【Domestic News】Contribution on Patent to Semiconductor Materials in Chinese Mainland in 2022

      According to data, the global semiconductor output value in 2021 exceeded 550 billion US dollars, setting a new historical high. The market size of semiconductor materials reached US $64.3 billion, up 15.9% year on year, of which the semiconductor materials market in Chinese Mainland accounted for 18.6%. Although the market size is gradually increasing, a large amount of market share in China is occupied by overseas manufacturers, and the localization rate is very low.

      The downturn of the localization rate leads to the prominent problem of semiconductor materials being controlled by others in China. In recent years, the United States and its partner countries have repeatedly issued policies to increase the level of restrictions on China's export of semiconductor-related technologies, and put some key materials on the control list, which has greatly threatened the safety of China's semiconductor industry and related industrial systems. In particular, the advanced semiconductor materials with strategic and pioneering position are the targets of the United States 'key crackdown and suppression on China's semiconductor industry. In August 2022, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the United States Department of Commerce issued the latest export ban to China, imposing export controls on ultra wide band gap semiconductor materials represented by diamonds and gallium oxide. This ban is part of the comprehensive implementation of derivative technology sanctions by the United States and will have a profound impact on the development of China's advanced semiconductor industry.

      On the other hand, the ban also brings development opportunities to domestic semiconductor material manufacturers, forcing them to independently explore the path of localization of semiconductor materials. At present, in the third generation of semiconductor materials (gallium nitride, silicon carbide, etc.), the fourth generation of semiconductor materials (gallium oxide, diamond, etc.) and other important semiconductor materials, the market has not yet developed and mature, China and developed countries are basically in the same starting line. With the gradual deepening of the application of these advanced semiconductor materials, China will have the opportunity to compete with developed countries equally. Domestic enterprises should seize this historical opportunity, integrate high-quality resources, break through core technologies, build local industrial chains, and achieve independent and controllable development of the advanced semiconductor material industry.

The statistical rules for patent data are described below:

1. Enterprises include entities with a "shareholding ratio" or "outward investment ratio" of more than 50% according to the "Enterprise Inspection" statistics;

2. As of September 30, 2022, the statistical data is sourced from the IncoPat patent database and compiled by Aiji Micro Intellectual Property;

3. Overseas patents include those of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WO) and Taiwan, China (TW).

Domestic advanced semiconductor material enterprises —— Innovation Strength List

      We select objective indicators from five dimensions: patent layout, effectiveness, technology, law, and economy, and generate patent value based on reasonable weights to quantify the value of enterprise patents. The value of patents takes into account multiple factors such as the health of the company's patent layout strategy, international perspective, and document writing quality. Based on the total number of patents and patent value of enterprises, the patent innovation scores of each enterprise are calculated, and on this basis, the top ten patent innovation list of domestic advanced semiconductor material enterprises is released.

      The 13th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group (Hebei Semiconductor Research Institute) ranks first on the list with a patent innovation score of over 1000 points, nearly twice that of the second place, Hc SemiTec Corporation. As a leading player in China's core electronic devices, its market position, technological innovation strength, and intellectual property protection strength cannot be underestimated. CETC 13th Institute has a national key laboratory of dedicated integrated circuits, National Ministry of Science and Technology 863 Plan Optoelectronic Device Industrialization Base, MEMS process packaging base, post-doctoral research station, ten professional departments and laboratories, 7 pilot lines and 8 holding high-tech industry companies, with strong scientific research strength. In 2022, CETC 13th Institute fully launched the "Silicon Carbide Year" and achieved mass production of vehicle grade high-voltage silicon carbide MOSFETs based on its 6-inch silicon carbide process line as the hardware foundation. At the same time, the CETC 13th Institute has also broken through the technology of gallium nitride chips used in 5G base stations, reducing current collapse by three times, achieving independent innovation of gallium nitride chips in China.

      Hc SemiTec Corporation and Sinoma Advanced Materials, ranked second and third, have a patent innovation score of around 500, ranking second in the industry. Among them, Hc SemiTec Corporation' s flagship product Mini/MicroLED uses gallium nitride as the epitaxial material for LED chips. The difference in patent innovation scores among enterprises ranked 5-10 is not significant, mostly between 100-250, ranking in the third echelon of the industry.

