Guangzhou Aosong Electronics will build a 3-billion-yuan ($4.64-million) industrial base in the National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone (Tangjiawan) for the integrated design and manufacture (IDM) of characteristic semiconductors with 8-inch micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS).

Aosong (ASAIR) Semiconductor (Zhuhai) and the Hi-Tech Zone government contracted April 29 for the upgraded mass-production line of MEMS sensors and R&D line of 8-inch shared MEMS wafers. The first phase also includes Aosong's Greater Bay Area intelligent sensor innovation R&D center, R&D office building, and industry-academia-research center.

Signing ceremony [Photo courtesy WeChat account: zh_gxq]

The base will provide full-industrial-chain services such as wafer foundry, equipment sharing, and technical support to semiconductor enterprises at home and abroad. It will boost new-generation industries in the fields of biomedicine and medical equipment, new-energy vehicles, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and "smart" power grids and homes in the Greater Bay Area, said Zhang Bin, chairman of Aosong Electronics.

Founded in 2003, Aosong Electronics was China's first enterprise to independently research and develop humidity sensors. In 2020, the company put into operation a 6-inch MEMS semiconductor sensor chip production line in Guangzhou. It is a domestically leading sensor and chip manufacturer, and the sole Guangdong IDM enterprise with MEMS semiconductor technology.

Zhuhai's first wafer plant will fill a void in the Hi-Tech Zone's integrated circuit industrial chain, which had 80 enterprises by the end of 2020. At that time the economic scale of these IC enterprises had recorded a year-on-year increase of 23.23 percent. The zone's software enterprises had registered a year-on-year increase of 19.01 percent.

The Hi-Tech Zone has long seen IC as a pillar industry to propel regional innovative development. A 14th Five-Year Plan was issued last year, with dedicated office and support policies to foster an IC aggregate zone with national influence.