Chinese semiconductor industry

MortyandRick said:

Is that legit? Or just hype. I can’t tell,

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On the surface the claimed benefit make sense. But I’d question how far along the current 6F2 roadmap this 4F2+HITOC method would be competitive on cost and performance. We will still need to see more actual performance data to tell for sure.

Industry will stay on 2D shrink 6F2 infrastructure for a few more nodes before transitioning to 3D-DRAM. this “novel” approach is more e ticking for the short/mid terms for Chinese DRAM players that will be stuck at D1y and need to look for a different way out.

that’s just my take. Maybe DRAM experts on this forum can chime in.

henrik said:

But Apple has ordered its contractors to divert production to other countries like India and Vietnam.

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@henrik Yup Apple want them to choose either a Dong or a Dung, so what will they choose?

Wow!!! China had a major breakthroughs in Optical Objective Lens for EUVL, done by Peking University, aside from that other Scientific Institution also contribute with the likes of CIOMP, NUDT, SIOM, Tsinghua University, HIT, HUST, CAS Inst of Micro and CAS Inst of Chemical listed below. With such powerhouse Scientific Institution doing work to research an EUVL, it's certain a year or two we may see a working Chinese EUVL with LPP.

Peking University's breakthrough in new technology is related to EUV optical objective lenses, ASML is right​

2022-06-24 19:55 HKT

At present, if you want to say what is the most difficult high-end technology in the world, then EUV lithography machine is none other than EUV lithography machine. At present, there is no company in the world that can completely independently produce EUV lithography machine. Some people may say that Asmail is not a monopoly giant in the global lithography machine at present? Isn't the global EUV lithography machine looking to buy it from Asmar?


This is indeed true. However, Asmar put it bluntly and is only responsible for the assembly work. Basically, the parts of the EUV lithography machine are provided by global companies. The reason why Asmaier can monopolize the lithography machine Trade is because Asmail has a huge global industrial chain. Therefore, Asmail's lithography machine cannot be regarded as an independent production.
However, nowadays, due to the lack of cores in the world, based on the revised rules in the United States and the fact that EUV lithography machines cannot be shipped freely, China has also embarked on the road of domestic self-developed EUV. Recently, Peking University, one of the highest universities in China, officially broke through the new technology of EUV lithography machine, and Asmail was right.


So, how important is this breakthrough of Peking University to China? The breakthrough of this achievement does not mean that China has broken through the EUV lithography machine. Then, how can China make persistent efforts in the future to strive to break through the core technology of the EUV lithography machine as soon as possible, and break the current predicament that it cannot achieve free shipping?

China breaks through EUV optical objective lens, Asmar is right​

On January 26, "Journal of Semiconductors" released the top ten research progress of China's semiconductors in 2021. Among them, we can find that the research group of researcher Gao Peng of the Electron Microscopy Laboratory of Peking University has successfully made a breakthrough and mastered the scanning perspective electronic display mirror technology. What does this technology have to do with EUV lithography machines?


In order to realize the localization of EUV lithography machines as soon as possible, China has established three core directions, namely optical objective lens, light source system, and dual-stage system. The core components of these three EUV lithography machines are breakthrough directions. Today's breakthrough scanning perspective electronic display mirror technology is a very important part of optical objective lenses.
At the moment when China has made such a major breakthrough, it undoubtedly verifies what Asmar said before. This is on January 21. Asmail CEO Wen Peter believes that China is unlikely to replicate the top lithography technology. , but it does not mean that it is impossible, because China will definitely try.

Therefore, now that China has tried to break through the core technology of EUV optical objective lenses, how important is it for China to break through such a technology now?

How important is this achievement to China?​

First of all, speed up getting rid of the dependence on Asmar lithography machine
Today, China has broken through the core technology in optical objective lenses, which proves that China may not be able to break through all the core technologies in the future. In the future, China may not have achieved the localization of EUV lithography machines. In this way, China may not be able to get rid of its dependence on Asmar lithography machines in the future. Moreover, this breakthrough has enabled China to finally achieve this goal, a big step forward.

Second, improve China's international prestige and enhance China's international influence

The scanning perspective electronic display mirror technology in the optical objective lens is one of the core technologies. It is very difficult to successfully tackle key problems. After all, for so many years, there has not been a country, a company, or a research institution in the world. Successful breakthrough. Today, this technology is the first to be broken by China, which will undoubtedly enable China to once again demonstrate its strong scientific research strength to the world. At a time when scientific and technological development is increasingly becoming an important factor in the competition of comprehensive national strength in the international market, it is necessary to improve China's international prestige. In terms of enhancing China's international influence, it may not be impossible.
China's success in breaking through the core technology of this EUV lithography machine is undoubtedly bad news for Asmail. Then, for Asmail, this breakthrough in China will give Asmail a chance. What kind of impact does it have on itself?

