The US is less able to constrain China than people think, and we can catch up, Richard Chang, founder and former CEO of Chinaโs leading contract chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), said today at an event.
"If China stays ahead in 5G technology, in the future, China will be significantly ahead in communications, artificial intelligence, cloud services and so on. Because China is very strong in high-tech applications," he said.
"If the US can't win on a level playing field, it will take an administrative approach. It did this with Japan in the 1980s and has been constraining 5G again since 2018, but this time it's no longer against Japan. The US is less able to constrain China, but we can't take it lightly," he said.
"The third-generation semiconductor has a characteristic that it obeys not Moore's Law, but post-Moore's Law. None of its line widths are very small, and the equipment is not particularly expensive, but it's not easy to make the material, and the design has to be superior."
"The third generation of semiconductors, IDM began now is the mainstream, foundry still has the opportunity, but need design companies to find a long-term cooperation with foundry."
"There are places where China is very strong, such as packaging and testing. As far as equipment is concerned, we are lagging behind at optical technology. If we look specifically at the materials, manufacturing, design, etc. of three generations of semiconductors, the gap we have on materials, I personally don't think it's very big."
"To consider the talent base in a short period of time, this is one of our weaknesses, the foundation may be done, but there is a gap between the foundation and the application, how to shorten it? European and American companies are doing a little better, so we borrow their strengths to learn from them."
In 2009, Chang left the SMIC to pursue other interests. Now he is the founder and chairman of SiEn (Qingdao) Integrated Circuit Co.,Ltd.
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