Chinese semiconductor industry
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Take public biddings with a grain of salt, lot of tools are sold directly, probably tha vast majority, some tools are shipped for testing and verification, some foundries like SMIC have their own supply chain, SMEE has been shipping DUV and DUVi directly to costumers for testing and verification since 2020.
Struggle for reliability and conquer the car level! Xingweifan strives to become the leader of domestic RTC chips
Jiwei.com reported that with the advancement of technology, timing has become one of the most basic functions in various electronic devices, and it has also driven real-time clock (RTC) chips/modules to become an important part of most electronic devices. The system provides an accurate time reference and is widely used in communication, power, Internet of Things, security, medical, automotive, industrial control, consumer electronics and many other fields.
However, RTC chips are one of the "short boards" of China's semiconductor industry. As a big country in the electronic information industry, China is the most important demander of RTC chips in the world. However, due to the lack of independent core technology, it has long relied on the purchase of RTC chips from foreign suppliers such as EPSON, NXP, and MAXIM.
In the context of the increasingly complex international trade situation, the localization of RTC chips has become urgent. As an enterprise focusing on high-precision RTC chips, Shenzhen Xingweifan Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. ("Xingweifan" for short) has been deeply involved in the industry for more than 20 years. It adopts independent patent forward design and cooperates with more than 3,000 customers, including 19 A Fortune 500 company, breaking the long-term monopoly of foreign products, its RTC chips are widely used in automobiles, security, transportation, computers, home appliances, water and electricity three meters, industrial control and other markets with high reliability requirements.
Deadly Reliability
It is well known in the industry that reliability is the most fundamental requirement for chips and one of the most important factors to measure the level of chip specifications, especially for RTC chips, whose accuracy and reliability will directly affect the accuracy of the time of the entire electronic device.
According to Chen Dingwen, general manager of Xingweifan, RTC has extremely high requirements for data reliability. Once powered on, it needs to run normally and uninterruptedly. Any data disorder or reset is unacceptable.
Xingweifan was established in 2000, in the era of electric energy meters from mechatronics electric energy meters to electronic electric energy meters. Electronic electric energy meters need to sample the user's power supply current and voltage in real time, and the demand for RTC chips is large. However, due to the complex application environment of the power system, the requirements for the stability, reliability and accuracy of the chips used are very strict.
Chen Dingwen said: "The company's founding team has been deeply involved in the meter market before making RTC chips. At that time, the domestic RTC market was monopolized by foreign manufacturers. Our products also used imported chips, but the product reliability was not satisfactory, and there would be resets, data confusion, etc. The problem is that it cannot meet the requirements of the power system.”
In order to solve the technical problem of inaccurate timing of RTC in the electricity meter, the Xingweifan team started the road of self-developed chips in 2005, and is committed to providing users with more accurate and reliable RTC chips.
"The company has learned about the inadequacies of imported RTC chips in a large number of practical applications. For this reason, it has abandoned imitation foreign chips, formulated RTC chip specifications and functions that better meet customer needs, and opened a completely independent research and development route." Chen Dingwen said : "With the 6 RTC reliability technologies independently innovated, we have solved many problems such as crystal oscillator stop-oscillation, I2C port data interference and lock-up, clock data being distorted by strong interference from power supply, etc., so that the data can be stable and reliable for a long time."
In fact, in the past ten years, more than a dozen chip companies have emerged in China to deploy RTC products, but there are few cases of successful mass production. Xingweifan has applied for 14 RTC invention patents, with more than 3,000 patents. It has cooperated with many customers, carried hundreds of millions of terminal products and achieved stable operation, breaking the pattern of China's RTC chip market being monopolized by foreign countries.
Overcome the car level
With the advantages of reliability and stability, Xingweifan's RTC chips have been recognized by customers in the automotive, high-speed rail, subway, monitoring, access control, attendance, government computers, servers, industrial gateways, wall breakers, central air conditioners, water heaters and other industries. , and has emerged in some market segments. For example, as early as 2012, the company's RTC chip accounted for 70% of the market share in the attendance access control system.
In terms of delivery time, Xingweifan has established a module production base of 1,200 square meters. As the first-level guarantee customer of the FAB factory, its production capacity can be fully guaranteed, with a large variety of options and timely delivery, which can provide customers with more Cost-effective RTC products.
In terms of software development, Xingweifan can provide a complete set of demo programs, evaluation boards, and embedded library support for LINUX5.0 or above, which can help customers develop and use Xingweifan RTC products quickly and without worries.
In terms of market application, as an industry veteran who has been deeply involved in the RTC field for more than 20 years, Xingweifan has more than 5,000 product application experience, and its RTC chip shipments are in the hundreds of millions. It has achieved barrier-free operation in terminal products for more than ten years, and the product stability and reliability have been recognized by many brand customers.
"Xingweifan will continue to deeply cultivate the high-precision RTC market, and continue to launch innovative RTC products, such as ultra-high-precision and ultra-small 3225 vehicle-grade RTCs with satellite timing error <60us, and RTCs with built-in rechargeable battery patches in thin and small packages. Modules, MEMS RTC, RTC with ultra-low power consumption (<100nA), etc." Chen Dingwen pointed out that the company's future goal is to win the first RTC market share in China and build a first-class RTC chip company with global market competitiveness
I'm sure that bidding for lithography does happen, but I'm also sure that a lot of them doesn't happen. For example, I used the link/keyword that you provided and looked through 10 pages, but did not see anything from SMIC, YMTC and CXMT. It seems to me that just going through public bidding is a bad idea for something with as few choices as lithography machines.
Early next year.
From Jan to Oct，the total number of domestic lithography machines win the bidding is one，the domestic rate is 8%. That means the total number of lithography machines of bidding is （1/0.08）=12
So does NAURA/AMEC/Piotech etc，they also ship products to fabs directly for testing and verification. But that does not stop fabs from disclose bidding infors of purchasing products from these companies. So there is no direct shipping/public bidding dichotomy，it can happen simultaneously. There is no reason for fabs only hide purchases from SMEE but not other Chinese tool makers.
Don't believe the hype that China will face "winter" on its semicon requirements and development.
A great example is China's manned space program which started in early 1990s and succeeded in sending its first astronaut in 2003. But China's space program started decades before 1990!
The ingredients are:
1. Strong knowledge foundation
2. Enough technical personnel
3. Strong funding
4. Determination: 7x24x365x3shifts
As we can see, by 2027 China will have achieved total semicon independence. It's not that important what will happen in 2023-25, that we know already: China has sufficient semicon tech and personnel to fulfill its short and mid-term needs. It will find workarounds to jump over the hurdles. Say goodbye to Rubio, Biden et al
A great example is China's manned space program which started in early 1990s and succeeded in sending its first astronaut in 2003. But China's space program started decades before 1990!
The ingredients are:
1. Strong knowledge foundation
2. Enough technical personnel
3. Strong funding
4. Determination: 7x24x365x3shifts
As we can see, by 2027 China will have achieved total semicon independence. It's not that important what will happen in 2023-25, that we know already: China has sufficient semicon tech and personnel to fulfill its short and mid-term needs. It will find workarounds to jump over the hurdles. Say goodbye to Rubio, Biden et al
Dude, you have no idea how corporate sourcing works.
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