This could be very important as it might substitute components that are monopolized by MKS Instruments resolving another potential choke point. Any additional comments on this?
Lizhao Technology, a supplier of RF and plasma systems, completed tens of millions of Pre-A round of financing
Core tip: Shanghai Lizhao Technology, a key component radio frequency and plasma system supplier for semiconductor equipment, announced the completion of tens of millions of yuan in Pre-A round financing, and invited Song Wei, former general manager of Aixiang China, to join Shanghai Lizhao Technology, a supplier of RF and plasma systems, key components of semiconductor equipment, announced that it has completed tens of millions of yuan in Pre-A round financing, and invited Song Wei, former general manager of Aixtron China, to join him as vice president. This round of financing was led by SMIC, and jointly invested by Monolith Capital and Lingang Venture Capital. Founded in August 2022, Lizhao Technology is located in Minhang District, Shanghai. It is a radio frequency and plasma system supplier focusing on the field of semiconductor process equipment.
Plasma technology has been widely used, especially in the field of pan-semiconductor manufacturing processes. In addition to the wet process, the application fields of plasma almost cover from etching (Etch), atomic layer deposition (ALD/ALE), physical and chemical deposition (PVD/CVD), ion implantation (Implant), dry debonding (Strip) to lithography (Photo), and even most of the subdivided semiconductor processes of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). The plasma generation and application system has become one of the basic subsystems of the semiconductor equipment industry. Other key subsystems include vacuum systems, flow systems, optical systems, transmission systems, and so on.
Zhao Kui, the founder of Lizhao Technology, told 36Kr that the Lizhao Technology team has a deep accumulation and a complete layout in radio frequency, power electronics, control and algorithm technology. High-frequency power electronics is a kind of radio frequency technology, and its talents are very scarce in the world. Semiconductor radio frequency power supplies require megahertz-level power electronics technology. The core members of the company have been deeply involved in research in this field since 2012, and are one of the few Chinese experts in the world.
At the same time, the algorithm of the product needs to be combined with the semiconductor process. It needs to be familiar with the plasma processing process and have a solid mathematical background. Lizhao Technology can research and optimize the algorithm according to the actual process needs of customers.
Song Wei, vice president of the company, said: "Under the background of the safety requirements of the semiconductor industry and the actual market demand, the field of radio frequency plasma needs a high-quality and efficient team of scientists with a background to break through the ceiling of domestic technology as soon as possible, challenge and eventually surpass the international market. industry leader.” Therefore, after the initial successful product development, he joined Lizhao Technology, expecting to promote Lizhao’s rapid development with his rich market application experience.
At present, the main products of Lizhao Technology are plasma RF power supply and its supporting system and remote plasma source (RPS) system, and the basic function of these products is to generate plasma in related semiconductor process equipment and achieve related various processes.
In response to these technical requirements, the company has developed 13.56MHz series and 400KHz series RF power supply products within one year of its establishment. Some key performance parameters have reached the international advanced level, such as power adjustable accuracy of 0.1 watts, pulse frequency from 2Hz to 50KHz, accounting for The empty ratio is 1%-99%, and with the unique MOFT frequency modulation function (model-oriented automatic frequency modulation technology), it can realize sub-millisecond level high-speed impedance matching, which can effectively meet the needs of various processes, and is the first in China for advanced etching Processes such as atomic layer deposition and atomic layer deposition provide alternatives.
At the same time, in the field of remote plasma source (RPS), the company is developing a product that can be used in 12-inch wafer deglue/oxidation/cleaning and other process fields. It is expected to send samples to key customers for testing by the end of the year. The Lizhao team said that under the current complex international situation, it is urgent to fundamentally solve the overall supply chain security problem of domestic semiconductor equipment. The vision of Lizhao Technology is to create a world-class Chinese RF plasma solution enterprise relying on its own solid industrial technology background.
The founding team of Lizhao Technology comes from well-known universities and research institutions at home and abroad. It has many years of experience in the development of advanced semiconductor equipment, and more than ten years of experience in R&D and manufacturing of RF power systems. has a deep accumulation. The chief scientist, Professor Liu Ming, is a doctoral supervisor of the Department of Electrical Engineering of Shanghai Jiaotong University, and has been engaged in the research of high-frequency power electronics at Princeton University in the United States.
Song Wei, vice president of the company, is the former general manager of Aixiang in China and graduated from Beihang University. Before joining Lizhao Technology, he worked in many well-known companies in Europe and the United States, such as Varian, AMAT, MKS, Kateeva and AIXTRON. The company holds senior management positions such as general manager or sales director in China.
