I think development for both should be supported because from what I can gather they are taking two different approaches to the drive laser architecture and it's worth exploring which one is more suitable for not just immediate production but long term development. Eventually the R&D resources for the two teams should probably be combined but for now it makes sense to have more than one design to trial.
Chinese semiconductor industry
- Thread starter Hendrik_2000
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Didn't know the the light source can be used on something else aside the lithography machines
Once EUV machine is produced, they are able to churn out very low nm chips. Low nm chips is the only road block to prevent China from surpassing Frontier supercomputer. I believed there will be a new supercomputer faster than Frontier before 2030.
If U.S haven't sanctioned selling low nm chips to China, China would still be #1 on the supercomputer list right now.
If U.S haven't sanctioned selling low nm chips to China, China would still be #1 on the supercomputer list right now.
Looks like you don't know, China has 3 exaflop Supercomputers and they did it atleast 1 year before the US did. But China is no longer publishing its benchmark performance results for its supercomputers. It is doing hide and bide strategy.
Nothing is preventing China from mass buying server chips from intel and Nvdia that is readily available commercially. No US sanction can stop China from buying a 100K Intel processors that China's internal market buys in several millions each year. Nothing is also preventing China from making much bigger supercomputers if they decide to spend money.
But China is not doing it. It is using its own self-developed chips.
Also let's not distract ourselves what the China vs West contest is about. Its not about who has the biggest Super computer or who has the best ChatGPT model. Its about creating a society and ecosystem that is developed all the way. Its a battle of societies and economies. Its a battle of systems of governance.
Even if China doesn't have the most cutting edge chip, or the bestest AI. but their society is as rich as Europe in the next 30 years, and its brands and companies have market share in every industry, their products and lifestyle uses AI in every field, then That's a huge win for China.
AI should be used in actual life and actual products. ChatGPT is just a pissing contest now. China has better use of AI in everyday life. Even if China lags behind ChatGPT and other US advanced, they can just copy it and keep catching up. If they can better commercialize it, they will win.
E-payments was not invented in China. But which country is the most cashless in the world? China. Same thing can happen in AI and other fields where China is behind.
Is ChatGPt really better than Ernie? Ernie 4.0 was just released. Watching the ad, it looked like it could do the things that Chatgpt do.
Shengong Co., Ltd.: The silicon component business has full orders and is a supplier of Northern Huachuang and China Micro.
Shengong's silicon component products are at the domestic leading level in terms of production capacity planning, R&D capabilities, technical reserves, and customer promotion. Currently, this business is still in the stage of capacity improvement and business expansion. Under the existing equipment production capacity, orders are full and production is basically at full capacity. As the new equipment is put in place to release production capacity and more material number certifications are passed and orders increase, the company's silicon component business revenue will continue to increase.
Yuan Xin, secretary of the board of directors of Shengong Co., Ltd., said that the average gross profit margin of products of mainstream foreign silicon component manufacturers is generally around 30%. In 2022, the company's silicon component products were mainly in the early stage of research and development and market introduction, and some free samples needed to be provided to customers. Therefore, the gross profit margin was not high at that time, only about 20%. In 2023, the company's material numbers that have passed evaluation and certification have entered the stable supply stage of small batches, and shipments are also continuing to increase. The realization of mass production also ensures the improvement of product gross profit margin. In the third quarter of this year, the company's silicon component gross profit margin has reached above the industry average. As production further increases in the future, various expenses will be diluted again, which means that the company's gross profit margin of such products still has room to increase.
Regarding the progress of silicon parts technology, Kenji Yamada, director of technical research and development of Shengong Co., Ltd., said that the company jointly developed a chemical mechanical polishing process for silicon parts. Different from the current mainstream flat polishing, this technology can reduce the polishing pressure. Acts on the normal direction of various surfaces to achieve rapid polishing of complex special-shaped surfaces. At the same time, the polishing pressure of the system is monitored in real time during the operation and automatically adjusted to ensure that all surfaces are completed under the same polishing pressure, with consistent surface morphology and no damage to the layer. Uniform removal achieves excellent surface integrity, further satisfying the needs of downstream customers. In addition, the precision grinding process developed by the company replaces the higher-cost grinding process, greatly improving processing efficiency and strengthening customized development capabilities. The newly developed precision cleaning technology further meets customers' requirements for product cleanliness. In the future, the company will continue to optimize polishing tooling design and processing technology, improve processing efficiency, and continue to improve product quality and output.
