Even N+1 will make a huge difference in smartphone volume. Only the high end phones (Apple, Mi Pro, Samsung Galaxy S) are using 5nm chips. Many mid range are still on 7nm and that is a big chunk of the market, especially non western ones. The lowest end phones using UNISOC are even 14nm.
Chinese semiconductor industry
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Even N+1 will make a huge difference in smartphone volume. Only the high end phones (Apple, Mi Pro, Samsung Galaxy S) are using 5nm chips. Many mid range are still on 7nm and that is a big chunk of the market, especially non western ones. The lowest end phones using UNISOC are even 14nm.
Xu Min's research group from the School of Microelectronics proposed a gate-last single-diffusion process integration solution for advanced process nodes of 3nm and below to meet the N/P current matching challenge in gate-all-around transistors
Compared with fin transistors (FinFETs), the vertically stacked gate-all-around nanosheet transistor (GAA NS-FET) architecture has superior channel control capability, larger drive current per unit area, and tunable nanosheet widths. It is another important process technology change after FinFET; Samsung, TSMC, and Intel have launched fierce competition in GAA process technology. For GAA NS-FET, the channel direction remains the same as <110>, while the main transport surface direction changes from (110) to (100), which brings a great challenge to GAA technology: unlike FinFET’s (110) ) conducting plane, the (100) plane has higher electron mobility but lower hole mobility, which makes the N/P current matching characteristic in FinFET very difficult to achieve in GAA. In addition, due to the discontinuity of the source-drain epitaxial surface in the GAA, it is difficult for the epitaxial SiGe source-drain in the p-FET to effectively stress the p-type channel. Therefore, how to enhance the stress of the p-type channel has become the most critical technology to achieve N/P current matching in GAA.
In response to the above problems, Zhang Wei/Xu Min's research group from the School of Microelectronics of Fudan University innovatively proposed a gate-back-single-diffusion (PG-SDB) process integration scheme based on the self-built DTCO simulation platform. Single-diffusion (SDB) and self-aligned single-diffusion (SA-SDB), PG-SDB can significantly increase channel stress for N/P current matching. The related work was published in IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices under the title of "Novel Post-Gate Single Diffusion Break Integration in Gate-All-Around Nanosheet Transistors to Achieve Remarkable Channel Stress for N/P Current Matching" . Liu Tao, a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Microelectronics, is the first author, and Professor Zhang Wei, researcher Xu Min, and young researcher Wu Chunlei are the co-corresponding authors.
Compared with the traditional SDB and SA-SDB process integration solutions, the PG-SDB process integration solution proposed in this paper realizes the SDB process module after replacing the metal gate (RMG) process (Fig. 1), which can effectively eliminate the stress relaxation on the free surface. (figure 2). Further analysis shows that the proposed PG-SDB process integration scheme not only avoids the stress relaxation of the free surface, but also obtains additional stress enhancement from the dummy gate region (Fig. 3), significantly boosting the channel stress to +3.5 GPa (n-type channel)/-4.7 GPa (p-type channel). Further electrical simulation results show that better drive capability and N/P current matching are achieved in the GAA NS-FET device integrated with the PG-SDB process scheme (Figure 4). Therefore, the proposed PG-SDB process integration scheme has great application potential in 3nm GAA CMOS technology and beyond.
Smart from Apple. As long as they don't use it outside China then they should fine from US gov pressure.
Similarily, by using Chinese components they get a big plus politically in China.
Win-win for Apple and China
Sooner or latter they'd move the goalposts. Use it on iPhone to SG, Aus, Euro, etc.
If they can achieve commercially viable yields on this 7nm GPU design in the next 18-24 months, no matter how good/bad the design actually is, it will turn out to be yet another watershed event. Generally speaking, if they can make a decent GPU, even in the low/medium range of Nvidia/AMD mainstream lines, they definitely can build a GPGPU off that GPU design. Forget about the graphics card market. GPGPU for supercomputing and AI applications is the real deal. A made-in-China GPGPU at 7nm, even around 2024/2025 with commercially viable yields, would essentially break up all bleeding edge sanctions. From that point on, it would be US in general and Nvidia/AMD in particular really worry about their future in high-performance computing.
Looks like Sberbank has awarded an $128 million contract to a Chinese server provider (Lenovo, Inspur or Huawei). It's unclear to me what chip they will be using here. I don't think Huawei can use Kunpeng chips unless they developed a process with SMIC recently. It's doubtful that either Lenovo or Inspur would be using American server chips. So they most obvious answer is for them to offer Phytium's S2500 server.
If this is true, it certainly makes sense for Russian companies to turn to Chinese tech companies for their ICT solutions. Now, let's see if China can start exporting Chinese chips to other SCO countries and ASEAN countries.
hmm, China already has Kunlun, BR100/104, Hanbo Semiconductor chips, Cambrian, Tianshu Zhixin and many others. This is really not a big deal anymore.
I'd be more concerned about how quickly Kunlun and Biren technology can get a chip designed with SMIC's N+2 process. Since SMIC's roadmap calls N+2 their 7 nm chip (even though it's performance is close to the earliest Samsung 5 nm chip), I think we should we will see the Chinese chip designers using SMIC process very soon. This just indicates that SMIC is already working with domestic AI/Server GPU/CPU players to design their chips. That's very important.
I was wondering why I have not heard of Wuxi before. It turns out that they didn't get started until Sep 2020. That's probably why it's taking so long to be ready.
Story and data is weird and contradictory to all other news regarding domestic substitution, but it is an important topic so deciding to share.
"China’s monthly output recorded its biggest ever decline in August, as the government’s and a continued to .
Production of integrated circuits (ICs) last month slumped 24.7 per cent year on year to 24.7 billion units, marking the largest single-month decrease since records began in 1997, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday. The IC volume was the lowest on record since October 2020.
That also marked the second consecutive month of contraction for the domestic semiconductor industry, which saw its output ."
"China’s monthly output recorded its biggest ever decline in August, as the government’s and a continued to .
Production of integrated circuits (ICs) last month slumped 24.7 per cent year on year to 24.7 billion units, marking the largest single-month decrease since records began in 1997, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday. The IC volume was the lowest on record since October 2020.
That also marked the second consecutive month of contraction for the domestic semiconductor industry, which saw its output ."
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