SEMICON China 2020, collocated with FPD China, was successfully held June 27-29, 2020. SEMICON China was the first big semiconductor industry show held in Shanghai this year since most of the exhibitions were canceled due to COVID-19. And it may be the only SEMICON event we’ll see with physical booths this year globally.
The total square meters of SEMICON China exhibitions exceeded 80,000m2, and there were 1000 exhibitors with 4000 booths. SEMICON China 2020 comprised four main big exhibition areas: IC manufacturing, compound semiconductor, industry technology innovation alliance of integrated circuit materials, and SEMI China Talents Plan. Audiences were also able to visit some booths virtually to learn about the latest products and technology exhibited. Some companies canceled booths before the exhibition because of COVID-19, and instead rented hotel meeting rooms to hold customer meetings and do demonstrations.
Meanwhile, the show featured 20 forums and activities covering areas like chip design, manufacturing, packaging & testing, equipment, materials, etc. Forums were also available virtually for the duration of the live event. During the grand opening forum, speakers including Long Ju, President of SEMI China; Ajit Manocha, President, and CEO of SEMI; Qing Wu, Vice Mayor of Shanghai; Bertrand Loy, Chairman of SEMI Board, Director, and CEO of Entegris; Weihua Cheng, CTO of YMTC; Qing Chu, CEO of UNISOC; Georges Andary, Director of Bosch China Automotive Electronics; Suxin Zhang, President of SICA; etc. all expressed that 2020 is a tough year for semiconductor industry due to the COVID-19 and complicated international situation. But there are also great opportunities. Crisis and opportunities always co-exist.
During the grand opening forum, Wu said the revenue of the Shanghai IC industry increased by 38.7% in January-May, 2020, even though this year is very special and tough for the industry. Zhang said that 2019 was a tough year for the global semiconductor market, but China’s IC performance was great, with a 750billion yuan industrial scale, 15% year-on-year growth.
Domestic and foreign companies actively joined different topic forums. KLA, Applied Materials, Edwards, and WillSemi (OmniVision), etc. discussed the cultivation of talents for the semiconductor industry. ST Microelectronics, ADI, and IMEC, etc. talked about MEMS and sensors in the automotive application forum, discussing the innovation and market analysis of this field.
CSTIC, held on June 29th, was also an important forum during SEMICON China. The speakers included Dr. Doug Yu, Research Vice President of TSMC; Dr. Ravi Mahajan, Academicians of Intel; Dr. Anthony Yen, Vice President of ASML; and Dr. Sanjay Natarajan, Vice President of Applied Material, etc. SEMI Best Young Engineer Paper Award and SEMI Best Student Paper Award were also awarded during the conference.
Besides those forms mentioned, there were also forums about advanced packaging, smart manufacturing, advanced wafer manufacturing, memory development, etc. Lastly, officials report that booths for SEMICON China 2021 were sold out. Clearly, people are already eager for next year’s event. We hope to see you there.