In terms of competitive advantages in the industry, Pan Liansheng said that there are many material numbers for silicon component products, and there will be certain differences between the material numbers. The company will try its best to choose products with better prices and profitability, both in terms of crystal technology and processing technology. R&D and production of strong products and differentiated and high-end competition are one of the company's advantages. In addition, the company is already a qualified supplier of domestic plasma etching machine original manufacturers such as Northern Huachuang and China Microelectronics Corporation, and is already in the supply chain system of domestic etching machine original manufacturers. Leading certification progress among end customers is also one of the company's strengths. In addition, because customers of silicon parts usually use some special processes during the etching process, the company's ability to customize designs is outstanding.
Core Qinwei: Being part of the trend of fab expansion, promoting the localization of polishing materials.
Zhejiang Xinqin Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. was established in Yiwu, Zhejiang, specializing in the research, development and production of functional chemicals in semiconductor wafer manufacturing, semiconductor advanced packaging and new display industries.
In its early development, Xinqinwei received support and business empowerment from semiconductor industry investment institutions Weihao Chuangxin and Yida Capital. It has a subsidiary, Yixin Microelectronic Materials (Nantong) Co., Ltd., and two supporting factories. It has leading technology, complete varieties and complete supporting facilities, and can provide customers with one-stop solutions.
Currently, Xinqinwei has rich industry experience and innovation capabilities in product development and technology application, and owns a number of core patented technologies. Its main products are chemical mechanical polishing fluids (silicon, silicon carbide and other substrates, integrated circuits and advanced packaging) and functional electronic chemicals (cleaning, etching, photolithography stripping products).
Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is the most mainstream wafer polishing technology today. It can reduce the roughness of the wafer surface and remove excess matter on the wafer surface, so that the wafer can effectively proceed to the next processing procedure. As my country's wafer factories continue to expand production and wafer manufacturing processes continue to improve, the demand for CMP materials is also increasing day by day, and there is a huge market space. Relevant data shows that Core Qinwei’s main business revenue is expected to reach 10 million yuan in 2023.
According to news in November, Xinqinwei has completed the A+ round of financing, and the funds will be used for production line construction and R&D investment in chemical mechanical polishing fluids.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences has made important progress in research on reliability and thermal management of gallium nitride devices
on December 11 that according to the Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently, the team of researcher Liu Xinyu from the High Frequency and High Voltage Center of the Institute of Microelectronics made breakthroughs in the reliability and thermal management of gallium nitride electronic devices , and six research results were selected. The 14th International Conference on Nitride Semiconductors ICNS-14 (The 14th International Conference on Nitride Semiconductors).
Nitride semiconductor materials have broad application prospects in optoelectronics, energy, communications and other fields. With the rapid development of new downstream applications and continuous breakthroughs in substrate preparation technology, nitride semiconductor power devices have achieved significant improvements in cost and efficiency. However, device bottlenecks such as threshold drift, current collapse, and thermal management still restrict device reliability. This breakthrough has limited its expansion into higher voltage and higher power applications .
The scientific research team successfully applied aluminum oxide passivation technology to effectively restore the two-dimensional electron gas of thin barrier gallium nitride devices. They experimentally determined the charge source and interface charge quantity, laying a technical foundation for the independent development of ultra-thin barrier enhanced devices. .
In terms of reliability, the team used high-temperature remote plasma pretreatment technology to stably reproduce the atomic-level step morphology and improve the threshold drift and current collapse of the device. The team also conducted in-depth research on the origin and suppression mechanism of deep-level interface states, providing a theoretical basis for further improving device performance. For P-GaN gate enhancement mode HEMTs, the team uses lightly doped drain technology to effectively regulate the two-dimensional electron gas concentration and off-state surface electric field under the gate, allowing the device to obtain better off-state characteristics. The team also independently built an inductive load evaluation platform and used this platform to study the dynamic on-resistance of commercial Schottky-type P-GaN gate devices and HD-GIT devices in complex operating modes, which is the basis for the p-GaN gate GaN HEMT. Stability provides new ideas .
In terms of thermal management, the team reduced the junction temperature of the device by 50°C by introducing a highly thermally conductive aluminum nitride passivation medium and designing a heat dissipation channel on the front of the device . The team also developed a SenseFET current detection element based on the lumped parameter electrothermal network (LPETN) model, achieving high-precision detection of the temperature distribution and conduction current distribution of GaN power devices.
The above six research results were given oral/poster presentations at ICNS-14, and two works were awarded the "best student award" of the conference. The corresponding authors of relevant results are Researcher Huang Sen, Researcher Wang Xinhua and Researcher Jiang Qimeng from the Institute of Microelectronics . The research work is supported by the National Key R&D Program, the Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Qiuzou Fund of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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