Chinese semiconductor industry
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This could be very important as it might substitute components that are monopolized by MKS Instruments resolving another potential choke point. Any additional comments on this?
Semi-conductor Equipment and Core Component Supporting New Progress Forum: Domestic manufacturers are making gratifying progress.
Zheng Guangwen, chairman of Fuchuang Precision, pointed out in his speech report "Opportunities and Challenges of Domestic Components" that in terms of complete machines, China's domestic equipment will reach 30 billion yuan in 2022, and it is expected to double in 2025; according to 60% According to the theory of the proportion of parts and components, the demand for parts and components on the equipment side is 36 billion yuan. In terms of production line operation and maintenance, at the Fab end, the production capacity is 50,000 pieces per month, and the annual maintenance cost of parts is 600 million.
Lin Jian, founder and executive president of Honghu (Suzhou) Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd., introduced in his speech that a new capacity of a fab will have a demand for transmission equipment. According to preliminary calculations, it has been disclosed that all new wafer capacity corresponds to the demand for Sorter. There are 1,600 sets, and the estimated quantities of EFEM and VTM are about 46,000 sets and 20,000 sets respectively. Among them, the core of the transmission system is a large-scale cleaning robot.
Wu Bingwen, deputy general manager of Zhuhai Chengfeng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., gave an example. In 2022, manufacturers in mainland China will directly purchase parts and components worth more than US$1 billion. Among them, major local manufacturers, such as SMIC, Hua Hong Group, Yangtze River Storage, Hefei Changxin, etc. The amount of direct procurement of components is about 430 million US dollars.
Xu Meng, sales director of Aante (Changzhou) Precision Technology Co., Ltd., introduced that Aante has become a one-stop service platform since it started as an agent. The company's parts can be localized, and now it has a lot of experience and corresponding models .
Li Wei, sales director of the semiconductor industry of Huizhuan Technology Group Co., Ltd., introduced that the company mainly uses ultrasonic machine tools and ultrasonic tools in the semiconductor industry, and the processed products are the fixtures used for etching, coating, and oxidation of wafers. and consumable processing.
Wei Min, deputy general manager of Beijing Tongjia Hongrui Technology Co., Ltd., introduced that in the field of semiconductor vacuum pumps, the company's current four series of products fully cover all applications in the pan-semiconductor industry.
According to Li Zeyuan, deputy general manager of technology of Googol Technology Co., Ltd., Googol Technology not only provides products of domestic brands, but also has many layouts in the core chips of motion control, from IGBT, to encoder, display, motion control, and current control bus. Protocols and other fields have their own corresponding solutions.
Dr. Ye Lezhi, deputy secretary-general of China Electronics Special Equipment Industry Association, introduced that in the field of ultrasonic testing, Suzhou Glodon's ultrasonic testing system has basically replaced localization. In terms of wafer thinning, CETC, Huahai Qingke, Shenyang Heyan and Suzhou Jingchuang all have wafer thinning machine products.
According to Yan Peng, executive director of Ami Precision Control Technology (Shandong) Co., Ltd., Ami Precision Control has undertaken the first domestic extreme ultraviolet free electron laser kb mirror cross-scale alignment stabilization system this year.
Yang Yuxin, Manager of Particle Beam Etching Technology of Jiangsu Leuven Instruments Co., Ltd., introduced that Leuven Instruments is currently the only domestic manufacturer capable of mass production of ion beams. In 2 years, a single client also had a shipment volume of more than 90,000 pieces.
Zheng Guangwen, chairman of Futron Precision, introduced that at present, Futron Precision has achieved that, in a wafer production line, in addition to heating and annealing equipment, there are parts from Futron in other links.
Wu Bingwen, deputy general manager of Zhuhai Chengfeng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., introduced that his company is committed to providing customers with more professional and high-performance domestic semiconductor testing equipment. The company's CF980 Wafer six-sided inspection AOI equipment can achieve inspections with an accuracy of 1-3 microns, and the inspection time is less than 0.5 seconds. It is the industry's first AI rapid training and modeling method.
According to Xu Jingrui, vice president of China Conductor Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., China Conductor Optoelectronics is committed to the research and development of sub-micron/nano-scale front-end automated optical inspection equipment, and has shipped a total of 350 units, all of which have been continuously used in the fab.
