Chinese semiconductor industry

800 million time and space ( Beijing Bayi Shikong LCD Technology Co.): The small-scale synthesis of the company's photoresist raw material PHS resin has been basically completed, and it is currently in heavy volume.​

Jiwei.com reported recently, 800 million time and space said in an agency survey that the company has developed 12 new diamine and dianhydride monomers; PI slurry (MPI) has passed the small test tests of major manufacturers in the industry, and its performance indicators have basically reached international standards. At the peer level, preparations for the pilot test are currently underway.

In terms of photoresist, the company has ordered imported i-line and KrF248nm lithography machine and supporting equipment. The small-scale synthesis of photoresist raw material PHS resin has been basically completed, and it is currently in heavy volume. The semiconductor-grade PHS resin raw material for 248 nm has been optimized for the synthesis and purification pilot-scale process.

There sure are a lot of companies working on photoresist for i-line and KrF litho in china.

tokenanalyst said:

5 NM FIN SAQP PROCESS DEVELOPMENT AND KEY PROCESS
CHALLENGE DISCUSSION
Yushu Yang*, Bowen Wang1, Qiang Wu1, Yanli Li1, Yibo Wang2, Yuning Zhu2, Yongjian Luo2,
Weihao Lin1, Qingqing Wu1,Jianjun Zhu1, Shoumian Chen1, Ying Zhang2
1Shanghai IC R&D Center, Shanghai 201210, China
2Beijing NAURA Microelectronics Equipment Co., Ltd., Beijing 100176, C​

When CMOS technologies entered nanometer scales, FinFET has become one of the most promising devices because of its superior electrical characteristics. The 5 nm FinFET logic process is the cutting-edge technology currently being developed by the world's leading foundries. With the shrinkage in size, the usage of various multiple patterning methods (e.g., Self-Aligned Double Patterning, SADP, or Self-Aligned Quadruple Patterning, SAQP, Litho-Etch-Litho-Etch, LELE, 2D cut) becomes more and more frequent. In this study, we will briefly introduce 5 nm logic key layer process approach with EUV photolithography technology and, as an example, present in detail the 5 nm Fin patterning process with a Fin pitch of 24 nm based on the SAQP patterning method. Key process challenges are also discussed such as Critical Dimension Uniformity (CDU) and pitch walking. Finally, we proposed the Module Technical Specification (MTS) of 5 nm Fin SAQP key process as a reference. Moreover, we co-work with NAURA to develop 5 nm Fin SAQP etch processes on domestic made etcher tool NAURA NMC612D with very good initial results.​

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For completeness of information, this paper was published 2 years ago, on June 2020

ansy1968 said:

@tokenanalyst ,@FairAndUnbiased bro need your opinion on this 2 Chinese tech companies , Z-link & Fume, the two had been reported to supply Huawei with RF chips? and from my knowledge Hisilicon also had develop one?

And bro need your view on the propose OPEN RAN 5G system the US is proposing, can it competitively replace Huawei 5G tech?

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Well, main members include also all the 3 big Chinese mobile operators, and among contributors there are many Chinese companies, including ZTE....though, you are right Huawei is missing for some reason.

FairAndUnbiased said:

I wonder if Japan would rather let its semiconductor industry be destroyed, or would they cooperate with China. If Japan doesn't start collaborating with China soon, their economic future looks grim as Chinese companies are catching up in the cost effective area, while Japan has never been higher than European companies in the top tier "high quality regardless of cost" sector. Japanese industry has always been more isolated and non-globalized than US and EU.

Simple demonstration: compare compression ratios of

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vs.

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vs. Chinese Kyky turbopumps (

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). Higher the compression ratio the better. Japanese and Chinese pumps are similar, and both are not as good as German pumps. But, the German pumps are hideously expensive ($15k for a 250 L/s level pump vs. ~$6k for the Japanese/Chinese ones). If they keep stagnating, then Japanese machinery will become totally uncompetitive.

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Well my view on this maybe is a bit controversial, but I hope rational.

For Japan semiconductor equipment industry the writing is on the wall. They can't out compete China, and very soon China technology will reach their level and all the rest (market size, customers, price, financial support, etc..) will be in China favor.

So for Japan future the best outcome would be IMO to completely decouple semiconductor equipment market: they will give up on China market but they will keep all the other Western big part of the market and have the advantage of no Chinese competition there. BTW US is of course actively mulling on this idea:


For Europe, and specifically for ASML, we are still in a different scenario because China is still far away (I hope nobody get upset for this statement) from state-of-the-art, and also from non state of the art: China solutions are still in developing / testing phase, that for me ends when such a complex machine enters in volume production and works for at least the first 6 months.

So for Europe the best policy at the moment would be to prevent China to develop and gain market share on lithography, and the standard way to achieve this, under normal market condition, would be for ASML to sell as much as it can in China, even with dumping conditions, so to not allow any competitor to gain any customer. When all the customers use your product and your product is considered safe and open to buy, then for your competitors is very hard. This is the policy that ASML wanted to pursue, but we all know how it ended up, unfortunately.

