SHANGHAI – IC China 2011, an international expo of the world's integrated circuit (IC) design and manufacturing industry, is scheduled to open at Shanghai Expo Exhibition on October 26.

"The event is considered as part of the country's strategy to boost its IC industry," said Xu Xiaotian, executive vice chairman of China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA).

Xu said China's semiconductor industry is facing a new phase of development in the next decade after 10 years of fast growth.

Statistics from the association showed that the industry reached sales of 79.3 billion yuan in the first half of this year, up 19.1 per cent over the same period last year. Of it, IC design accounted for 18.6 billion yuan, an increase of 44.8 per cent, and chips manufacturing took up 24.3 billion yuan, a rise of 16.2 per cent.

"Although China's IC industry slowed down its growth between January and June of this year, its growth rate still increased by 4 per cent more than that of the world's semiconductor market," said Chen Xian, secretary general of the association.

The three-day event, co-sponsored by CSIA, CCPIT Electronics & Information Industry Sub-Council and Shanghai Economy and Information Commission, is expected to have more than 200 exhibitors from home and abroad, displaying advanced IC technologies and products in the space of 12,000 square meters.

A summit forum will be held to highlight the show, dealing with the country's policies to develop its IC industry, the way of how to innovate it and make it profitable, Chen said.

He said the show will open nine seminars to discuss IC design and packaging technologies and the ways of how to apply IC technology to other industries and of how to protect intellectual property rights from infringement.