According to local officials, the Qingdao National High-tech Industrial Development Zone has been ramping up efforts to develop itself into a semiconductor highland.

Various types of semiconductor chips are on display in the Qingdao high-tech zone. [Photo/Qingdao News]

The Qingdao high-tech zone has launched a slew of measures and policies to stimulate the development of the semiconductor sector, which is a subgroup of the new information technology industry's new generation.

More than 20 semiconductor upstream and downstream businesses have gathered in the zone, forming a complete semiconductor industrial chain that includes chip design, packaging and testing, equipment manufacturing, and material processing.

In the Qingdao high-tech zone, a project focusing on the third-generation semiconductor compound wafer substrate began construction recently, with a total investment of 700 million yuan ($110.11 million).

The project will build an intelligent production plant to process and produce the next generation of wafer substrate products. When fully operational, it will produce 330,000 large-size semiconductor compound wafer substrates annually, with an annual output value of 500 million yuan.

Workers test semiconductors at a company in Qingdao high-tech zone. [Photo/Qingdao News]

Edwards Technologies Vacuum Engineering (Qingdao) Co is a representative company in the zone that manufactures semiconductor equipment and is owned by Fortune 500 corporation Atlas Copco.

For many years, the global market share of its semiconductor vacuum equipment dry pump has topped 50 percent, making it the world's first brand in the industry.

"Our partners include well-known players in the semiconductor sector such as BOE, Yangtze Memory Technologies, Samsung, TSMC and Foxconn," a senior manager from Edwards Technologies Vacuum Engineering (Qingdao) Co said.

The Qingdao high-tech zone will continue to attract high-quality projects and high-caliber talents and foster a sound industrial ecosystem to fuel the development of the semiconductor industry in the coming years, local officials said.