sometimes into semiconductors manufacturing is not a company decided.US suppresses Japanese semiconductors ,chinese companies seeks to avoid on semiconductors .e.g. lenovo. It's a compromise between nations！How difficult was it to purchase equipment when SMIC was established！So I thank the U.S. for enabling China to build its own semiconductor equipment industry!
Chinese semiconductor industry
- Thread starter Hendrik_2000
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Well, the US did not sell semiconductor equipments to China for charity. They were even considering to sell F16 jet fighters to China at the time when China wasn't remotely capable of threatening the US.
From day one, the US and its allies have had tight control on what advanced technologies, semiconductor equipments included, that China can buy from them. Meanwhile, there wasn't much restriction on the chips from the beginning. Their goal has been to keep China as an importer of both lower end equipments and higher end chips at the same time for max profit.
The US escalates the export restrictions only because China starts to try making their own high end chips. The US certainly sees that as a threat to the margin of its semiconductor business. The US chip makers like Intel, AMD and Nvidia have said nothing when their government adds more and more bans on semicondutor equipment export. But they immediately raised their concerns when the government broadens the bans on the advanced chips.
SMIC was allowed to buy equipments from the west because the US did not believe that company would become a capable competitor. But SMIC was still not able to get the EUVL that it had placed order for.
If it wasn't for the photovoltaic, power semiconductor and packaging industries, I think it will be safe to say that the Chinese semiconductor industry would be done for and therefore their IT and electronics industry. Because the close relation with the mainstream semiconductor industry these industries allowed many Chinese equipment and materials companies to survive and now because the market pressure of US export controls the are venturing their products more into the mainstream semiconductor industry.
A two prong approach I think could had been taken, using as much as possible domestic tools, materials and software for mature process, mems and so on and for edge node process import if necessary. That way, for example, SMEE KrF and ILine scanners would have develop more quickly.
A two prong approach I think could had been taken, using as much as possible domestic tools, materials and software for mature process, mems and so on and for edge node process import if necessary. That way, for example, SMEE KrF and ILine scanners would have develop more quickly.
I think the governments commitment to building up a tech pipeline through SOEs and academic institutions, combined with constant subsidies for commercial endeavors despite lack of profits, deserves a lot of credit here too. Lithography equipment development didn’t start in 2020 after all. It was a line item 5 year plan project going as far back 2013. SMEE didn’t get more support with adoption because their technology wasn’t ready for mass deployment before the bans hit, and the government needed these companies to be able to swim on their own before the bans to get market adoption. They were being subsidized already. In hindsight of course we all know more could have been done by the whole industry as well as government, but that’s hindsight. No one could have known if or when these kinds of bans would come.
The 6-inch silicon carbide (SiC) pilot test line in Jiufengshan Laboratory was fully completed, and the first batch of trench MOSFET device wafers rolled off the production line. The laboratory has the full-process technical service capabilities such as silicon carbide epitaxy, process flow, and testing.
antiterror13
Brigadier
Great news, it is a mind blowing, how could you make an atomic clock within a single chip ... amazing ... well done China. What other countries have the capability?
Wondering what is the main customers for chip atomic clock, would the military be interested ?
Also interesting to know what kind of lithography machine used for this chip and whether all are local ?
Li Jinxiang, deputy secretary-general of China Electronics Special Equipment Industry Association, director/chief engineer of Huada Semiconductor Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Jita Semiconductor Co., Ltd., made a keynote speech on "Bottlenecks and Countermeasures for Domestic Equipment Entering Large-scale Integrated Circuit Production Lines".
He pointed out that the bottlenecks of domestic equipment entering large production lines include: first, equipment cannot be provided, such as lithography, measurement, failure analysis and other equipment; second, equipment can be provided, but does not meet special process requirements, such as special material growth and removal, etc. ; The third is that the equipment and process can be provided, but the maturity of the key process is not enough, which affects the yield rate. Such as gate oxide growth, thin metal wire copper plating.
Li Jinxiang put forward 7 suggestions, that is, to cooperate with chip manufacturing enterprises to continuously improve the performance of the process and key processes; to speed up the development of special process equipment with a small amount of difficulty; to strengthen the software development capabilities of the equipment; to establish a process research and development laboratory; to establish systematic training Teaching materials; strengthen after-sales service capabilities; increase the development of core components and reduce equipment manufacturing costs.
He pointed out that the bottlenecks of domestic equipment entering large production lines include: first, equipment cannot be provided, such as lithography, measurement, failure analysis and other equipment; second, equipment can be provided, but does not meet special process requirements, such as special material growth and removal, etc. ; The third is that the equipment and process can be provided, but the maturity of the key process is not enough, which affects the yield rate. Such as gate oxide growth, thin metal wire copper plating.
Li Jinxiang put forward 7 suggestions, that is, to cooperate with chip manufacturing enterprises to continuously improve the performance of the process and key processes; to speed up the development of special process equipment with a small amount of difficulty; to strengthen the software development capabilities of the equipment; to establish a process research and development laboratory; to establish systematic training Teaching materials; strengthen after-sales service capabilities; increase the development of core components and reduce equipment manufacturing costs.
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