Which Company provided by the ICP? Naura or AMEC?
Chinese semiconductor industry
- Thread starter Hendrik_2000
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Looks like is a company dedicated to fill the gap with affordable semiconductor tools for academia, which is pretty bad to be honest. There are situations like in the case of Hunan university that was forced to develop their own Ebeam software due the inability to acquired tools due exports controls.
This article is incorrect. Nikon has been selling i-line systems and sold 23 so far in 2023 and 23 in 2022. They have been dropping in share and lost significantly to Canon which sold 138 i-line systems in 1H 2023. You can read about my analysis in this article:
The data for this article came from my report, and you can see the TOC here:
The article basically just stated lots of info that didn't really match the title, but I don't see anything that's glaringly incorrect.
The iLine stepper the article's title referred to is not the same as iLine stepper you are talking about.
The new Nikon I-line tool, NSR-2205iL, is a 5x stepper with lower NA lens/resolution capability to target very mature applications like MEMS, power devices, etc. These will take care of the most critical layers of older technology applications.
The I-line systems that you referred to as something Nikon has been selling, NSR SF155, are 4x steper with wee bit higher NA/ resolution and are meant as a complementary tool to handle less critical layers (to other 4x KrF/ArF/ArFi scanners for increasingly difficult layers) of more advanced logic/DRAM/3D-NAND applications.
The 2205iL1 is indeed cheaper tool than SF155 and is intended to capture the Chinese fab expansion in the older mature tech space, which Canon is dominating in. Much of Canon's iLine sales are 5x steppers, which ASML and Nikon do not compete in (with new tools). Nikon trying to get a piece of this pie that ASML doesn't play in is understandable.
Havok said SMEE i-line machine SSB800 costs 50 million RMB，do you think it's expensive？
Yes. Very expensive. So much for all the narrative about "cabbage-like" wafer price enabled by cheap domestic wafer fab equipment. At the price that Havok provided, it's almost twice more expensive than Canon FPA5550iZ2 price tag (in terms of USD) a few years back. With Japanese Yen significantly depreciated over the last few year, you should be able to buy the 5550iZ2 for less USD or RMB than before.
Furthermore, SSB800 i-line throughput, on paper or in actual performance, is only 50-70% of Canon/Nikon/ASML's FE iLine offering's throughput.
So, not only is the absolute price of SMEE SSB800 higher, the cost-per-wafer metric does not look good at all compared to the three incumbent's i-line offerings. SMEE still has lots to do to bring SSB800 to be competitive under free-market conditions. Short term, cost is not an issue for China, we need domestic capabilities at all cost. But in the long term, SMEE can't live off subsidies forever and we need them to provide capable tools that are also efficient and competitive vs. foreign competition's product offerings.
Just double checking, but 50 million RMB is about 7 million USD under the current exchange rate. Is a FPA5550iZ2 only about 3-4 million usd? I thought the NXT 1950i cost about 30 million per unit? Did I get those prices right?
I don't believe that SMEE I-line machines are priced at 7 million, I think that guy havok is confusing the price range of KrF machines which is closer to 10 million.
Either way is clear the SMEE needs some domestic competition, in every single segment of China semiconductor industry there is multiple domestic companies competing with each other offering close to same products, ion implantation, CMP, etching, ALD, CVD, PVD, metrology, materials and so on, this competition is forcing establish companies like Naura and AMEC to differentiate their products even more, except lithography, SMEE is the only company that doesn't have a domestic competitor.
Nata was slow with their ArF and ArFi photoresist when they were the only player but now that multiple companies are launching their ArF and ArFi photoresist, NOW they are in a hurry.
Either way is clear the SMEE needs some domestic competition, in every single segment of China semiconductor industry there is multiple domestic companies competing with each other offering close to same products, ion implantation, CMP, etching, ALD, CVD, PVD, metrology, materials and so on, this competition is forcing establish companies like Naura and AMEC to differentiate their products even more, except lithography, SMEE is the only company that doesn't have a domestic competitor.
Nata was slow with their ArF and ArFi photoresist when they were the only player but now that multiple companies are launching their ArF and ArFi photoresist, NOW they are in a hurry.
China Ceramics Electronics completed the non-public issuance of A shares worth 2.5 billion yuan, accelerating the localization process of semiconductor core materials
According to news from the National Research and Development Fund, Hebei China Ceramics Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. completed a non-public issuance of A shares worth 2.5 billion yuan. The National Research and Development Fund participated in this investment as a strategic investor.
China Ceramics Electronics is affiliated to the 13th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group (hereinafter referred to as "China Electronics Technology Group 13th Research Institute"). It is my country's leading enterprise engaged in the research and development, production and sales of electronic ceramic products and masters the entire process technology. The company has always adhered to the development philosophy of "independent innovation and pursuit of excellence", and has achieved technological breakthroughs in independent research and development of multiple products, breaking overseas technology monopoly. The company's electronic ceramic housing products are an important bridge between internal chips and external circuits in high-end semiconductor components, and have an important impact on component performance. The company's precision ceramic products are core consumables required for semiconductor production. Among them, ceramic heating plates have been shipped in batches, and electrostatic chucks have been sent for testing. It is expected to realize the domestic replacement of "stuck neck" materials. In addition, China Ceramics Electronics has completed the integration of the high-quality third-generation semiconductor assets of the 13th China Electronics Technology Research Institute. This capital increase will also be used for related production line construction and R&D investment, opening up a second growth curve for the company.
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