Ma Zouping: China's IC industry ushered in a new opportunity

"The Chinese integrated circuit (IC) industry will usher in a new opportunity, that is, phase change memory (PCM), which will make China become the world's IC kingdom." On September 21, the academician of the American Academy of Engineering, a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Yale University professor Ma Zuoping analyzed the development trend of the world IC industry at the special report meeting of the annual meeting of China Science and Technology Association. In the so-called "silicon age", he believes that China's IC industry is developing rapidly and has broad prospects for future development.

Ma Zuping was born in Lanzhou, Gansu Province in November 1945 and received a doctorate from Yale University in 1974. With his contribution to the development of "complementary metal oxide semiconductor" gate dielectric technology, he became the authority in the field of semiconductor microelectronics technology in the United States. He was elected as an academician of the American Academy of Engineering in 2003 and was elected as a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2009. Currently, Ma Zuping is leading the development of a new generation of storage devices.

In the special report session, Ma Zuoping proposed that since the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, humans have entered the Silicon Age since the 20th century. He said that historically, what kind of device has had the greatest impact on our way of life has brought it into an era. With this measure, it is now the “silicon age.” Therefore, for young scientists or students, he suggests that the future work field enter the field of silicon.

At present, electronics is the largest industry in most developed countries and is the fastest growing industry. In the sales of various industries in the world, the electronics industry surpassed the automotive industry many years ago. Integrated circuits also surpassed the steel industry several years ago, and its growth rate is faster.

Ma Zuping said that the current Chinese IC market has three characteristics: First, the market is the world's largest, second is the world's highest growth rate, and the third is IC's foreign trade deficit in China. At present, China can only self-sufficient 20% of IC demand.

He believes that the opportunity for China's IC industry is phase change memory (PCM), which will completely change the chip design structure, and it is also the only new mass production memory. Compared with flash memory, PCM is faster, more reliable, smaller, and more power efficient. In the next decade, PCM will replace a large part of flash memory. China does not have the burden of traditional memory. International semiconductor manufacturers will not easily adopt new technologies to replace the existing technologies, and phase change memory can bring opportunities for the development of China's IC industry.