains in a wide range of products, from personal computers and smartphones to cars and spacecraft.
Growing trade tensions with the US, however, has exposed the soft underbelly of China’s technological ambitions. Despite hefty investments in the semiconductor industry over the years, China remains dependent on the US for high-end integrated circuits. The country’s annual chip imports have surpassed that of crude oil in recent years to reach US$312 billion in 2018.
Zhou Zhiping, a Peking University professor of microelectronics, spoke to the South China Morning Post on the sidelines of the Smart China Expo held last month in the southwestern city of Chongqing. Zhou was a founder and vice-president of production of the Hengnan Transistor Factory in China from 1970 to 1978 and a guest scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the US from 1987 to 1989. He is a fellow of SPIE, a professional society for optics and photonics technology, and senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, among his major affiliations.
From 2005 to 2008, Zhou was with Huazhong University of Science and Technology on a “Changjiang” special professorship appointed by China’s Ministry of Education. He is now a “Changjiang” professor at Peking University and guest chief scientist of Chongqing-based semiconductor firm United Microelectronics Centre. He has spent almost 50 years in the field of semiconductors in both academia and industry.
This is an edited interview with Zhou about the state of China’s semiconductor industry:
