Chinese companies have a completed 28nm supply chain, especially once SMEE delivers its commercial machine. The main thing to focus on now is ramping up the necessary production.
Chinese semiconductor industry
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This article reads like fearmongering to elicit more subsidies for legacy nodes fab investments.
For reference, the same article cites China is building 26 fabs in legacy nodes, whereas Americas is building "only 16 fabs". That's nowhere near the domination as the title suggests, as that's only a 60:40 ratio... hardly domination. The whole article is an exaggeration.
So someone wants to exaggerate China's advances to elicit more US funding for legacy node investment. I wonder if it's possible to tariff Chinese semiconductors at legacy nodes?
Bro its the other way around, how many FABS can produced chips at 7nm, only 2 TSMC and Samsung, next year you may include SMIC, all of them are Asian, that's the worry. Even if the US can harvest their 5nm tech the innovating center are still located in East Asia.
Now IF China flooded the market with 14nm and above chip how can the Collective West compete? only Intel if they successfully stole TSMC (which I doubt) 7nm and 5nm tech. Cost wise they price themselves out of the market if they insist on onshoring their production in the US.
There is an article about Epicmems and memsonics here
Looks like Epicmems actually attempts to cover a wider area since they want to develop their own L-PAMiD module, but putting it in production is a different issue. The rumor is that silex will be producing it for them when things are ready. But we are not there yet.
Keep in mind that Memsonics actually partnered up with silex as early as 2 years ago. It's taken them this long to get the production line setup and then do low rate production and now mass production. Their product has now been tested and proven to be competitive. The yield of production line also likely to be good. Epicmems can advertise products but it still needs to be proven
As for 汉天下, have you seen anything from them in the past year? Not much. 100 million is really nothing. Who is fabbing for them? Are they an IDM? if they are, what does their MEMS yield look like. Have they found customers that are happy with their product?
There are probably reasons why we haven't seen them raise production
SMECS is creating a 100k 12-inch wpm MEMS fab over next 3 years
so there will be more options for fabless companies to get their chips produced. Let's see who they pair up with
SMECS apparently setup a BAW production line back almost 2 years ago
but where is that right now? Who are they fabbing for? There are important questions to be asked
Memsonics is only a big deal now because their product is getting accepted by a lot of customers
Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications: Gallium Oxide Material Growth and Array Detector Research.
the scientific research team of Nanyou Gallium Oxide Semiconductor Innovation Center (IC-GAO) realized Ga 2 O 3 epitaxial growth in 2014 , developed the first GAO-based sun-blind ultraviolet detector prototype device, and published the first academic paper. In 2016, Ga 2 O 3 has become one of the active scientific research topics of BUPT. In 2017, obtained 2-inch high-quality epitaxy, developed the first sun-blind ultraviolet detection array device, became the most active research group in the field of gallium oxide, and established Beijing Gallium Group Technology Co., Ltd. to embark on the road of industrialization practice. In 2018, it undertook the key research and development plan of the Beijing Science and Technology Commission, breaking through the 3-inch crystal and epitaxy technology. Breakthrough in 2-4 inch single crystal growth and epitaxy technology. 2-inch single crystal substrates and epitaxial wafers are available in small batches. Realize the array of 16×16 photodetection devices. In 2023, the A round of financing will be completed at 65 million yuan, with a valuation of 250
Gallium Oxide Material Growth and Array Detector Research
research progress and achievements of thin film CVD growth, array detectors and applications.
Huahai Qingke (HAWTSING) CMP equipment meticulously carves out business growth in new fields
Technical support from the National Key Laboratory, leading CMP technology in China: the company cooperates deeply with the National Key Laboratory of Tribology of Tsinghua University to carry out forward-looking research on CMP, and introduces excellent scientific research personnel, with rich reserves of theory, technology and talents. The company has mastered many core technologies such as nano-precision polishing, nano-particle ultra-clean cleaning, nano-film thickness online detection, big data analysis and intelligent control, and has achieved a firm domestic leading position in the field of CMP equipment.There is still a huge space for import substitution of CMP equipment: In addition to the front-end manufacturing of integrated circuits, CMP equipment is also used in advanced packaging and silicon wafer manufacturing. According to Chinese customs data, in 2022, the import value of CMP equipment in mainland China will still be as high as 621 million US dollars, with the United States and Japan accounting for a large proportion, and the dependence on foreign countries is still serious.
