Chinese semiconductor thread II

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tokenanalyst

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Is just a matter of time for Chinese companies to jump into high end E-Beam lithography, apart from EUV is one of the areas that is lacking right now.​

Huiran Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. (Scientific Electron Microscope company) independently develops semiconductor key dimension measurement equipment CD-SEM and launches it​


Huiran Microelectronics successfully launched the first independently developed semiconductor critical dimension measurement equipment (Critical Dimension Scanning Electron Microscope, CD-SEM for short), marking a phased breakthrough in the company's semiconductor measurement field and injecting new vitality into the localization of semiconductor measurement equipment.
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Chip manufacturing requires thousands of processes, among which lithography machines, etching machines, thin film deposition and measurement equipment are the most critical equipment for semiconductor wafer manufacturing. At present, my country's DUV, EUV lithography machines and electron beam measurement equipment have "high risks" and "difficult to cover" in terms of independent controllability in the field of semiconductor core equipment. Huiran Microelectronics came into being under this general trend, gathering high-end core technical talents at home and abroad, working hard, and has achieved phased results.

CD-SEM is an advanced fully automatic wafer online measurement equipment. It uses electron beam scanning imaging technology to monitor key process parameters during wafer manufacturing. It is used to measure the critical dimensions of photoresist after development and the contact hole diameter/through hole diameter and gate line width after etching. It is a key device to improve chip manufacturing yield and maintain product quality consistency. Huiran Microelectronics has mastered the underlying design capabilities and independently designed the electronic optical system, image processing algorithm, and high-speed wafer transmission system, providing important microscopic data for the multi-layer and complex integrated circuits.

Huiran Microelectronics stated that overcoming the "bottleneck project" requires unity of purpose. Huiran Microelectronics will work together with customers, suppliers, and partners to continue to overcome key technical difficulties such as electron beam stability and resolution, precise positioning and control, image enhancement and analysis, and improving measurement speed. It will accelerate product iteration, provide more high-performance and reliable options for the integrated circuit industry, and contribute its own strength to the industry.

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gelgoog

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european_guy said:
"if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"

I am not qualified to comment on the merit, it just seems to me that they just keep insisting moving along the same old path. I don't know if there will be a game changer in lithography or, more generally, in wafer patterning....but hardly it will come from ASML. They are the legacy.
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I think in the lower end machines solid state light sources could change the game. Solid state lasers are way more efficient and compact.
Excimer lasers are like 4% efficient at light generation. Solid state lasers seem to be 23% efficient at light generation.
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These solid state lasers could be used for KrF and ArF dry lithography. If their power continues to increase them maybe even ArF immersion some day.

For prototyping purposes high production volumes are often not necessary. You just want a small number of high fidelity chips. This could be done with multiple e-beam lithography. Since it would be a direct write method it also wouldn't require producing masks.

european_guy said:
They have the full R&D and company focused on a single path forward, no matter the costs, no matter the productivity (High NA EUV has half sized field, requiring double speed for same area coverage), no matter the complexity, off the charts already and getting worse.
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Not just that. The machine went from being the size of a car with the regular EUV to the size of a bus.
The only reason they didn't go for double area is kind of obvious. The machine would probably be the size of an airplane.

european_guy said:
It is telling that TSMC won't adopt advanced High-NA EUV chipmaking tools until 2030 or later.

Today this path forward seems a dead end....Europeans love complexity in technology and in general too, Americans are much more straightforward and effective...we will see what we'll actually have in 2030 and beyond....
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I think the industry is way too wedded to excimer lasers. And they are old hat at this point.
 
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tokenanalyst

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Mifei Technology's 8-inch & 12-inch wafer fab AMHS system acceptance, breaking the industry's long-term overseas monopoly​


Mifee Technology recently announced that it has completed the acceptance of automatic material handling systems (AMHS) in two 12-inch wafer fabs, becoming the first domestic AMHS supplier in China to break the long-term overseas monopoly in the wafer fab field.

In the system-level acceptance of the whole wafer fab AMHS, Mifee Technology has completed a total of one 8-inch silicon carbide wafer fab, one 12-inch IDM wafer manufacturing plant and one 12-inch standard foundry localization verification platform, and opened up the connection between the verification platform and the mass production foundry, and realized the seamless switching between all domestic wafer production equipment and mass production lines on the verification platform, which not only achieved the goals of localization rate and supply chain security, but also helped customers achieve a significant improvement in the efficiency of wafer manufacturing in the whole plant.

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Different application fields have different performance requirements for AMHS systems. Compared with application scenarios such as panel manufacturing, silicon wafer factories, and packaging plants, wafer manufacturing plants have relatively the highest requirements in terms of manufacturing processes, handling volume, scheduling frequency, overhead crane equipment performance requirements, software scheduling requirements, and overall AMHS system reliability and stability. Therefore, this application field has long been monopolized by two overseas companies, and more than 95% of wafer fabs in the world use products from overseas suppliers. The successful delivery and acceptance in the wafer fab field fully proves the high quality and reliability of Mifee Technology's AMHS system, which has significantly improved the competitiveness of China's AMHS products in the international market.​

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T

tokenanalyst

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escobar said:
This piece is full of insights into Huawei's Ascend 910B
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Brain cells after reading another stupid article from these Think Tanks.

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Is kinda weird that they know the number of total cores in the 910 but not in the 910B, but they do know the number of active cores in both?
Obfuscating the number for their own conclusions?
The 910B is getting an increase in performance in FLOPS with much fewer cores?
An increase in clock speeds? means better heat management and a more mature process?
 
T

tokenanalyst

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mrandolph said:
Did these two pol sci students actually get their hands on a 910B? As far as I can tell they are just repeating stuff they found elsewhere.
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Of course no. That would imply spending money.

From my point of view looks like this guys write their conclusion first <sanctions good because we say so> and then they use Chinese technical bloggers and social media information to write articles obfuscating things.
 
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