With the rapid development of the global semiconductor industry, its application fields are expanding, and with the emergence of emerging technologies such as AI, VR/AR, and the Internet of Things, it has also driven a new wave of growth in the semiconductor market. According to data released by World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), in 2018, the global semiconductor market reached US$ 468.78 billion, an increase of 13.72%.

China, with the support of government policies, design, manufacturing, and packaging testing in the IC industry has become the main driving force for the growth of China's semiconductor industry. In 2017, the scale of China's semiconductor market reached RMB 1.686 trillion, an increase of 11.4%. It is estimated that the scale of China's semiconductor market will reach RMB 2.12 trillion in 2019, breaking through the two trillion mark, with an annual growth rate of 12.1%.

Under the long-term development, China's semiconductor industry is stepping up its footsteps to catch up with high-tech countries such as the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea.

From the number of global semiconductor technology invention patent applications published in 2018, the top 100 companies are mainly from 9 countries and regions: 41 in Japan, 18 in the United States, 12 in mainland China, 10 in Taiwan, and 9 in South Korea. There are 4, 3, 2 and 1 companies in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and France respectively.

The top three companies' patent layouts mainly focus on semiconductor chips, semiconductor packages, substrates, light-emitting components, transistors, display devices, organic materials and other technologies. Among them, Samsung ranks first with 5,803 patents, and LG ranks second with 4,057 patents. The third place is BOE, with 2,792 patents. In the recent news, Huawei ranked 59th and the number of patents was 347.

From the perspective of the number of patents, China's semiconductor industry has made significant progress, but there is still a gap between the quality of products and the mainstream high-tech manufacturers. It is not easy to catch up in the short term. However, under the support and subsidies of the Chinese government's industrial policies, the gap has begun to shrink.