Chinese semiconductor industry
- Thread starter Hendrik_2000
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Before we celebrate too much at what is indeed a major breakthrough, do keep in mind that bitcoin mining machines don’t have the same requirement as consumer electronics like phones and tablets. At least as of last year it appears that SMIC is using MinerVa as a practice dummy for improving their 7nm recipe.
Still think the first batch of immersion machines whatever they come out is to meet the needs for chips of sanctioned companies like Huawei.
More concerning for ASML is the investment that e-town is making in mass-producing facilities for sub-systems, they are not making that investment for cosmetic reasons, they want to sell and a lot. I am just highly speculating here but given the modern geopolitical uncertainties thanks to U.S. Hawks, some groups inside China are seeing the need of a having a localized lithography industry, it may be tempting for the goverment to probably force the requirement of the use of SMEE tools, starting with dry tools (ArF dry, KrF, ILine) in Chinese goverment founded or subsidized projects. Any ban on immersion tools will only accelerate that decision. If that happen ASML will be stuck between a rock and hard place. Again I am highly speculating. But is logical.
But you don’t have to use the most advanced machine for every exposure. I I guess 5 DUVi maybe enough for advanced node.
I was talkng only about the critical layers that require immersion. There are like three times more layers that needs iLine/KrF/ArF that are not part of my estimate.
I did a quick search on the web and found this:.
Look under the "mask set" section:
"A complex device would require more masks. A 10nm optical mask may require 76 individual masks, compared with roughly 46 for a 28nm node mask."
the number of litho steps for 28nm provided in the article is lower than my estimates but pretty close.
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Ok. I believe your calculation.
i see everyone are excited about 7nm SMIC.... but in reality, that was the plan 2 years ago... but because China's chip "hero" bans DUV transfer to SMIC and wuhan xingxing... so this project...
Damn, ACM is on fire. If they can expand into etch products like speculated that would mean China has 2 etch suppliers - both AMEC and ACM.
Ok so this 7nm chip has been out since July 2021 but we are suddenly getting all these mainstream reports about it now, right before a major political push in the US Congress for the CHIPS Act and as there is bureaucratic tussling in the Biden administration for more sanctions on Chinese chipmakers. It seems clear this is all a part of a lobbying push on the part of techno-nationalist US forces to buff up the perception of Chinese capabilities in order to win political battles at home. It may result in more sanctions against China.
In transistor density. Not the same thing as transistor performance. Latter is more important. Intel’s chase to maintain density at each node shrink actually ended up slowing it down on matching transistor performance.
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