Chinese semiconductor industry

tokenanalyst said:

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The modular design of the equipment can combine plasma cleaning (Plasma-clean) unit, magnetron sputtering (SPT) unit, plasma enhanced chemical reaction (PECVD) unit, atomic layer deposition (ALD) unit, and plasma chemical reaction etching (RIE) ) unit.

Interesting that this machine would be basically a small fab on its own if you could find a way to add oxidation, diffusion and a lithography unit in the same machine. but those process would have to be done outside the vacuum.

ACM Shanghai adds a new metal lift-off process for Ultra C pr equipment to support power semiconductor manufacturing and wafer-level packaging applications​

2022-11-14 14:26:11
Shengmei Semiconductor Equipment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shengmei Shanghai") (Science and Technology Innovation Board stock code: 688082), as a leading provider of wafer process solutions for semiconductor front-end and advanced wafer-level packaging applications The supplier, today announced that it has expanded the metal lift-off (MLO) application for Ultra C pr equipment to support power semiconductor manufacturing and wafer-level packaging (WLP) applications. The MLO process is a method of patterning the surface of the wafer that eliminates the etching process step, which reduces cost, shortens the process flow, and reduces the amount of high-temperature chemicals used. The company also announced that the first device supporting MLO has been verified and put into mass production by a Chinese power semiconductor manufacturer.

Dr. Wang Hui, chairman of Shengmei Shanghai, said: "We are committed to strengthening the construction of the company's diversified products, and continue to seize opportunities to expand application areas other than cleaning. Our Ultra C pr equipment photoresist stripping process has been widely used by customers It is recognized that based on this process, the application in the MLO process has been further expanded, which can make it easier to strip the outer metal layer of the photoresist and remove other redundant metals or residues. We are very happy that the first set is applied to the MLO process The Ultra C pr equipment can be successfully delivered and successfully verified on a large production line.”

Shengmei Shanghai’s Ultra C pr equipment connects the tank-type degumming soaking module and the single-wafer cleaning chamber in series and uses them sequentially. A metal lift-off process is performed. The equipment configures different single-chip cleaning chambers with deglue function and cleaning function respectively, and optimizes the structure of the chamber to make it easy to disassemble, clean and maintain, and solves the problem of residue accumulation in the metal stripping process. The process can also be equipped with SAPS megasonic cleaning technology developed by Shengmei to further improve the wafer cleaning effect.

Shandong Youyan Ace 12-inch project, silicon wafer processing plant capped​

According to news from Shandong Youyan Ace, the silicon wafer processing plant capped this time is the company's core production workshop, which provides auxiliary conditions such as stable temperature, pressure and clean environment for the silicon wafer production process, and provides silicon wafers from raw materials to finished products. The "one-stop" service in It is reported that the capping of the two main buildings marks that the focus of project construction has shifted to post-work such as the installation and commissioning of electromechanical equipment.

On May 16 this year, Shandong Youyan Ace 12-inch silicon wafer project started. The news at the time showed that the total investment of the project was 6.2 billion yuan, and the construction of 12-inch silicon wafer processing plants, power stations, chemical transportation, environmental protection and fire protection and other auxiliary facilities.

According to a report from Qilu.com in June, the general manager of Shandong Youyan Ace Semiconductor Materials Co., Ltd. said that the overall progress of the project is relatively smooth. It is expected that the plant will be capped in November this year, and the conditions for moving equipment will be available in June next year. By 2023 In the fourth quarter, it was officially completed and put into production.

It can be seen that the Youyan Ace project is progressing smoothly.

It is reported that Shandong Youyan Ace was established on March 11, 2020. It is jointly funded by Youyan Technology Group Co., Ltd., Dezhou Huida Semiconductor Equity Investment Fund Partnership and Youyan Semiconductor Silicon Materials Co., Ltd. It is mainly engaged in 12-inch large-diameter R&D, production and sales of silicon wafers.

tonyget said:

The link you give，I read the description，did not mention it is suitable for automobile mcu

Again, the article claims there are no Chinese AUTO-GRADE RISC-V MCUs. Is GigaDevice GD32V being used on cars？You seem totally confused consumer grade mcu with auto-grade mcu，they all complete different things.

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I looked at the product specifications of GD32V and they look identical to auto-grade MCUs. They might not have certified it as automotive grade but that would just require pushing papers around and doing some tests. Even if you required higher temperature than what this chip is specced at that is more a problem of packaging than the chip itself. The product page says it can be used for vehicle GPS and motor control.

tphuang said:

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Galaxycore has recently introduced the world's first single chip 32 million pixel CMOS image sensor. Compared to double sided stacked 32 million pixel CIS, it is only 8% larger by surface area. Will be on smartphone starting in Q1 of next year.