​

xypher said:

Well, so far Europe has demonstrated that when the US says jump, they say "how high?". After rejecting the Russian oil & gas, Europe will become reliant on the American energy exports (primarily LNG but also some petroleum), plus the EUV source itself is produced in the US. That's besides the fact that Europe is reliant on the US military for defense and MIC tech. Does Europe really have any leverage against the US? I think nope.

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Europe has all the leverage. US need Europe to run the world. Europe exports are approaching $50b a month to US alone.

european_guy said:

Well my view on this maybe is a bit controversial, but I hope rational.

For Japan semiconductor equipment industry the writing is on the wall. They can't out compete China, and very soon China technology will reach their level and all the rest (market size, customers, price, financial support, etc..) will be in China favor.

So for Japan future the best outcome would be IMO to completely decouple semiconductor equipment market: they will give up on China market but they will keep all the other Western big part of the market and have the advantage of no Chinese competition there. BTW US is of course actively mulling on this idea:

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For Europe, and specifically for ASML, we are still in a different scenario because China is still far away (I hope nobody get upset for this statement) from state-of-the-art, and also from non state of the art: China solutions are still in developing / testing phase, that for me ends when such a complex machine enters in volume production and works for at least the first 6 months.

So for Europe the best policy at the moment would be to prevent China to develop and gain market share on lithography, and the standard way to achieve this, under normal market condition, would be for ASML to sell as much as it can in China, even with dumping conditions, so to not allow any competitor to gain any customer. When all the customers use your product and your product is considered safe and open to buy, then for your competitors is very hard. This is the policy that ASML wanted to pursue, but we all know how it ended up, unfortunately.

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@european_guy bro on this we all agree ASML had a huge advantage no question about it, BUT as you suggested as ASML go along with US restriction you might as well give up those advantages. With comparable equipment (DUVL)what are ASML advantages? It's pricey and subject to certain restriction. If ever China deployed its first EUVL in 2025 I think ASML will allow the export of NXT 3400C EUVL as they might argue its case with the American that it's not the latest, hoping to cash in before the door permanently closed? Right now ASML is working its asses off satisfying both the American Diktat and the Chinese market BUT the solution is simple, open a Chinese subsidiary and buy some Chinese equipment maker and invest on it, since it is having a supply chain issue will these solves two problem at once?

My thinking, with the success of SMEE SSA800 DUVL, ASML might off load some production of its DUVL in China, yes it may sound pretentious on my part BUT look at it from a business point of view, you have a supply chain issue plus a huge market that crave your product. What are you waiting for, that is money waiting to be pluck. ASML had a monopolistic philosophy and that is a problem , the hunger had been extinguish and complacency had taken hold. No matter the situation, you never treat your customer like shit and expect them to forgive you when an alternative had been found.

tokenanalyst said:

I don't know the first two but yes, Hisilicon has been developing RF chips for Huawei.

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While that report was sort of impressive, and those chips were indeed designed by HiSilicon, those HiSilicon RF chips are manufactured at a Taiwanese GaA RF chip plant. And it seems like most of the competitors of that fab are in the US. While I assume the Chinese military has similar RF fabrication capability this is something which China proper seems to lack in the commercial sector. I assume GaA RF was ignored by the Chinese industry in their rush to cover the most high value parts of the market. But it sounds like a major achilles heel to me.

european_guy said:

For Japan semiconductor equipment industry the writing is on the wall. They can't out compete China, and very soon China technology will reach their level and all the rest (market size, customers, price, financial support, etc..) will be in China favor.

So for Japan future the best outcome would be IMO to completely decouple semiconductor equipment market: they will give up on China market but they will keep all the other Western big part of the market and have the advantage of no Chinese competition there. BTW US is of course actively mulling on this idea

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No. The US is already killing the Japanese semiconductor industry. Toshiba's NAND business is still being targeted by US vulture capitalists. And as for the tools industry I doubt it will survive long term. At one time TEL and Applied Materials wanted to merge. Thankfully for TEL, and the Japanese semi industry, the US DOJ botched up the merger due to anti-trust concerns. But the Japanese semi industry keeps shrinking so I think it is only a matter of time really.

TSMC Commits to Nanosheet Technology at 2 nm Node​

06.06.2022

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has chosen nanosheet technology for production of its next 2 nm node starting in 2025 to help cut energy consumption in high–performance computing (HPC) systems.

The company will follow rivals Samsung and Intel, which plan to roll out their own nanosheet devices as early as this year.
...
The company will start production of its industry–leading 3 nm node later this year, which will mark the end of the FinFET process technology that provided TSMC a 90% share of the 5 nm business, according to market research firm Gartner. There will be an approximate three–year cadence between 3 nm and 2 nm.