Chinese semiconductor thread II

[tokenanalyst]

AOP Optoelectronics signed a "Technology Transfer (Patent Implementation License) Contract" with Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics​

On October 25, Optoelectronics issued an announcement stating that due to the company's business needs, it signed a "Technology Transfer (Patent Implementation License) Contract" with its affiliated party, the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as "Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics"). Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics will license the company to implement patent application rights and patent rights in the field of "high-precision, integrated system integration and assembly technology" for which it has applied for patents in an ordinary manner. The company will pay the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics a corresponding technology license fee of 2 million yuan, and the agreement is valid for 1 year.
Optoelectronics said that optoelectronic tracking and aiming equipment, such as various types of optoelectronic theodolites, are one of the company's main products. At present, the company has technical advantages in the processing of mechanical and optical parts, assembly of components, and adjustment of optomechanical components for such products, but there are still technical deficiencies in optomechanical and electrical joint adjustment and whole machine testing. The introduction of relevant technologies can effectively solve the problems of whole machine detection and correction, final image quality evaluation, etc. of optoelectronic tracking and aiming products from the perspective of optomechanical and electrical system integration, open up the full-link technical path of such products from design, manufacturing, assembly, optomechanical adjustment, optomechanical and electrical joint adjustment, testing to image quality evaluation, and enhance the company's integrated manufacturing and mass production capabilities in this field.

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[tokenanalyst]

Good year for some China IC houses.​

Xinpengwei (Chipown): Net profit in the third quarter increased by 178.81% year-on-year​

Xinpengwei released its third quarter report for 2024. The company achieved operating income of 707 million yuan in the first three quarters, a year-on-year increase of 21.95%; net profit of 77.239 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.68%. Among them, the third quarter achieved operating income of 254 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.78%; net profit of 33.3149 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 178.81%.

Xinpengwei's main products cover most technical types of power chips, and its product application markets cover key areas such as home appliances, standard power supplies and industrial equipment. With the enrichment and improvement of the company's product lines, it has gradually developed from providing a single high-voltage power management chip to providing customers with a full set of power solutions from high and low voltage power supplies, high and low voltage drivers and their supporting devices/modules for the entire system, and realized the loading of Xinpeng AC-DC, DC-DC, Gate Driver (HV&LV), IGBT, SuperJuntion MOSFET, SiC MOSFET, SiP, IPM and other power chips and modules in the same machine, shortening the development cycle of end customers, significantly enhancing the synergy of the company's various product lines, and improving sales efficiency.

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[tokenanalyst]

Tianxin Micro's first deep silicon etching equipment launch.​

In recent years, with the rapid development of artificial intelligence, high-performance computing power, etc., the requirements for upstream devices have been continuously increasing. Advanced packaging technologies such as 2.5D&3D have brought excellent performance and interconnection with their high integration, and TSV (through silicon via) technology plays a key role in this.

In response to industry development trends and increasing market demand, Tianxin Micro independently developed its first deep silicon etching equipment, V8 Etch, which can achieve high aspect ratio TSV (through silicon via) and trench etching. It can be applied to 2.5D & 3D packaging, CMOS image sensors (CIS), deep trench isolation (DTI), deep trench capacitors (DTC), power device silicon trench etching, MEMS trench etching and other fields, providing the industry with domestically produced innovative solutions.



V8 Etch applies a variety of advanced designs, such as zoned gas inlet system, symmetrical chamber structure, high-power plasma source, fast gas switching system, and accurate ion energy control, providing more possibilities and adjustability for the process.

In the future, Tianxin Micro will continue to focus on market demand, strengthen technological innovation and product research and development, actively expand into the field of high-end semiconductor manufacturing equipment, inject vitality into industrial development and upgrading, and help the domestic semiconductor equipment to become independent..​

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[tokenanalyst]

Important research for semiconductor equipment performance.​

Scheduling Cluster Tools with Multi-Space Process Modules and a Multi-Finger-Arm Robot in Wafer Fabrication Subject to Wafer Residency Time Constraints.​

