Chinese semiconductor thread II

Hicham

Just Hatched
Registered Member
in a sign of times, China is now clearly winning the 3rd generation power semiconductor battle. Wolfspeed continues to get less profitable and losing boatload of money. I think they are going down the drain

What I fail to understand is how is this not making headlines in the west, it seems to me they are not genuinely interested in winning any technology battle with China but the focus is rather on waging an information war internally showing they are ahead and winning rather than actually winning.
 

tokenanalyst

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Two major high-end semiconductor equipment import substitution projects settled in Nanxun!​


Recently, Nanxun District held a project signing ceremony, and Jingzhou Yangtze River Delta TGV glass substrate semiconductor process equipment R&D and industrialization project and glass substrate PVD coating equipment R&D and production project were signed and settled in Nanxun.

It is reported that Suzhou Jingzhou Equipment Technology Co., Ltd. is currently the only advanced manufacturing company in China that has the ability to supply large-size complete-line wet process. The total investment of the project signed this time is 1.2 billion yuan. After it is put into production, it will achieve an annual production capacity of 150 sets of TGV glass substrate semiconductor process equipment.

Anhui Yuehao Electronic Equipment Co., Ltd. is an advanced manufacturing enterprise involved in the manufacture of special equipment such as semiconductor devices, vacuum pumps, and new materials. The total investment of the project signed this time is 300 million yuan, and it will establish a research and development base and production base for glass substrate PVD coating equipment.

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tokenanalyst

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Kunlun Core Technology successfully lights up the P8 million card cluster and plans to further light up 30,000 card clusters​

Kunlun Core Technology announced that it has successfully lit up a Kunlun Core P8 million card cluster and plans to further light up a 30,000 card cluster. This breakthrough overcomes the limitations of hardware scalability, including the topological limitations of interconnection between cards, and avoids communication bandwidth becoming a bottleneck.
Kunlun Core Technology has proposed solutions around chip and cluster power consumption. It is understood that the power consumption of conventional solutions based on the scale of 10,000 cards can reach 10 megawatts or more. The cooling solution adopted by Kunlun Core Technology solves the energy efficiency and cooling problems of the 10,000-card cluster.
In addition, Kunlun Core Technology has also optimized the distributed training of the model, adopting an efficient parallel task splitting strategy to increase the cluster MFU for training mainstream open source models to 58%.
In terms of stability, the newly activated cluster provides a fault-tolerant and stability mechanism, avoiding the problem of a significant drop in the effectiveness of a 10,000-card cluster due to the exponential increase in the failure rate of a single card as the scale increases, and ensuring an effective training rate of 98%.
Kunlun Core Technology has also built an ultra-large-scale HPN high-performance network to meet the bandwidth requirements for inter-machine communication, and optimized the topology structure to reduce communication bottlenecks, increasing bandwidth efficiency to over 90%.​

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tphuang

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士兰8英寸SiC项目即将封顶,年产72万片
近日,士兰微子公司士兰集宏8英寸SiC功率器件芯片制造生产线项目完成了钢桁架梁吊装,预计今年一季度封顶。四季度初步通线,2026年一季度进行试生产。​

Silan Micro's 8-inch SiC project has been roofed. It will start trial production in 2026 Q1. Can produce 720k modules per year.
 

Wahid145

Junior Member
Registered Member

China's state-backed labs provide a lifeline for US-blacklisted chip suppliers​

Beijing fosters pilot production lines at research centers and boosts the nation's R&D spending
CHENG TING-FANG and LAULY LI
February 5, 2025 05:59 JST
TAIPEI -- Chinese chip and chip equipment makers blacklisted by the US are turning to universities and state-backed chip labs and "pilot production lines" to keep their development efforts on track.
Facilities in major cities from Wuhan to Wuxi to Ningbo offer vital test production and verification services that help accelerate China's chip developments, often enjoying easier access to overseas technology, according to sources briefed on the matter.
Hubei Yangtze Pilot-Line Services, better known as Hubei Yangtze Memory Labs, in Wuhan, is just one example. Engineers from Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) -- the nation's top NAND flash memory chipmaker -- use the laboratory to verify new chip designs before putting them into mass production because it has a 12-inch pilot production line and better access to foreign equipment and services than blacklisted entities do, sources told Nikkei Asia.

