East China's Shandong province aims to build innovative world-leading third-generation semiconductor industry clusters worth more than 10 billion yuan ($1.57 billion).

Third-generation semiconductors are a crucial technology that can be used in new energy vehicles, smart grids, rail transit, semiconductor lighting, new-generation mobile communications, consumer electronics and other fields.

The Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology recently issued a development plan of the third-generation semiconductor industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

According to the plan, the province will launch supportive policies to encourage Jinan, Qingdao, Zibo, Weifang, Jining and other cities to begin work in agglomerating and developing the whole industrial chain consisting of crystal materials, chips, device manufacturing, modules and system application.

Relying on its existing industrial foundation, Jinan will build a SiC-based power semiconductor device production cluster and a nationally-leading third-generation semiconductor industry base.

SiC, or silicon carbide, is an important semiconductor base material.

Qingdao will focus on the development of third-generation semiconductor materials, chip and device design, manufacturing, sealing and testing.

Jining will build a third-generation semiconductor industry production and manufacturing base covering the whole vertical industrial chain.

Weifang will focus on third-generation semiconductor materials and device research and development.

Zibo will focus on industrial control, new energy vehicles, photovoltaic power generation, energy storage and other fields to accelerate the industrialization of chip manufacturing for vehicles, charging piles and new energy, and increase the scale of SiC module packaging.

Other cities will strengthen coordination with the aforementioned major cities and develop their industries accordingly.

Shandong is now home to more than 20 third-generation semiconductor enterprises which generated a total business income of 3.87 billion yuan ($608.75 million) in 2020.