Aside from that, it's new Lingang fab has started production in August 31st. The first batch of wafers achieved 95% yield. Mass production will start soon and production rate will steadily climb next year and reach capacity in 2024.

Now, I looked a little more into the fab itself

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It said all the equipment was installed by Jan 22nd. The agreement was signed in March 2020 and work on the fab started sometimes in July 2020. 15.5 billion RMB was invested hear for 60k wpm of capacity by 2024.

this tells me a few things:
- It takes a year and half just to finish building factory and install the initial equipment. It takes another 6 months to start trial production and up to a year (from finished installing equipment) to start mass production. 4 years is a reasonable time to go from signing contract to fully ramp for a fab of 50 to 60k wpm of mature nodes. Even this is pretty quick.

Tying this back to SMIC, I think all SN2 construction and initial equipment installation should be done by end of this year. Even after that, we probably need to wait until next summer before trial production start at SN2 and mass production is likely to ramp up more quickly a year from now and grow throughout 2024. The vast majority of ASML arfi scanners they received this year probably are destined for SN2 and same with any deliveries from next year. Maybe a few of them are headed to Lingang. As such, I do continue to hold the thesis SN2 will end up larger than the initial announcement of 35k wpm and/or Lingang fab will be doing more advanced note production.

I had wondered why the Lingang fab Capex was expected to be 20 to 25% higher than the Beijing/Tianjin fab. I thought it might have been higher construction cost around Shanghai. Having seen the cost of this GalaxyCore Lingang fab, it is obvious that is not the case. Therefore, Lingang will likely be producing more advanced node wafers than the other 2.

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Sir excellent analysis, we both think alike, I think Shanghai is designated as the core of advance IC development and production while Beijing will lead the local effort of domestication, The Spear and the Shield.

The same can be seen in EUV effort, as SSRF is use as a research tool for mask and other materials while waiting for Beijing to finished its SSMB in 2024/2025.

tokenanalyst said:

One way to get around "inferiority" is to design the manufacturing process around development of the tool, to solve bottleneck problems with the final goal of mass production. ASML scanners were developed around the manufacturing process of the foundry, the same goes with LAM, AMAT and KLA.

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This is actually a very important fact, one which is underappreciated. W/o a collaborative and coordinated effort with the end-users, it is hard for any equipment to realize its true potential. That to me has been one of the strengths of ASML. The design and production of this kind of equipment doesn't take place in a vacuum at the OEM, the end-users are actively providing input in shaping the final outcome to meet their needs. The more experiences you have, and the better understandings you can provide to the OEM the closer they can iterate their design and product to meet the needs of the fab, rather than operating in a box. With the Fabs and Huawei working closely with SMEE on their iterations, I think they are much better positioned to produce a competitive outcome than if they were working with fewer partners like they have in the past. The same goes for the other equipment manufacturers, even if they are a step behind the Fabs have experience working with foreign tools and can share those experiences as inputs into shaping future, more capable products.

Shengfeng Electronics Semiconductor Advanced Process Equipment R & D and mass production project capped​

According to news from Jiwei.com, on November 13, Suzhou Shengfeng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. capped the research and development and mass production of semiconductor advanced process equipment.

According to news from Jiangsu Yongfeng Construction Group Co., Ltd., the project is located in Guli Town, Changshu City. It is invested by Suzhou Shengfeng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. and constructed in two phases. The first phase of the project is generally contracted by Jiangsu Yongfeng Construction Group Co., Ltd.

It is reported that after the project is completed, on the basis of maintaining the existing product line, it will develop semiconductor packaging and testing equipment, IC substrate process equipment, integrated circuit board printing equipment and vacuum plugging process equipment business, and set up a research and development center and packaging and testing center .

In June 2021, the Changshu Guli Town People's Government and Suzhou Shengfeng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. signed a contract for the research and development and mass production of semiconductor advanced process equipment. In June of this year, the foundation stone was laid for the research and development and mass production of semiconductor advanced process equipment. (Proofreading/Han Xiurong)

Anyone here knows about Beijing keyi hongyuan 60w ArF light sources progress?

resistance said:

Anyone here knows about Beijing keyi hongyuan 60w ArF light sources progress?

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you just look at the progress of Huawei's Kirin chip to know it's done.

Titanium 3D printing for ASML machine structure


Interesting article. First of all it discloses that ASML machine's base structure is made of titanium, then there is this quite new and advanced 3D processing:

"The machine is fed a titanium wire of 1.6 millimeters and plasma torches melt the metal drop by drop, layer by layer, on a thin base plate"

the company called Norsk Titanium is from Norway, but their factory is in US. So don't expect them to sell in China.