Chinese semiconductor industry

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tphuang

tphuang

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PopularScience said:
I remember original timeline was to deliver DUVi in beginning of this year.

ICRD Linggang just finished construction and moving in. Dry machine will be verified in ICRD Linggang production line before immersion machine. I expect mass production in second quarter.
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wait, are you saying SSA600 hasn't been verified in production line yet? Or is there a dry version of SSA800?
 
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paiemon

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PopularScience said:
Before this it was verified in ICRD ZhangJiang, a small testing line. Now they will test/verify it in ICRD LingGang, a new fab with 2 actual production lines.
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I understand, the initial testing was pilot scale, they want to see it in series scale production to more closely approximate actual volume production. Thank you for clarifying. From there perspective that time has to be spent anyway, so why not spend it once at ICRD instead of having it replicated several times by different Fabs.
 
tphuang

tphuang

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PopularScience said:
Before this it was verified in ICRD ZhangJiang, a small testing line. Now they will test/verify it in ICRD LingGang, a new fab with 2 actual production lines.
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Who is icrd lingang producing for?
 
olalavn

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tphuang said:
So I would love to hear input from others (@tokenanalyst @olalavn @PopularScience ). To the best my knowledge, the only chip makers that need DUV immersion scanners are
SMIC
HLMC
Huawei
CXMT
YMTC

CXMT and YMTC right now are stuck on expansion due to US sanctions. They probably have enough ASML scanners for near/medium term expansion plans Not limited by lithography machines, but limited by the progress of whoever is replacing KLA domestically.

HLMC's fab 6 is the only that requires DUVi scanners, but it's basically at capacity right now. A new fab has been speculated, but yet to be announced. Since a new plant is most likely 3 years away, I see no issue here. Things would have to be really crazy for SMEE scanners not to be ready by then.

Huawei's fab hasn't started production. Aside from ICRD, its foundry is likely the most dedicated at building an all domestic production line. As such, I think they will only start production once they are comfortable with their process. It's unlikely they will need that much capacity anyhow, so I don't think they will be bothered by longer time to put SMEE scanners in production. In fact, they might prefer it, since they will want to perfect their process first. They also are probably looking to build their own lithography machines.

Which brings us to SMIC. This is the question mark. We know they have a huge demand for ASML machines with the SMSC plants and also Beijing Capital and Lingang plants. We've also know they have been buying up a lot of ASML scanners recently (most likely to stock up). They will most likely only use ASML scanners for the advanced process at SN1 and SN2. I wouldn't be surprised if they are testing out their own process with SMEE scanner in their research facility or SMIC Capital plant. The question is if they will have enough ASML scanners to not suffer any interruption in their SMIC Capital and Lingang plant. I think it is likely they do (depending on how it goes with Dutch gov't). There is a chance they may be forced to slow down expansion if Dutch gov't imposes a strict sanction without any grace period and SMEE progress is slower than expected. That's the primary concern here. But if SMEE machines can actually be verified with production process and start mass production by Q3 and delivered before end of the year, I think the risks will be minimal.
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i remember earlier this year my friends talked about it the dry version SSA 800 was tested and then the shanghai government announced the domestic finished 14nm process... i think they tested it with that machine

and here is the information 193nm ArF-i lithography machine SSX800 was originally said to be able to produce a prototype by the end of 2022... i guess from Q2 next year they will mass produce the dry version SSA800
 
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