China must innovate in semiconductor design or fall behind the global market, expert says

China Semiconductor Industry Association’s Wei Shaojun sees new design architecture and microsystem integration as pathways to progress

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Innovation in China’s integrated circuit-design sector have been hindered by tightened US tech restrictions. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:00am, 12 Dec 2024

China must develop new chip-design technologies that do not rely on advanced manufacturing processes, according to one of the mainland’s leading authorities on semiconductors, as the domestic integrated circuit (IC) industry faces increased US technology restrictions.

“It’s time to commit to building our own technological ecosystem,” Wei Shaojun, a professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Integrated Circuits and vice-president of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, said in his keynote speech on Wednesday at this year’s China Integrated Circuit Design Industry Exhibition in Shanghai.

“External advanced resources are now closed to China,” Wei said. “The range of manufacturing technologies available to us is no longer as diverse as before.”

His call for greater domestic innovation reflects the Chinese IC industry’s concerns over the severity of tightened US chip restrictions.

The latest US measures, announced earlier this month, imposed export restrictions on 24 types of chipmaking equipment and three categories of software essential for IC development. Washington also added 140 Chinese semiconductor enterprises to its so-called Entity List, which generally bars them from doing business with US companies.

Wei Shaojun, a professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Integrated Circuits and vice-president of the China Semiconductor Industry Association. Photo: Sina

Wei suggested creating new design architecture and microsystem integration as two paths to innovation that could help China advance from its current position, which is in the mid- to low-end of the global value chain.