Asmar is in trouble!​

China can now break through the core technology in the field of optical objective lenses, and it may not be impossible to continue to break through in the future, and it may not be impossible to completely break through the core technology of EUV lithography in the future. In this way, with the breakthrough of the core technology of EUV lithography machine, China may not be able to realize the localization of EUV lithography machine. As China may realize the localization of EUV lithography machines in the future, it is very likely that Asmail will eventually lose China, the world's largest consumer market, and it is also likely to lose a lot of economic benefits because of this. .

In addition, if we continue to let China continue to develop, there will undoubtedly be more core technologies for EUV lithography machines to be broken by China in the future. In terms of future development, it will also be a lot of trouble.

Of course, this move by China has a great impact on Asmar, but it will not have such a huge impact. At present, Asmar is deploying a new generation of lithography machines. If China does not speed up its pace, it will not If we speed up the development of localization, I am afraid that the gap between China and Asmail will become larger and larger in the future, and I am afraid that it will be more difficult for China to get rid of its dependence on Asmail. So, what will China do in the future?

How will China make persistent efforts in the future?​

In the future, China may wish to increase investment in science and technology, strive to break through more core technologies of EUV lithography machines, and strive to realize the localization of EUV lithography machines as soon as possible. Of course, in this process, we should not be too impatient or too ambitious, but should calm down, take one step at a time, and be down-to-earth. Only in this way will China be able to achieve even greater achievements in the localization of EUV lithography machines in the future. And brilliant achievement.

Summarize​

China Peking University has broken through new technologies and successfully broke through the core technology of optical objective lenses, which is undoubtedly a huge help for China to realize the localization of EUV lithography machines and to further get rid of its dependence on Asmail. Asmar's previous predictions about the development of China's lithography machines have undoubtedly become reality. It is hoped that in the future, China will make persistent efforts and strive for an early successful realization of the localization of EUV lithography machines.



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EUVL Activities in China ... Of CAS. (SIOM). Shanghai, China. [email protected] ... Changchun institute of optics, fine mechanics and physics (CIOMP).

China's Yangtze Memory takes on rivals with new chip plant​

TAIPEI -- The Chinese memory chip producer Yangtze Memory Technologies plans to bring online a second plant in its home city of Wuhan as early as the end of this year, sources familiar with the matter say, in a move that could further close the company's technology and output gap with global leaders like Samsung of South Korea and Micron Technology of the U.S.

The company, also known as YMTC, needs to expand production after a growth spurt that put it on the world's semiconductor map and delivered a notable success in Beijing's attempt to reduce China's reliance on imported chips.

Its original plant has been running near capacity and churned out 100,000 wafers a month at the end of 2021, two people told Nikkei Asia.

YMTC held a global market share of nearly 5% last year, according to analyst and industry estimates. It has become the world's sixth-largest NAND flash memory maker behind Samsung, SK Hynix, Kioxia, Western Digital and Micron, and the only one from China.

About 40% of its output at present is 128-layer 3D NAND flash memory, the most advanced produced so far by a Chinese chipmaker. But that is one or two generations behind global leaders Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. The rest of YMTC's output is of older 64-layer 3D NAND flash memory.

The new plant would first build mainly 128-layer flash memory and could later shift to even more cutting-edge chips, such as 196-layer or 232-layer 3D NAND flash memory, assuming development goes smoothly in 2023 and 2024.

Apple has been testing YMTC's flash memory products since last year and could place its first order in "limited quantities" as soon as this year, two people familiar with the matter told Nikkei Asia. The U.S. tech giant has been talking with the Chinese chipmaker since 2018 in hopes of finding a cost-effective source of storage components.

Securing a deal with Apple would be a milestone, highlighting the quality of Yangtze Memory's chips, industry executives say. Apple's Chinese suppliers, including those from Hong Kong, already outnumber those from Taiwan, making China the largest source of suppliers to the U.S. company, according to a Nikkei Asia analysis. Apple also has close ties with several Chinese electronics manufacturers, including Luxshare, Goertek and BYD.

Yangtze Memory's success is also viewed as a victory for China, as the world's second-largest economy strives to localize semiconductor production and build industry champions. Yangtze Memory is backed by the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, Beijing's most important chip investment funding vehicle. And YMTC is bullish on its growth prospects, increasing its investment budget from $24 billion in 2016 to the equivalent of $32.8 billion this year.

The Chinese chipmaker is currently installing equipment at the new chip plant, a key step before it goes into production. The factory will eventually have twice the capacity of the first, several people briefed on the matter said. The total capacity for the two factories will reach 300,000 wafers per month and could help YMTC expand its market share to more than 10% globally.



