Recently, the Phase II project of the advanced packaging pilot platform of Hubei Hsingchen Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hsingchen Technology") has officially commenced operation. This is not only a major upgrade of the company's technology roadmap, but also marks the official operation of China's first mass production line with 3D advanced packaging capabilities, ushering the Chinese semiconductor advanced packaging industry into a new stage of scaled mass production.
From Laboratory to Production Line: A Critical Leap
According to official disclosures from Optics Valley, the total investment for Phase I and Phase II of Hsingchen Technology's advanced packaging comprehensive experimental platform exceeds CNY 7 billion. The Phase II project has achieved a qualitative leap based on the Phase I process—crossing the "valley of death" from risk production to mass production, and truly possessing scaled delivery capabilities for the market.
The comprehensive completion of this production line means that Hsingchen Technology can simultaneously undertake pilot and risk production for 40 to 50 types of chips, while also being able to complete performance verification for 30 to 40 sets of domestic semiconductor equipment and materials. For a company established only five years ago, such a pace of progress is rarely seen in the domestic semiconductor industry.
The Phase II project has also supplemented 2.5D pilot capabilities, enabling Hsingchen Technology to master both 2.5D and 3D advanced packaging technology routes simultaneously. This means the company can provide full-stack packaging mass production services for diverse products such as high-performance AI computing chips, smart terminal processors, sensing-memory-computing integrated devices, and optoelectronic integrated chips.
3D Advanced Packaging: A "Multiplier" for Chip Performance
3D advanced packaging involves vertically stacking multiple chips together through technologies such as through-silicon vias (TSV), microbumps, and hybrid bonding, to achieve higher integration density and shorter signal transmission distances. In cutting-edge applications such as AI large model training, HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), and cloud server CPUs/GPUs, 3D packaging has become an indispensable key technology.
Compared with traditional 2D planar packaging, 3D packaging can increase the interconnect density between chips by dozens of times, reduce power consumption by about 30%, and significantly shrink the packaging volume at the same time. This is also the core track that international giants such as TSMC, Intel, and Samsung have been competing to layout in recent years.
CNY 25 Billion Grand Investment: Hsingchen Technology's "Optics Valley Ambition"
Hsingchen Technology's ambition does not stop here. It is understood that the company's advanced packaging industrialization base, located in the compound semiconductor industry innovation block in Optics Valley, is under accelerated construction. The total investment of this project is as high as CNY 25 billion, which will be promoted in two phases. The Phase I investment is CNY 10 billion, which officially started construction at the end of May this year, and completed the raft foundation pouring of the last production workshop in August, officially shifting the project construction from underground to above ground.
According to the plan, the project will achieve the structural capping of the main workshop by the end of this year, start equipment move-in by the end of June 2027, commence operation by the end of September, and achieve full production of Phase I within 2028. After both phases are fully completed, the base will gather more than 2,000 high-end semiconductor talents, with a monthly production capacity of 80,000 wafers, providing solid capacity support for domestic chips in fields such as AI computing, autonomous driving, and high-performance computing.
More importantly, this base will also exert a "magnetic effect," driving the agglomeration of upstream and downstream enterprises in equipment, materials, design, and terminal applications in Optics Valley, and is expected to form an advanced packaging industry ecosystem exceeding CNY 50 billion.
CNY 5 Billion Series A Funding: Capital Bets on the Advanced Packaging Track
Confidence in the capital market is equally strong. In May this year, Hsingchen Technology completed a Series A funding of nearly CNY 5 billion, setting a new record for the largest single funding in the domestic IC advanced packaging field this year. Behind this huge amount of funding reflects the capital's high optimism for the domestic advanced packaging track, as well as the recognition of Hsingchen Technology's technology roadmap and commercial prospects.
Opportunities and Challenges Coexist
Although the commencement of Hsingchen Technology's production line is exciting, the domestic advanced packaging industry still faces considerable challenges. The localization rate of core equipment such as high-end TSV etching equipment and hybrid bonding equipment still needs to be improved; yield ramp-up requires time and process accumulation; and the certification cycle for high-end customers is often as long as over a year.
However, with the operation of this first domestic 3D advanced packaging mass production line, the influence of China's semiconductor industry in the field of advanced packaging is undergoing substantive changes. From a "follower" to a "parallel runner," this step by Hsingchen Technology may well be the critical leap for domestic chips towards a higher-performance era.