Abstract​

To increase productivity, more sophisticated cluster tools are developed. To achieve this, one of the ways is to increase the number of spaces in a process module (PM) and the number of fingers on a robot arm as well, leading to a cluster tool with multi-space PMs and a multi-finger-arm robot. This paper discusses the scheduling problem of cluster tools with four-space PMs and a four-finger-arm robot, a typical tool with multi-space PMs and a multi-finger-arm robot adopted in modern fabs. With two arms in such a tool, one is used as a clean one, while the other is used as a dirty one. In this way, wafer quality can be improved. However, scheduling such cluster tools to ensure the residency time constraints is very challenging, and there is no research report on this issue. This article conducts an in-depth analysis of the steady-state scheduling for this type of cluster tools to explore the effect of different scheduling strategies. Based on the properties, four robot task sequences are presented as scheduling strategies. With them, four linear programming models are developed to optimize the cycle time of the system and find feasible schedules. The performance of these strategies is dependent on the activity parameters. Experiments are carried out to test the effect of different parameters on the performance of different strategies. It shows that, given a group of parameters, one can apply all the strategies and choose the best result obtained by one of the strategies.​

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[Overbom]

What would be the consequences if China decided to place a ban on dysprosium exports? Can it be readily and easily replaced (maybe about similar performance) with other materials or techniques?

Nvidia could be a big target in order to stall US advance while domestic chip makers are given more time to catch up

NYTimes

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In the last few years, Nvidia and other computer chip manufacturers have changed the material used in hundreds of tiny electricity management devices, called capacitors, on each chip. The capacitors are now made from ultrapure dysprosium.

China’s refineries produce 99.9 percent of the world’s dysprosium, mostly at a single refinery in Wuxi, near Shanghai.
That refinery is one of the last two in China that are still in foreign hands, after the government’s purchase or nationalization of the rest of the industry. The longtime owner of both refineries is a Canadian company, Neo Performance Materials.

Neo recently announced that, by the end of the year, it would sell an 86 percent stake in the Wuxi refinery to Shenghe Resources, a Chinese company that is traded on the Shanghai stock market. Shenghe’s biggest shareholder is China’s Ministry of Land Resources. Neo is closing the other refinery, 400 miles north in Zibo, China, and transferring its equipment and personnel to Shenghe.

Neo’s chief executive, Rahim Suleman, said his company would retain an ability to sell to foreign companies. It has the right to market rare earths to international customers from the Wuxi refinery for five years. In addition, Neo has another refinery in Estonia that processes some rare earths, although not dysprosium. It has built a new factory in Zibo to turn rare earths into catalytic converter chemicals for cars.

 

[sdkan]

ASML CEO: China Might be Able to Produce 5nm and 3nm Chips amid U.S. Export Restrictions

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“
Notably, Fouquet claims that China may be able to produce some chips at 5nm and 3nm nodes, albeit in limited capacity and using older DUV lithography technology, according to the report from Wccftech.

Whether China has the capability to produce chips at advanced nodes has recently come under scrutiny. Fouquet’s assertion follows reports that Xiaomi has purportedly completed the tape-out of its first 3nm SoC, which might be launched next year, according to the report from Wccftech. This reported innovation in China could assist Huawei’s HiSilicon and other sanctioned Chinese firms in improving their chip design
”
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Very interesting. It's the right conclusion with the wrong evidence.

Xiaomi's 3nm chips are manufactured by TSMC

I think China's own 3nm production technology will be there soon.

 

[tonyget]

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[diadact]

@tokenanalyst Which of the equipment mentioned above already has domestic equivalents?

 

[huemens]

View attachment 137901

@tokenanalyst Which of the equipment mentioned above already has domestic equivalents?

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[tphuang]

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Took a look through his article. Not bad on the AI chip production part and procurement and such. I think he is wildly overestimating future demand for B20. Although, one could argue that demand for inference and training chip is so high, that might happen.

it's this kind of statement that I generally disagree with him

More advanced tools tend to have fewer competitive suppliers. For example, only Lam and TEL can product cryo etch tools needed for advanced 3D NAND. A U.S. ban on Lam would of course gift TEL the China market, as currently there is no viable Chinese competitor (note that TEL might take that share anyways on the basis of

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). Except that TEL cryo etch tools contain US content in design, software, and subcomponents.

it's pretty well known that YMTC has a delete-A process by this point due to necessity. Now for certain critical layers, they are still using TEL equipment because AMEC/Naura tools are still being validated. Restricting TEL sales will cause further short term pain for YMTC since it will be using AMEC tools that is not validated. But that will just lead to these tools finishing development sooner.

And there is a lot of stuff like this in the document where he thinks just because the WFEs haven't been affected yet, that means they won't be affected. Which is obviously nonsense. There has been a lot of stocking up going on while the domestic producers are ramping up.

Also his chart on capex is also off. SMIC is doing about $8B and he has them at $5B. There is no question that Huawei itself has been investing huge into fab with Swaysure and such.