In 2020, 175 enterprises based in the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone, or WHDZ -- in Wuhan, capital city of Central China's Hubei province -- applied for certification to officially be designated a high-tech enterprise, according to local media reports.
Of these, 157 were approved and certified, including 102 that were newly certified, with an overall pass rate of 93 percent.
To date, a total of 331 high-tech enterprises have been registered in the development zone -- including the 157 approved last year.
A high-tech enterprise refers to an enterprise that continuously conducts research and development and commercialization of technological achievements -- and establishes core independent intellectual property rights within the scope of the high-tech field supported by the State. It is a knowledge-intensive and technology-intensive economic entity.
The number of high-tech enterprises is widely believed to reflect the technological innovation capability of a region.
In recent years, the WHDZ has focused on what is technically known as enterprise echelon cultivation mechanisms -- vigorously cultivating high-tech enterprises, fully implementing provincial and municipal high-tech enterprise subsidy policies, as well as increasing special support for key high-tech companies.
Zhixin Semiconductor Co, a subsidiary of Wuhan-headquartered auto manufacturer Dongfeng Motor Co, is a high-tech enterprise engaged in the manufacture and sales of semiconductor power modules.
The automotive chip modules developed and produced by the company are called insulated-gate bipolar transistor modules, or IGBT modules.
The IGBT module is one of the core components in the electronics control system of new energy vehicles. It directly controls the core indicators of the vehicle's AC/DC conversion and its high and low voltage power regulation.
At present, only three domestic manufacturers have the R&D and manufacturing capabilities for IGBT modules and Zhixin Semiconductor Co is one of them.
The company's production line, which currently has an annual output of 300,000 sets of IGBT modules, is now undergoing small batch trial production and is expected to go into mass production in April.
