Chinese semiconductor thread II

[sunnymaxi]

National Key Laboratory of Materials for Integrated Circuits, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences ...

Lithium tantalate photonic integrated circuits for volume manufacturing​

Abstract​

Electro-optical photonic integrated circuits (PICs) based on lithium niobate (LiNbO3) have demonstrated the vast capabilities of materials with a high Pockels coefficient

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,

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. They enable linear and high-speed modulators operating at complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor voltage levels

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to be used in applications including data-centre communications

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, high-performance computing and photonic accelerators for AI

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. However, industrial use of this technology is hindered by the high cost per wafer and the limited wafer size. The high cost results from the lack of existing high-volume applications in other domains of the sort that accelerated the adoption of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) photonics, which was driven by vast investment in microelectronics. Here we report low-loss PICs made of lithium tantalate (LiTaO3), a material that has already been adopted commercially for 5G radiofrequency filters

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and therefore enables scalable manufacturing at low cost, and it has equal, and in some cases superior, properties to LiNbO3. We show that LiTaO3 can be etched to create low-loss (5.6 dB m−1) PICs using a deep ultraviolet (DUV) stepper-based manufacturing process

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. We demonstrate a LiTaO3 Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM) with a half-wave voltage–length product of 1.9 V cm and an electro-optic bandwidth of up to 40 GHz. In comparison with LiNbO3, LiTaO3 exhibits a much lower birefringence, enabling high-density circuits and broadband operation over all telecommunication bands. Moreover, the platform supports the generation of soliton microcombs. Our work paves the way for the scalable manufacture of low-cost and large-volume next-generation electro-optical PICs..

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[tphuang]

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SemiDrive has become the main domestic alternative in cockpit/infotainment SoC to Qualcomm

It has already delivered 3 million+ cockpit SoC and 1.5 million MCUs

the new X9CC is most powerful chip by them ever, with 200k DMIPS CPU + 40 TOPS. This is comparable to SD8295's 230k DMIPS and 30 TOPS

easily sufficient for high end cockpit

I has also developed E3650 MCU, high end and good replacement for Infineon TC4x and Renasas RH850

 

[tokenanalyst]

Beijing Open Source Chip Research Institute joins Project Jiachen, focusing on RISC-V​

Beijing Open Source Chip Research Institute officially joined the Jiachen Project. Its official news shows that it is committed to realizing from data centers to desktop offices and from mobile wearables based on RISC-V before the next Bingchen year (2036). The open standard system and open source system software stack covering the entire information industry of the intelligent Internet of Things have brought the RISC-V software and hardware ecology to the ecological maturity required as a mainstream instruction set architecture.

It is reported that Project Jiachen (RISC-V Prosperity 2036) was born on New Year’s Eve 2024. It was jointly initiated by many domestic RISC-V software and chip teams and has attracted dozens of domestic and foreign companies engaged in RISC-V product and software development. join in.

In 2021, Beijing strategically cooperated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, taking advantage of Beijing's application traction and chip definition, and organized the industry to establish the Beijing Open Source Chip Research Institute.

According to news from the Beijing Open Source Chip Research Institute, it believes that the RISC-V ecosystem is entering the early stage of unprecedented explosive growth: in 2025, RISC-V may usher in an estimated more than 1 million RISC-V application developers. With this At the same time, RISC-V will enter the world's TOP500 supercomputers in 2025 and the TOP10 in 2030.

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[jli88]

Tremendous News from SMIC:

SMIC officially became the 2nd largest pure-play foundry.

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In terms of foundries overall (for logic), it might be 4th after TSMC, Samsung, and Intel.

 

[tphuang]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1788887463500341465

big news on becoming the 2nd largest pure play foundry. UMC is flat YoY and Glofo is down 16% while SMIc is up 20%

 

[tphuang]

https://www.163.com/dy/article/J1R3I1D00511RIVP.html#:~:text=5月10日，中,环境的不确定性%E3%80%82

More on SMIC

展望二季度，部分客户的提前拉货需求还在持续，公司给出的收入指引是环比增长5%~7%；伴随产能规模扩大，折旧逐季上升，毛利率指引是9%到11%之间。

赵海军表示，公司看到了部分客户的提前拉货需求还在继续，预计出货量会继续上升，平均销售单价因为产品组合变动会有所下降，总体上还是持续了量升价跌的态势；公司通过降本增效抵消降价带来的影响，但伴随着产能规模的扩大，折旧逐季上升，毛利率预计环比下降。

so expect 5 to 7% growth in revenue in Q2, but gross margin to shrink to 9 to 11%

2024年第一季度资本开支为22.354亿美元，2023年第四季度为23.409亿美元。2024年第一季度研发开支为1.88亿美元。

$2.2B in capex in Q1 after $2.3B in Q4.
To put things in perspective, UMC spent $3B in capex in all of 2023 and plans $3.3B this year
Glofo spent $1.8B in 2023 and plans just $700m this year
Spending more capex than revenue by this much is quite extraordinary actually

关于价格方面，随着中国本土的新增产能不断的开拓，行业竞争会日益激烈，大宗产品价格随行就市。目前12英寸处于供不应求状态，且会持续一段时间，价格应该不会产生太大变化。8英寸整个行业仍处于低谷，且8英寸的产品对价钱不是很敏感，不会再出现持续下跌的情况。