      Overall, the innovation strength of CETC 13th Institute in the field of advanced semiconductor materials in China is firmly at the top, which has opened up a significant gap with other enterprises and is difficult to be surpassed in the short term. Companies in the third echelon do not have a significant gap in patent innovation strength compared to companies in the second echelon. It is worth looking forward to whether they will catch up in market and competition of intellectual property in the future.

Domestic advanced semiconductor materials enterprises —— International Perspective List

      Overseas patent layout is of great significance to the intellectual property protection of domestic advanced semiconductor material enterprises to participate in the global market competition and the discourse power in the international market, which reflects the international vision of enterprises. At the same time, overseas patents are also an important weapon for enterprises to achieve technological advancement and compete with international giants. Based on statistical data on the overseas patent layout of domestic advanced semiconductor material enterprises, a list of the top ten domestic advanced semiconductor material enterprises with an international perspective is released.

      In the top ten list of international perspective, Suzhou Jingzhan Semiconductor is significantly ahead of other companies in terms of both the number of overseas patents and the proportion of overseas patents. Especially, its overseas patent proportion is close to 70%, making it unique among domestic advanced semiconductor material enterprises. Innoscience is ranked second. Although its proportion of overseas patents in the company's total patents is still quite different from that of Jinzhan Semiconductor, the number is also over 100, indicating that it also attaches great importance to the layout of overseas patents.

      However, other domestic enterprises have a significant gap in terms of international perspective compared to the aforementioned two enterprises, and the overall overseas patent layout is relatively weak. Specifically, enterprises with a large number of patent applications have a small proportion of overseas layout, and have a low willingness to seize relevant foreign markets, or have insufficient awareness of intellectual property protection for products going overseas. Take the CETC 13th Institute for example, although there are 64 overseas patent layouts, the proportion is only 3.03%, ranking 9th among domestic semiconductor advanced material enterprises. This phenomenon should be taken seriously by leading enterprises in the industry. In addition, although some companies in emerging fields have a high enthusiasm for overseas patent layout, they are still in the early stage of development from the perspective of company size, industry status, innovation strength, and patent accumulation. For example, Hangzhou Fujia Gallium Technology, due to its recent establishment and the fact that gallium oxide is a fourth generation semiconductor material that has only emerged in recent years, although it ranked first in patent disclosure in the field of gallium oxide materials in 2022 and has a high proportion of overseas patents, it only has 17 overseas patents, which still does not form a significant competitive advantage compared to industry leaders.

Domestic advanced semiconductor materials enterprises —— Industry Influence List

      Using the citation of patents as a reference for the contribution of a company's technology to industry technology. Cations of a patent include being publicly cited by other patent literature or citing the patent literature as a comparative document in a notification or search report in the substantive review process of other patents.The proportion of patents cited reflects the research heat and the industry attention activity of the technical scheme corresponding to the patent disclosed by the enterprise, and reflects the technology advancement of the enterprise patent, which can be reflected as the contribution of the enterprise technology to the technology of the industry. Based on the comprehensive consideration of the number and proportion of patents cited by domestic advanced semiconductor material enterprises, a list of the top ten industry influential companies in terms of technology is released.

      Using patent citations as clues for technical tracking and risk investigation is an issue that industry enterprises can choose to focus on. In the top ten list of industry influence, Beijing Century Goldray and Heibei Synlight Crystal are ranked in the top two. Although the total number of patents for these two companies is not large, about half of their patents are cited by other patents, far higher than other listed companies, indicating that these two companies have received widespread attention in the semiconductor material field in terms of their patent disclosure technology content.

Domestic advanced semiconductor materials enterprises —— Rookie Companies List

      In order to promote the development of China's integrated circuit industry, the first phase of the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund ("National Grand Fund") was established in September 2014. Since the establishment of the National Grand Fund, many new integrated circuit companies have emerged in various regions. Based on multi-dimensional data such as annual patent output and patent value, facing the third and fourth generation integrated circuit semiconductor enterprises established in September 2014, a list of the top ten emerging companies in terms of patent strength is released.

      The list released this time is aimed at the advanced semiconductor material enterprises in Chinese Mainland represented by the third and fourth generation semiconductors. Due to the development history, technology accumulation, industrial scale and other factors of the enterprises, there are certain differences in scores at present. The public can use the reference for the technological innovation ability of enterprises, the importance of intellectual property and investment through the data comparison among enterprises.