Chinese semiconductor thread II

[tokenanalyst]

Zhongtian Jingzhuang deploys HBM and invests in Yuanjian Zhicun​

Zhongtian Jingzhuang released an announcement on the progress of its investments. The announcement stated that recently, the company's wholly-owned subsidiary Zhongtian Jingyi received a "Notice on Overseas Investment Projects" from Zhongjing Xinji. Zhongjing Xinji has invested in Xinji (Shanghai) Semiconductor Co., Ltd., Koris Semiconductor Technology (Dongyang) Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Yuanjian Zhishang Technology Co., Ltd. These three companies are in the core areas of storage packaging and testing, high-end substrate production and intelligent storage chip research and development, representing an important part of the semiconductor industry chain.

Zhongjing Xinji is a platform that focuses on investing in high-growth semiconductor projects. Zhongtian Jingyi, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zhongtian Jingzhuang, subscribed to 17.3762% of Zhongjing Xinji's partnership shares. This outbound investment marks that Zhongtian Jingzhuang has taken another solid step in the semiconductor field and is actively seeking diversified development opportunities.

Among them, Xinji (Shanghai) Semiconductor Co., Ltd., through its subsidiary Xinfeng Technology, focuses on the packaging and testing of high-end memory chips. It is reported that Xinfeng Technology has multi-layer stacking packaging technology and automotive-grade packaging and testing capabilities, and is the first company in China with heterogeneous integration mass production capabilities. In the future, the company is expected to continue to expand its market share in the field of high-end DRAM memory chip packaging and testing, providing important support for the domestic memory chip industry.

Cores Semiconductor Technology (Dongyang) Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in the research and development and production of FCBGA (ABF) high-end substrates. Its products are widely used in CPU, GPU, AI chip and automotive chip packaging. Previously, Cores successfully held the capping ceremony of the FCBGA packaging substrate project (Phase I), and the production is expected to accelerate.

In addition, Shenzhen Yuanjian Zhiku Technology Co., Ltd. focuses on the development of ultra-wideband memory chips HBM. Its core team is composed of senior technical experts from international leading companies and is currently developing high-end products such as HBM3/3e. These technologies not only meet international standards, but will also significantly promote the development of domestic high-performance computing and artificial intelligence fields.

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[tokenanalyst]

China Electronics Technology Group Corporation's ion implanter mass production center officially opened​

According to the WeChat public account of China Electronics Equipment, recently, China Electronics Equipment Beijing Shuoke Zhongkexin held a launching ceremony for the domestic ion implantation machine mass production center.

It is reported that the mass production center has a construction area of 7,581 square meters, with 40 module integration stations and 11 debugging stations, as well as multiple independent spaces such as module assembly, motion detection and material transfer. It can meet various precision manufacturing and efficient assembly needs, ensuring both product quality and delivery speed.


According to the production cycle of ion implanters, the center has the production and debugging capacity of 100 sets per year. By integrating the production capacity of Changsha subsidiary, the comprehensive delivery capacity has been increased to 150 sets. Dianke Equipment said that the mass production capacity of domestic ion implanters directly affects the level of independent control of my country's semiconductor industry chain. The opening of this batch production center will greatly enhance the market supply capacity of domestic ion implanters and ensure the security of my country's electronic information industry chain and the stability of the supply chain.

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[tokenanalyst]

Timeline of China EUV Lithography research.


2003 China Fisrt EUV light source and technology demo by CIOMP and Harbin

2014 EUV lithography components, UPrecision MagLev Wafer Stage, EUV mirrors, EUV photoresist....


2017 China tested it first EUV lithography prototype.

In June 2017 , the "Key Technology Research of Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography" undertaken by the State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics successfully passed the preliminary acceptance and obtained the EUV projection lithography 32nm exposure pattern for the first time in China , laying the foundation for China to truly master high-end microelectronics manufacturing technology independently.

Key technologies of extreme ultraviolet lithography has past the final acceptance​

the final acceptance meeting of “the research on the key technologies of extreme ultraviolet(EUV) lithography”, which is one project of the “Manufacturing equipment and complete process of very large scale integrated circuit” project supported by National Science and Technology Major Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, was held in Changchun Institute of Optics, fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences(CIOMP). The office of administration for implementing major project organized the meeting. The panel experts fully recognized the achievements of the project and approved the final acceptance of the project. The successful implementation of the project is an important step forward in the development of Chinese EUV lithography technology.


2022- Commercialization of EUV components and Subsystems.​

 

[Michael90]

But again, even if the prices per wafer was much lower, I don't think that Chinese fabs would lower their prices that much given that they could earn huge profits by just keeping their prices marginally below market prices. Like TSMC, they are making a killing overcharging for 5-3nm nodes waiting for their competition to catch up.

Agree. So why do you they lower the price by that much then? They could lower prices by a little bit less than the others and still make profits and gain more customers. But a 40% lower price? How much profit are they even making with this prices?

Well the saying goes, necessity is the mother of innovation. We saw how america broke ZTE in 2018 by denying them Quallcomm Chip for its smartphone business. Look at 2025, to this day except for ZTE (even ZTE sometimes) all major Chinese companies are still reliant on Quallcomm for their smartphone.