Looks like their 12-inch capacity is still in very high demand, so won't suffer from increased domestic competition, but 8-inch capacity is facing pricing pressure

公司处在持续高投入，扩充12寸优质产能的阶段，伴随公司新建产能的释放，收入规模上升，相应而来的折旧上升压力将在未来一段时间存在。2024年二季度相比一季度会有所增加，预计2024年全年增长两到三成。

plan big expansion in 12-inch capacity in Q2 vs Q1

赵海军同样提出了三个方面，一是国际消费市场有所恢复，低功耗蓝牙、IoT、MCU等低端产品市场在变好，新产品需要备货，出口也有所增加；二是今年是体育年，机顶盒、电视在提量，相关订单明显增加；三是智能手机的厂家今年都有比较大的进取心，尤其是国内手机厂商为了市场份额正在积极备货，供不应求。

BT, IoT & MCU are all doing well, new product require stocking up
Expect smartphone demand to continue to be high. again, Demand greater than supply here.
They don't say it explicitly, but clearly the Huawei phone demand is really helping them here

 

[tokenanalyst]

Clean Robot manufacturer Siasun Semiconductor introduces 9 strategic investors including Big Fund Phase II​

Shenyang SIASUN Robot Automation Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "SIASUN Robot") announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Shenyang SIASUN Semiconductor Equipment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "SIASUN Semiconductor") has entered into an equity transaction in Beijing. Therefore, strategic investors are introduced through public listing to increase capital and share shares , such as Beijing Integrated Circuit Equipment Industry Investment and Acquisition Fund (Limited Partnership), National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Phase II Co., Ltd. , China Micro Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Shenyang Yuanchu Entrepreneurship Consulting Partnership (Limited Partnership), Shenyang Qianchu Entrepreneurship Consulting Partnership (Limited Partnership), Shanghai Yanquan Technology Co., Ltd., Wuxi Huahai Jinpu Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership), Shenyang Robot Industry Development Group Co., Ltd., Shenyang Sheng Keji Achievements Transformation Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) will increase capital in Xinsong Semiconductor by participating in this public listing.

After the completion of this capital increase and share expansion, the registered capital of SIASUN Semiconductor will be changed from 200 million yuan to 280 million yuan, and SIASUN Robotics will hold 71.4286% of the equity of SIASUN Semiconductor.
In addition, the announcement pointed out that SIASUN Robotics has introduced strategic investors with strong comprehensive strength in the semiconductor field. On the one hand, it will promote in-depth cooperation between SIASUN Semiconductor and strategic customers from business to capital, form an industry chain synergy, and accelerate SIASUN Semiconductor. A series of products have fully implemented the process of domestic substitution, promoting the rapid expansion of business scale; on the other hand, this capital increase has supplemented the operating funds for Siasun Semiconductor’s continued expansion, accelerated its production capacity construction and market development, and also provided Siasun Semiconductor with continued technology Innovation provides financial guarantee, further enhances its international competitiveness and expands brand influence.

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[Phead128]

Overtaking GlobalFoundries and UMC is a huge milestone for SMIC.

If you were to tell me that SMIC would be overtaking GF as second largest pure play foundry even 1 year ago, I wouldn't have believed you - I genuinely would have thought US sanctions would have stumbled them, not supercharge their expansion.

"BUT SMIC is smaller than TSMC!! Ergo, sanctions working as intended!" seething incoming.

 

[sunnymaxi]

Overtaking GlobalFoundries and UMC is a huge milestone for SMIC.

If you were to tell me that SMIC would be overtaking GF as second largest pure play foundry even 1 year ago, I wouldn't have believed you - I genuinely would have thought US sanctions would have stumbled them, not supercharge their expansion.

"BUT SMIC is smaller than TSMC!! Ergo, sanctions working as intended!" seething incoming.

that too without 100 percent ownership of their FinFet fab ..

just give 5 more years ... you know what i mean

 

[tokenanalyst]

Semiconductor components supplier Chengdu Super Pure Applied Materials Co., Ltd. completed a new round of equity financing from BYD Co., Ltd.​

Chengdu Ultra Pure Applied Materials Co., Ltd. (UPAM) was established in 2005 and is located in Shuangliu Airport Development Zone, Chengdu, China. It has R&D and factory buildings of more than 10,000 square meters . It is a technology-led company specializing in semiconductor etching devices, high-power laser devices and A national high-tech manufacturing enterprise of special ceramics .

Chengdu Super Pure has independent intellectual property rights and has developed a variety of processes, including advanced surface treatment processes , which can provide professional surface treatment services for semiconductor etching devices and MOCVD devices; purification processes , which can purify the purity of materials to above 5N; advanced Ceramic production technology to manufacture high-density carbide and nitride ceramics; at the same time, the company has developed a set of ultra-smooth surface treatment processes for different base materials to control surface defects and increase the service life of devices.

The company has passed ISO9001:2015 quality management system certification. With more than 15 years of R&D technology and rigorous production management, we insist on reviewing our own development based on industry standards, continue to develop and innovate, and solve many extremely difficult needs of customers. Continuously provide high-quality products and solutions for the semiconductor chip manufacturing industry and laser and infrared manufacturing industry

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