Kirin 9010 (HBN-AL00) and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 / Credit: Geekbench
Made in China…Mostly
It’s notable to see that the Huawei Pura 70 is close to becoming China’s poster child for self sufficiency. The majority of the chips we found are designed and manufactured in China with a couple of notable exceptions.
SK Hynix was notably present, despite claiming that they had
since sanctions kicked in back in 2020. It’s very possible that these chips are the last of a dwindling stock of SK Hynix IC’s.
The other big name presence on the PCB was Bosch, with their 6-axis gyroscope and accelerometer MEMS sensor. As a global leader in the supply and design of MEMS sensors, Bosch’s presence would not raise any eyebrows were it not for the fact that Chinese manufacturers probably have the ability to produce these sensors locally.
You can find our
on our website.
NAND Flash Memory
But perhaps the most interesting IC inside the Pura 70 Pro is HiSilicon’s 1TB NAND flash memory. It’s worth noting that the European markets can only get the 256GB and 512GB NAND modules.
What’s so interesting about this package? Our friends at
provided us with an X-ray while TechSearch provided analysis to help unpack this little beauty.
Eight NAND die on top of a flip chip-attached memory controller die / Credit: Creative Electron & TechSearch
From the analysis provided, we think it’s possible that HiSilicon may have produced the memory controller and performed the testing and packaging of the NAND chip but a lack of markings on the memory controller itself means we can’t be sure.
Memory controller found in the 1TB NAND package
It’s very unlikely that HiSilicon would be able to produce the NAND dies themselves. Again, we’ve been unable to locate any markings on the dies to positively identify the manufacturer but it’s highly likely that they were designed and made locally by another Chinese manufacturer.
A close up of one of the NAND dies
It’s All About Yield
There’s no question that China has the expertise to become a self-sufficient semiconductor powerhouse. At least in theory. The immediate bottleneck to advancement is their lack of access to advanced photolithography systems.
It’s fully expected that China will be able to use multi-patterning techniques with their existing DUV (Deep Ultraviolet) photolithography machines to reach an N5 equivalent node. This will happen and there will likely be a wave of alarmism that will follow. However, the shortages and backlogs on orders for Huawei’s
and even the months-old
imply that, as analysts had predicted, the N+2 process does not produce sufficient yields to meet demand. This restricts SMIC’s ability to produce the 7nm Kirin 9000S and 9010 SoC’s in large enough quantities to meet demand.
Adding to this bottleneck is Huawei’s inability to source LPDDR5 chips from their usual suppliers in the international market due to US sanctions. It seems that so far the Chinese smartphone manufacturer has been able to get around this by relying on a stockpile of chips purchased prior to the 2020 sanctions going into effect. However, those stocks must be dwindling at a rapid rate.
This is where CXMT comes in. As China’s premiere DRAM fab, they’ve recently produced the first fully Chinese-manufactured LPDDR5 module which we expect to start seeing in the wild soon. However, DRAM also relies heavily on the latest node processes for performance and power efficiency. Again, as CXMT attempts to produce on 7nm and 5nm nodes, they will have to grapple with the problem of production yields dropping significantly.
Looking Past 5nm
For now, the US has successfully restrained China’s ability to mass produce on the 7nm node at high yields. By extension, it has also prevented China from mass producing on an N5 equivalent node at high yields. And yet this has not prevented China from progressing in other areas, notably as a market leader and innovator in 3D NAND technology.
The biggest challenge currently facing the Chinese semiconductor sector is their inability to access the latest node processes. The EUV photolithography machines that enable economical and scalable production of N3 nodes and beyond are exclusively manufactured and sold by a single company in the Netherlands: ASML. While US sanctions remain in effect, Chinese fabricators will be forced to deal with lower yields and higher costs for older tech while simultaneously pouring money into R&D to develop their own EUV and DUV photolithography systems.
Despite these challenges, China is expected to make the leap from a 7nm node process to 5nm imminently, though production yields are likely to remain low. Meanwhile, CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies) is predicted to replace SK Hynix as pre-sanctions stocks of LPDDR5 dwindle.
We expect to see a 5nm node from these fabs. The question is, where will they go from there? Rest assured, we’ll be keeping our eyes—and our screwdrivers—on Huawei.
