Semicon Greater Bay opens in Shenzhen today, with 80,000 square metres of stands and over 22 international delegations arriving. The exhibitors we work with most often run into the same question as the show approaches: what documents do we actually need? One universal English PDF will not cover every buyer, because each document type behind semiconductor export carries a different set of rules, a different source of risk, and a different service logic. Here are the five kinds we handle most, each with the details that matter and the common pitfalls.
One: Technical datasheets and specification tables
This is every chip company’s frontline document — parameter-dense, terminology-standardised, low room for error. The workflow we recommend for these files locks down values and measurement conventions first: electrical parameters (voltage, current, power consumption), operating temperature, package dimensions and pin definitions are checked line by line, and every unit — mm, mil, inch, °C, °F — is verified against the customer’s preferred convention. For volume batches, an MTPE workflow is the standard route: build a termbase that locks package names, material identifiers and recurring electrical indicators, run machine translation as a first pass, then review for values, units and terminology. Consistency and throughput both improve markedly over purely human translation.
Two: Compliance certificates (CE, RoHS, REACH, CB, UL and others)
These are the hard gatekeepers for any non-domestic market, and each region and product category has its own set: the EU requires CE + RoHS + REACH together; North America typically calls for UL or FDA depending on the device; Japan PSE; Korea KC; India BIS. Certificate translation follows a certified translation workflow: page-by-page alignment with the original, no omission or addition of information, every certificate number, issuing body and expiry date checked item by item, and an official translation stamp applied so buyers and regulators will accept the document. A common mistake we see is mistranslating RoHS “restricted hazardous substances” as “hazardous substances” in plain English, or leaving REACH SVHC (Substances of Very High Concern) as an unexplained acronym — either can stall the shipment at customs.
Three: Patent filings and compliance declarations
Patent filings, infringement-risk assessments and IP compliance declarations sit where legal and technical language meet. They are handled according to legal translation standards: definition clauses, rights claims, legal bases and dispute-resolution mechanisms are scrutinised item by item. Patent numbers and applicant names must match those published by national IP authorities exactly — they cannot be simplified or transliterated freely. A compliance declaration that waters down “non-infringement guarantee” to a vague “disclaimer” is worth nothing to the buyer.
Four: Overseas tenders and sales contracts
Intentions agreed at the show ultimately land on paper. Tender documents (invitation to bid, qualification records, quotation breakdowns) need to mirror the buyer’s own system — section order, formatting and annex lists all need to match. Sales contracts (formal contracts, side letters, NDAs) focus on delivery conditions, warranty responsibility, payment terms and dispute resolution, with every ambiguity eliminated. Overseas buyers take contract rigour more seriously than many domestic customers; an unclear definition clause can lead to disputes expensive in both time and money.
Five: Installation, maintenance and after-sales manuals
Delivering chip modules and integrated solutions almost always comes with installation manuals, maintenance instructions and warranty terms. Tolerance is a little higher than for the first four categories, but sections covering operational steps and safety warnings still need care: procedures must never be reordered, and safety notes cannot be softened. MTPE works well here as a first pass — the human review concentrates on safety sections and procedural flow.
The most common mistake exhibitors make is treating every document as “just translation” when each category actually demands its own service logic. For the industry picture, read “Semicon Greater Bay Opens Today: Chip Exports Mean More than Just Chips”; for the translator’s side, see “Making a Career in Semiconductor Translation: Technology, Compliance and Toolchain”.
Pricing and scheduling: the real ledger
Exhibitors often ask what any of this actually costs, and the answer depends entirely on which file types are in play. A 200-page batch of product datasheets going through MTPE might cost one-quarter to one-third of the price of purely human translation, per thousand source-language words, with a termbase already built. A single UL-certified document, by contrast, follows a certified-translation workflow priced per document rather than per page, because the verification and stamp carry the bulk of the work. Scheduling is equally uneven: bulk datasheets can often clear in three to five working days if the termbase is ready, while a legal-style patent declaration may take two weeks of calendar time because every clause needs to cross both technical and legal review. A common misconception is that urgent rush fees solve everything — they do not, because compliance reviewers and legal translators cannot be compressed the way MTPE throughput can.
If your document list is unclear, send us your product categories and target markets via the contact page and we will help you decide which path each file should follow.