The company is split into two parallel teams composed of hundreds of top engineers tasked with developing 196-layer and 232-layer flash memory, one of the people said. Its aim is to catch up with foreign rivals.

The most advanced products on the market, which Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix have all succeeded in producing, are 176-layer 3D NAND flash memory chips. They are now racing to create chips composed of more than 200-layers. Kioxia and Western Digital said they will be making 162-layer 3D NAND flash memory by the end of the year.

The more layers a flash memory chip has, the more advanced the chips are -- and the harder they are to develop and produce commercially. NAND flash memory is a vital storage component used in all kinds of electronic devices, from smartphones and PCs, to data center servers and connected cars.

Most YMTC flash memory is currently used to make consumer-grade solid-state drives (SSDs), mainly for the Chinese market. It clients include leading storage makers Lenovo, Longsys, and Kimtigo of China, as well as Adata of Taiwan. YMTC has also introduced its own brand, ZhiTai, to sell SSDs directly to consumers.

Its share of the global flash memory market has risen quickly from 1.3% in 2019, when it first put 64-layer NAND flash memory into production, according to Counterpoint Research, which believes it could grab nearly 6% of the market by 2023, up from 4.8% in 2021.

Brady Wang, an analyst with Counterpoint, told Nikkei Asia that Yangtze Memory was working on its technology even before the company was formally launched in 2016. It has demonstrated its capabilities and gradually become a viable global player after years of effort, Wang said. It has also more than doubled its payroll in four years, to about 8,000 employees currently.

"It recruits many engineers and veterans who have Chinese backgrounds but used to work for multinational tech and chip companies," Wang said. "Managing a plant, however, is different from managing several plants at a massive scale. It remains to be seen if it [can] successfully ramp up production."

Political tension between U.S. and China also increases uncertainties for Chinese companies like YMTC, Wang said.

Washington has slowed the advance of China's semiconductor industry by adding the country's top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co., and the telecom equipment group Huawei to a trade blacklist to restrict their use of American technology. Yangtze Memory has been among the most aggressive companies in pushing ahead with the development of domestic chipmaking equipment, but it continues to maintain good relationships with U.S. and other foreign vendors to ensure its expansion plans come to fruition.

China attempt to be independent in Chip design


US-China tech war: top Chinese scientist envisions forked RISC-V chip design standard to cushion decoupling impact


Thu, June 23, 2022, 4:30 AM

A top Chinese computer scientist said China is better positioned than Russia to cope with possible sanctions on chip design architecture from Western countries, adding that the country could develop a different ecosystem based on the RISC-V architecture and expand it among members of the .

why would they make a fork of RISC-V instead of just using it?

pakje said:

why would they make a fork of RISC-V instead of just using it?

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So that they're able to develop proprietary designs based on it.

ZeEa5KPul said:

So that they're able to develop proprietary designs based on it.

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RISC-V is just an Open Instruction Set, more a recipe to make chips that will run RISC-V software. Because is an free ISA in all sense there is not nothing stopping anyone anywhere of using RISC-V for making proprietary or open source chips for free( in fact you can do that even with a proprietary ISA, Just looks China with X86 and SPARC, the problem come later), Cloning an ISA means to spend years of hard work to recreate the entire ecosystem on your own which is impractical. Maybe he is referring to extending the Base ISA with China only instructions which is more practical.
And because of course this is the SCMP we are talking about, so we have to take everything written in that newspaper with a truck load of salt.

tokenanalyst said:

RISC-V is just an Open Instruction Set, more a recipe to make chips that will run RISC-V software. Because is an free ISA in all sense there is not nothing stopping anyone anywhere of using RISC-V for making proprietary or open source chips for free( in fact you can do that even with a proprietary ISA, Just looks China with X86 and SPARC, the problem come later), Cloning an ISA means to spend years of hard work to recreate the entire ecosystem on your own which is impractical. Maybe he is referring to extending the Base ISA with China only instructions which is more practical.
And because of course this is the SCMP we are talking about, so we have to take everything written in that newspaper with a truck load of salt.

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This correct one of the reason risc-v foundation moved from the US to Switzerland so they couldn't be politically used as a tool.

But that was before Ukraine not sure how this will work in a post Ukraine world. Given the west has done move unthinkable half a year ago.

BlackWindMnt said:

This correct one of the reason risc-v foundation moved from the US to Switzerland so they couldn't be politically used as a tool.

But that was before Ukraine not sure how this will work in a post Ukraine world. Given the west has done move unthinkable half a year ago.

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but it's still open source. Just look at how linux is still present in russia, sure some providers have stopped services but that's not the same as a ban