Looking forward to the future, the upgrading of integrated circuit manufacturing processes will drive the number of CMP processes to continue to rise; advanced packaging will increase the demand for thinning and polishing equipment, and the scale of CMP equipment market demand is expected to continue to expand.
The customer resources of domestic fabs are stable, and the layout of thinning machines focuses on advanced packaging: the company's CMP equipment has entered the production lines of well-known customers such as SMIC, Changcun, Huahong, and Changxin; the technical level has broken through to 14nm, 128+ layers (NAND), 1X/1Ynm grade. In May 2023, the all-in-one machine for ultra-precision grinding, thinning, polishing, and cleaning developed by the company for the 3D IC field has been sent to leading integrated circuit companies.
Wafer regeneration and doping, wet method, and measurement equipment are expected to open a new growth curve: the company focuses on the core product CMP polishing equipment, and vigorously develops supporting wet method equipment, film thickness measurement equipment, polishing head consumables, wafer regeneration and other businesses, which are expected to Open up new growth points.
Epicmems was working with domestic MEMS fab，and build the first domestic 8 inch BAW filter production line way back in 2018. I don't think Silex had any MEMS fab in China back then，so Epicmems's filter is apparently not fabbed by Silex.
Silex also indirectly admitted that they are not fabing for Epicmems
As mentioned above，Memsonics and Silex is the later comer，they just complete 8 inch BAW filter production line now，which was done by somebody else in China 5 years ago.
They are IDM+outsource，and they are raising production for sure. They have a fab in SuZhou，with a production capacity of 960 million/per year，phase two will double that capacity
They were the one undertake 02 project MEMS filter development. That's a indication of their strong position in China's MEMS filter sector
More on RF chips
but in order for RF filters to advance, the fabs themselves have to be able to fab the MEMS chips in question
From
by Q1 of last year. looks like they were already 10% by then. Should be higher now i would imagine
What other players are there?
Looks like they formed in 2021 & got additional funding in Feb with SMIC investing in them also as part of a 300m RMB round A+ funding round. Their product covers different filters, duplex, TX/RX chips, SOI Switch, LNA and have entered Samsung, Motorola, Xiaomi, Honor & Nokia supply chain. That's quite impressive. Let's keep an eye on this.
Not a lot of info though. Will take a while I guess for production to ramp up
looks like both SMIC Ningbo & the new SMECS fab will have similar product. which will be good to indicate that domestic RFFE production is going up. But again, need customers and the customers need to enter supply chain. All takes time.
Let's wait and see
so the only major fabs that can do MEMS chip are Silex & SMIC Ningbo. Sanan is getting involved too, but they are mostly SAW iirc. the top domestic RF component producers are Vanchip, Maxscend, Onmicro and a few others. It's a lot easier to competitve in PA & LNA than filters due to the Ga advantage.
but in order for RF filters to advance, the fabs themselves have to be able to fab the MEMS chips in question
From
by Q1 of last year. looks like they were already 10% by then. Should be higher now i would imagine
What other players are there?
Looks like SMIC Ningbo tried to mass produce for 新声半导体(or Newsonic)
Looks like they formed in 2021 & got additional funding in Feb with SMIC investing in them also as part of a 300m RMB round A+ funding round. Their product covers different filters, duplex, TX/RX chips, SOI Switch, LNA and have entered Samsung, Motorola, Xiaomi, Honor & Nokia supply chain. That's quite impressive. Let's keep an eye on this.
Not a lot of info though. Will take a while I guess for production to ramp up
looks like both SMIC Ningbo & the new SMECS fab will have similar product. which will be good to indicate that domestic RFFE production is going up. But again, need customers and the customers need to enter supply chain. All takes time.
Let's wait and see
That's possible, but again there are no news of them actually starting mass production & entering supply chains of phone companies
can you find any news about them recently anywhere? If you cannot find news of their progress, that probably means they didn't get anywhere
If these guys actually have a workable solution that's competitive, they'd be used by a whole bunch of domestic smartphone OEMs
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