Hubei Yangtze Memory Labs describes itself as an independent legal entity approved by the Hubei provincial government, and it is led by a government official.
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was added to the US trade blacklist in 2022.
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Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., China's top NAND flash memory chipmaker. (Photo by Cheng Ting-Fang)
Top Chinese chip measurement machine maker Shanghai Precision Measurement Semiconductor Technology, or PMISH, has also become a key stakeholder in Hubei Yangtze Memory Labs and is focusing on advanced chip packaging projects for high-performance computing and storage, special sensors and optoelectronics integration, according to the company. PMISH, a rival to KLA of the US, was added to Washington's
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last December, along with other major Chinese chip equipment makers.
Labs like this are crucial, one China-based chip industry executive told Nikkei Asia. "Some labs offer services to benchmark equipment and materials, to compare local offerings of machines with leading global standards, which are very important for domestic engineering work. .. . Sometimes a team, before investing lots of money, can go to these labs to prove that the product really works before putting it into mass production."
Other examples include JFS Laboratory in Wuhan, which has built pilot production lines specializing in various types of compound semiconductors, including gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC). These materials are crucial for developing highly efficient power electronics, vital for applications in the automotive, data center and aerospace sectors, areas where China sees itself as having a competitive advantage, in part because they are subject to fewer restrictions from the US
JFS, which is backed by Hubei province, says it has attracted scientists educated at top global universities including Cambridge University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Nanyang Technological University. Its many ongoing projects include helping Chinese chipmaking equipment teams verify their locally developed machines and tools for laser cutting and etching. It also has pilot production lines for silicon photonics, an area seen as a key next-generation technology for enabling faster data transmission for AI computing.
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Chip Hub for Integrated Photonics Xplore (CHIPX), operated by the prestigious Shanghai Jiao Tong University, recently launched China's first pilot production line for high-end photonic chips, in Wuxi, Jiangsu province. The line is set to provide services from the first quarter of this year.
Yongjiang Laboratory (Y-LAB) in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, founded in 2021, launched a research and development production line for heterogeneous chip integration and micro-nano optics last year. It has set a target of sharply expanding its staff from 400 members last year to 800 scientists this year and 3,000 by 2030.
Several other labs with pilot production platforms related to semiconductor development have sprouted up across China over the past few years, including in Guangzhou, Tianjin, Zhengzhou and Shenzhen. Their target areas range from sensors and chip packaging and testing to advanced materials and compound semiconductors.
Beijing has encouraged local authorities to promote more "pilot production lines" or "small-scale test production lines" run by universities or research institutes in partnership with chip and tech companies, viewing them as vital platforms for fostering the nation's technological development.
The Chinese State Council last September issued a directive instructing all major cities and provinces to actively promote and facilitate the setup of a wide range of pilot production platforms till 2027 with specialties in different industries. This state-driven initiative is much broader than only semiconductors, as it aims to foster development across the entire value chain, from materials, metals, chemicals and machinery to cutting-edge technologies like quantum computing, robotics, AI, aerospace and satellite navigation, according to government documents seen by Nikkei Asia.
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A Shanghai Precision Measurement Semiconductor Technology employee stands next to a giant mock-up chip at Semicon China, a trade fair for the semiconductor industry in Shanghai in June 2023. © Reuters
Boosting research centers' equipment and investment and enhancing engineering schools have become key tactics for China in its battle against U.S. export controls, as it is much easier for research institutes to engage international collaborations and to access American and European technologies.
According to Nikkei Asia's analysis, China has been building more chip and microelectronics schools in recent years, broadening its access to fundamental technologies and cultivating more homegrown talent since 2020.
In 2023 and 2024 alone, at least 10 universities established new semiconductor schools, including North China University of Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Harbin Institute of Technology's Shenzhen branch, of which the latter two have been blacklisted by Washington. The specialties of these chip schools span a variety of segments, such as electronics automation design (EDA), chip production equipment and advanced chip production.
China has also been ramping up its R&D investment, particularly since the U.S.-China tech war broke out. According to the country's Bureau of Statistics, nationwide R&D spending reached a record of more than 3.3 trillion yuan ($458 billion) in 2023, nearly double the level in 2017, the year Donald Trump began his first term as U.S. president. The U.S. put Huawei Technologies on the trade blacklist from 2018, and later blacklisted a range of Chinese tech champions, including contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) and the world's biggest drone maker, DJI.
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During the administration of President Joe Biden, Washington continued to escalate tensions with multiple rounds of
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, expanded trade blacklists and regulations on leading foreign chip suppliers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Samsung, curbing their dealings with Chinese clients.
Trump's return to the White House in January has brought few signs that trade relations will improve. As the president's new blanket 10% tariffs on Chinese goods took effect, Beijing
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with tariffs of its own on various imports from America, including energy and agricultural machinery.
 