They could have tried Unisoc for their top of the line phones just like ZTE does but no! I am well aware that Unisoc SoC are not as good as Quallcomm right now but with iteration and constant feedback from major companies like Vivo and Xiaomi I'm sure they would have been competitive.

7-8 years ago MediaTek was a garbage Smartphone SoC maker and look at them now. This only happened because Chinese companies would rather invest their money in MediaTek, Quallcomm and not in Chinese SoC companies like Spreadtrum>Unisoc.

Xiaomi launced their Surge S1 in 2016 and decided to stop investing in SoC after seeing Surge S1 was not on par with highest end SOC at that time. What did they expect? Their first ever SOC is gonna be top of the line or something? Look at HiSilicon, how many iterations it required until they go into Kirin 970, 980 when it was on par with Quallcomm top of the line and even Apple A series SOC.

Xiaomi after seeing what happened to ZTE didn't feel like, lets keep investing in the Surge series until it becomes competitive enough. Instead they would rather give the money to QC and MediaTek. Finally they came into sense recently.... Nothing to say to be honest. Xiaomi is the perfect company who must develop their own SOC since they have a huge spectrum of products from Smartphone to Smart Washing Machine to Smart EV to Smart everything. And guess what, to make those stuff "smart" you need a smart SOC too and Xiaomi Silicon division could have reaped all those revenue.

Hmmm.... That shows there is an issue with some of these Chinese tech companies then.if they don't feel the urge to replace US tech with local ones.

 

[Michael90]

The issue is the Chinese government isn't banning foreign imports for end users, so Chinese companies still have to deal with foreign competition from Apple, Samsung, etc. In that sort of situation, if you're not using imports, you could be at a market disadvantage. Not everyone is Huawei and has the full support of the government.

So while it would make sense to go full domestic, as long as the Chinese government isn't forcing consumers to go full domestic, the best strategy for Chinese companies will remain fence sitting. You need "all of society" efforts to fully remove foreign supply chains; companies aren't going to sacrifice their bottom lines while their competitors are still allowed to use foreign components.

Agree. But this are not normal times at all. They are basically in a trade and tech war. The USA has made it known they will keep targeting Chinese tech companies from using the best American technology and software. So if they still think things will carry on as normal then I can only say they are fools. In fact US sanctions will only get worse. So the later they delay using their own domestic alternatives (albeit inferior for now) the better for them. The trade war won't stop anytime soon.

 

[broadsword]

Timeline of China EUV Lithography research.


2003 China Fisrt EUV light source and technology demo by CIOMP and Harbin

2014 EUV lithography components, UPrecision MagLev Wafer Stage, EUV mirrors, EUV photoresist....
View attachment 144121

2017 China tested it first EUV lithography prototype.

In June 2017 , the "Key Technology Research of Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography" undertaken by the State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics successfully passed the preliminary acceptance and obtained the EUV projection lithography 32nm exposure pattern for the first time in China , laying the foundation for China to truly master high-end microelectronics manufacturing technology independently.
View attachment 144118View attachment 144119

Key technologies of extreme ultraviolet lithography has past the final acceptance​

the final acceptance meeting of “the research on the key technologies of extreme ultraviolet(EUV) lithography”, which is one project of the “Manufacturing equipment and complete process of very large scale integrated circuit” project supported by National Science and Technology Major Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, was held in Changchun Institute of Optics, fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences(CIOMP). The office of administration for implementing major project organized the meeting. The panel experts fully recognized the achievements of the project and approved the final acceptance of the project. The successful implementation of the project is an important step forward in the development of Chinese EUV lithography technology.


2022- Commercialization of EUV components and Subsystems.​

Any update on the delivery of the first machine? 2026 was the last speculated date here.

 

[tokenanalyst]

Agree. So why do you they lower the price by that much then? They could lower prices by a little bit less than the others and still make profits and gain more customers. But a 40% lower price? How much profit are they even making with this prices?

Probably is for a few costumers to entice them to switch to the mainland. Read the article posted.

As I suspected SMIC and HH are not necessary cutting prices 40% to everyone. Looks like the media took that wrong. I suspect that is more Chinese fabs trying to entice some new clients with discounts rather than an overall price cuts. Sadly because I would not complain if ICs become cheaper.

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[tokenanalyst]

Any update on the delivery of the first machine? 2026 was the last speculated date here.

Hopefully CIOMP can test a more advanced EUVL prototype this year. Someone posted the updated EUV Vacuum Chamber last year and China had been focusing in masks and EUV photoresist rather than core components.

 

[sunnymaxi]

Hopefully CIOMP can test a more advanced EUVL prototype this year

CIOMP have more powerful light source. so we can expect that in China's first EUV.

China had been focusing in masks and EUV photoresist rather than core components.

equally important as core components which have already been developed.

 

[tokenanalyst]

CIOMP have more powerful light source. so we can expect that in China's first EUV.

I think if Harbin EUV source is ready to prime they could go with them first and then switch to LPP if probe to be better and finally to SSMB if can allow quickly jump to HNA-EUV.