Binhu district, Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province. [Photo/WeChat account: wxbhfb]

A signing ceremony for 10 integrated circuit projects was held on April 20 in Binhu, Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province, a sign that the district is expected to have a more complete IC industry chain.

According to local media outlets, most of the project operators own independently-developed core technologies and are considered pioneering forces in fields such as radio frequency front end, sensors and photoelectrons. One of the projects, managed by Wuxi Academy of Serica Semiconductor Technology, involves the building of a research and development center focused on compound semiconductor epitaxy materials.

That same day, Binhu launched a service platform to facilitate the development of these projects and bolster their innovation levels. Targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises in the IC, new energy and new materials industries, the platform will provide technical support such as reliability testing and invalidity analysis, as well as other services related to forums, roadshows, trainings and investment.

Five IC companies were award a combined 16.8 million yuan ($2.61 million) at the event.

Binhu currently has more than 200 companies engaged in the design of integrated circuits, including China Key System and Integrated Circuit Co and Alchip Technologies (Wuxi) Co. Its IC industry raked in 9.04 billion yuan in business revenue in 2021, a 60 percent increase year-on-year.

At a news conference in March, the district announced that it was aiming to generate 10.5 billion yuan in revenue and attract 30 IC companies this year, as well as grow the value of the IC industry to more than 15 billion yuan by 2025.