Zhao Shike, Director of the Functional Ceramics Center of the 12th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, introduced that the 12th Research Institute has developed a variety of 4/5/8/12-inch electrostatic chuck products, and passed the verification of the user's upper cavity. The product dielectric material system covers Coulomb type and JR type products such as glass ceramics, alumina, aluminum nitride, etc., the application products cover thin film, deposition, etching, measurement and other fields. Last year, the No. 12 Institute launched research on ceramic heaters. At present, breakthroughs have been made in the research and development of material systems, and the resistivity index meets the requirements for use under the condition of 600 degrees Celsius.
I believe that first processors you can buy made with Intel 4 is "Meteor Lake" and those have yet to be sold (scheduled for release on the 19th of October I can see).
Bravo Bro great insight, I want to ask your opinion, will TSMC open a FAB in China using SMEE SSA800 DUVI or SSA1000 EUVL? in other word the whole Chinese eco system?IF yes, what will be the American reaction? It make economic sense for TSMC to do so? That is the strategic question that China will ask of TSMC, will they bite the golden apple or they will let it rot.
No opinion brother ansy1968, the situation is just too fluid right now.
All these numbers about waffler production, yields, resources needed, up and down the entire supply chain, inside and outside of China, now all these numbers could really matter and be decisive points of contact on the battlefield.
JMHO, that was why the Taiwanese brought up this whole idea of yields, that they were extremely concerned.
They wanted to make it sound like the mainland still had no real capacity.
Their motive was either of two things, they fear that capacity and wished it away, or they wanted to know what is the capacity because they fear that will eat into their business.
They are going to find out just like the rest of us.
We for entertainment, they for survival.
See, we were right, the offensive has started. Not like some Ukraine counter-offensive, but like a real offensive.
If people did not want to be collateral damage, they had their chance.
What exactly would a fully sanctioned Huawei laptop look like?
For Biden's re-election campaign, he'll probably sanction the following.
- Windows operating system
- Intel x86 CPUs
Operating System
I'm very surprised Windows hasn't yet been banned. Huawei could of course use pirated Windows (which ).
That's not long-term sustainable, however. I believe they would transition to a Linux-based operating system. This would be very difficult.
CPUs
Apple has proven that ARM can be done well.
China is banned from the latest ARM updates. Probably that'd start having major impact in say 5 years.
In that case I believe China - including Huawei - would transition to RISC-V CPUs. Right now there's only a prototype of a RISC-V laptop CPU. Maybe it takes 5 years to adequately develop the ecosystem.
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Yup, that is exactly what I am saying comrade.
1. According to that famous Taiwan analyst, Qualcomm orders from Huawei going to zero, more or less starting now. He's telling us, there is enough capacity to do that right now. He's the expert.
2. Then how much capacity is there really? This was certainly unexpected, the speed of it coming online.
3. The first time they attempt it in the mainland, there will always be problems. But after they iron out the details, adding more capacity would be closer to a turn-key kind of thing, then fumbling around with it. Look at those rumours with Huawei and their fabs.
4. No one really knows at this point.
who said this piece?
If each wafer contains 450 good SoC for TSMC wafer of Snapdragon, then I may have to revise my total of total chips per wafer down (i did calculation based on 550 chips/wafer when it's possible this may only be 500 to 525, not sure TSMC yield here), which would further lead to lower # of good chip per SMIC wafer
Which again is the reason I am skeptical of the sub 50% yield number we have seen. Again, I am sure it was at that level for a long time, buy the sudden change in huawei, especially with the brazen dig at raimondo tells me that they have seen an improvement recently in kirin production. Otherwise, how do you tell supply chain to prepare for 15 to 20m mate 60 phones and then tell stores to not worry about supply? And that's just tip of the iceberg. So many new phones out that will need Kirin chips.
And now they get a full ban, they must have done some calculations and think that smic + whatever they stocked up is sufficient to last until whenever smic can ramp up production. My guess sometimes over next year.
My calculations was that even 20k wpm of 7nm isn't enough for Huawei itself let alone all the other OEMs in china.
And that number needs to continue to increase, because they will have to keep going advanced packaging and larger combined die size to deal with the gap in process node.
So one would think that either Huawei just went crazy here or they are seeing a way through. Which means more finfet capacity+ higher yield expected going forward.
Huawei is already working on its own PC and laptop with its Harmony OS and Kunpeng chips. I am not surprised that Biden is not banning Microsoft OS because it is the most useless of all. Windows OS is easily replaceable and its ecosystem is not that great anymore with all the Linux based OS available.
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