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Captain
Very good point.
Chinese semiconductor industry
- Thread starter Hendrik_2000
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DDR5 is supposed to be required by Intel and AMD CPUs to be launched this year.
Samsung is already using EUV to manufacture DRAM. Samsung started mass production of 12 Gb LPDDR5 memory in June 2019.
Mass production of 16 Gb LPDDR5 at Samsung started in August 2020. This uses their 10nm class (1z) process.
For reference CXMT is still selling 8 Gb LPDDR4 memory.
LPDDR chips are basically what is used in smartphones. DDR is what is used for desktops and servers. Samsung claims their 16Gb LPDDR5 chips have 20% less power consumption and twice the memory density as an 8Gb LPDDR4X chip.
Samsung is already using EUV to manufacture DRAM. Samsung started mass production of 12 Gb LPDDR5 memory in June 2019.
Mass production of 16 Gb LPDDR5 at Samsung started in August 2020. This uses their 10nm class (1z) process.
For reference CXMT is still selling 8 Gb LPDDR4 memory.
LPDDR chips are basically what is used in smartphones. DDR is what is used for desktops and servers. Samsung claims their 16Gb LPDDR5 chips have 20% less power consumption and twice the memory density as an 8Gb LPDDR4X chip.
That is 1 or 2 generation behind micron and samsung on the process node.
Financial information for some publicly-traded equipment manufacturers.
Among these companies, AMEC and ACM Research seem already at world class level.
NAURA Technology Group Co Ltd (North Huachuang)
Mainly vapor deposition, diffusion, ALD and plasma etching
Technology level: up to 28nm
AMEC Advanced Micro-Fabrication (Zhongwei Semiconductor Equipment)
Mainly dry etching, MOVCD
Technology level: up to 5nm
ACM Research Inc (Shengmei Semiconductor Equipment)
Mainly wet processing
Technology level: up to 14nm
Kingsemi Co Ltd (Shenyang Xinyuan Microelectronics Equipment)
Mainly coating/developing
Among these companies, AMEC and ACM Research seem already at world class level.
NAURA Technology Group Co Ltd (North Huachuang)
Mainly vapor deposition, diffusion, ALD and plasma etching
Technology level: up to 28nm
AMEC Advanced Micro-Fabrication (Zhongwei Semiconductor Equipment)
Mainly dry etching, MOVCD
Technology level: up to 5nm
ACM Research Inc (Shengmei Semiconductor Equipment)
Mainly wet processing
Technology level: up to 14nm
Kingsemi Co Ltd (Shenyang Xinyuan Microelectronics Equipment)
Mainly coating/developing
They do report sale numbers, specially like the ones who are in the Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market but they usually report in Chinese and for others you have to scout the Chinese internet to find the investors meeting.
Believe me, I am not Biden (nor did I vote for him). I've been analyzing the semiconductor industry since 1985 when I started The Information Network () and you may have read my articles I publish through Seeking Alpha.
It's important to know more about the equipment coming out of China, but my analysis shows a strong conflict between semiconductor equipment imports versus home grown equipment revenues. For the first three quarters of 2021, 24% of all equipment purchases went to China, yet home-grown share is less than 10%, primarily from NAURA and AMEC.
To to really understand the impact of China equipment on the global stage, we need statistics. That means revenues and importantly customers.
A real case in point, which I've written about is SMEE. It's important to know if a 22nm system is sold to SMIC versus a 90nm system sold to someone making older chips.
Let me give you an example. These companies supply 1 number to STAR but may have 5 different product areas. Applied Materials has about 20 different types of equipment and supplies 1 number to the SEC. How does one, and myself included as an analyst, find out revenues by sector, such as deposition, and subsector, such as PVD, ALD, PEVCD, etc, and compare revenues to Tokyo Electron that competes in these sectors, versus Lam Research that doesn't sell PVD. Only 1 number to STAR or SEC doesn't cut it.
Oh wow. TSMC should look no further than within this forum. Half of the active members here would fit perfectly while the other half are probably overqualified and would be too expensive to hire.
Thanks for the information. But as I said in a previous response, 1 number doesn't make a complete story. Let's take a look at Naura. Just 1 number given, but in my database, I have Naura selling Spray Processors with its largest competitor Japan's Screen; Wet Stations, again against Screen; Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) with largest competitor ASM Int'l; Sputtering (PVD) with largest competitor Applied Materials; and Conductor Etch, with largest competitor Lam Research.
We can't understand the impact of China's home grown equipment on the global market if we don't have a breakdown on these numbers.
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