Wahid145

Junior Member
Registered Member
Science and technology policy expert Stephen Ezell told Nikkei Asia that China is stepping up its R&D efforts and that its spending could surpass that of the U.S. in the coming years.
"In all sectors and in overall expenditure, China [has] neared the U.S. in R&D spending," said Ezell, vice president for global innovation policy at the Washington-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, adding that it has already surpassed America in university and government funding for applied research and experimental development. "If China continues to invest heavily and if the U.S. finds its budgetary environment constrained, it's certainly possible China could outstrip the U.S."
But while Chinese universities and research institutes are generally subject to fewer trade restrictions, they are not immune from political tensions. In 2020, the Trump administration placed a handful of
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specializing in industry and space on the Entity List. These include Harbin Institute of Technology -- known as "China's MIT" -- Beijing Institute of Technology, the Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Additionally, dozens of other Chinese universities and research institute were added to the U.S. "unverified list," meaning any exports to or collaboration with them requires stricter reviews.
Ezell said China's international research collaborations, particularly with the U.S., have slowed. According to a study by Nature, over a quarter of research papers by Chinese authors involved international collaborations in 2018, but that share fell to 7.2% by 2023.
China, Ezell added, is good at forming industry clusters to facilitate the application of basic and applied research, even if there is inherent inefficiency and overcapacity in the Chinese system. "Efficiency has never been the central goal of the Chinese approach," he said. "They are willing to accept a lot of inefficiencies to gain market share."
"We've been very careful about exporting our equipment to Chinese research institutes or universities in light of the mounting export controls," an executive with a Europe-based measurement equipment supplier, told Nikkei Asia. "For almost everything we might have to apply for an export license."
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U.S. President Donald Trump signs a memorandum directing the U.S. Trade Representative to complete a review of trade issues with China, at the White House in Washington on Aug. 14, 2017. © Reuters
Europe is also starting to scrutinize collaborations with China more closely, according to Mathieu Duchatel, director of international studies at the Paris-based think tank Institut Montaigne.
"In the past, the EU was not concerned about research security ... and left it to member states to regulate research collaborations with international partners, but that has changed," Duchatel told Nikkei Asia. "Last year, the EU took the initiative to put research security at the top of its agenda." He added that the bloc is likely to draft policies targeting "problematic" entities involved in such research collaborations.
"However, China will likely find ways to get around international regulations, and establishing more of these research institutes is one way to do that," Duchatel said.
People should not underestimate China's capacity for innovation just because of inefficiencies in its state-driven system, he added. "The intense strategic pressure on China from the US and its allies is also a significant mobilizing force."

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Wahid145

Junior Member
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As always, shows how much the Central as well as the local government support the key industry needed to proliferate. Exact same thing happened before with Solar and EV industry. We can expect the Chinese Semiconductor industry to come out of nowhere and start dominating in 5 years time in the leading edge too! (exact playbook of EV domination)

I know the STMicro and NXP is having a hard time right now because of this. But same thing should be happening to TI and Broadcom. It's insane how much revenue is going towards Broadcom right now because of the AI boom. The Chinese equivalent to Broadcom should tap into this (not sure if there are equipment restrictions in that area or not).

Companies like TI and Broadcom always intrigued me because I have no idea what kind of Chips (I know it's mostly analog) they fabricate, where they fabricate and what kind of equipment is required for the fabrication of those kind of chips. We are too busy with IC, NAND & DRAM haha
 

tokenanalyst

Brigadier
Registered Member

China's state-backed labs provide a lifeline for US-blacklisted chip suppliers​

Beijing fosters pilot production lines at research centers and boosts the nation's R&D spending
CHENG TING-FANG and LAULY LI
February 5, 2025 05:59 JST
TAIPEI -- Chinese chip and chip equipment makers blacklisted by the US are turning to universities and state-backed chip labs and "pilot production lines" to keep their development efforts on track.
Facilities in major cities from Wuhan to Wuxi to Ningbo offer vital test production and verification services that help accelerate China's chip developments, often enjoying easier access to overseas technology, according to sources briefed on the matter.
Hubei Yangtze Pilot-Line Services, better known as Hubei Yangtze Memory Labs, in Wuhan, is just one example. Engineers from Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) -- the nation's top NAND flash memory chipmaker -- use the laboratory to verify new chip designs before putting them into mass production because it has a 12-inch pilot production line and better access to foreign equipment and services than blacklisted entities do, sources told Nikkei Asia.
Let me say that Digitimes along with Nikkei are pieces of garbage journalism that charged you money for crappy articles. With that out of the way, this is not different what is done in any other country with a semiconductor industry, there are pilots lines and universities research labs in Europe, US and so on, in China is not going to be different. Semiconductor manufacturing is a expensive endeavor, so building a fab without proper research is wasting money. Is well known that China equivalent of IMEC is the Shanghai ICRD along with Imecas, a simple search you can find out that China 3DNAND process was developed in collaboration with ICRD and IMECAS.

So there is not secret plan, this is well known and common practice. Due geopolitical tensions some companies may prefer to keep themselves quiet. Like for example, we know that SMEE immersion scanners, Naura and others companies tools have been running in a almost 100% domestic 20,000 WPM line since 2021. This was published in a quiet manner.

The biggest irony and what this piece of garbage article miss the point is that before if you look at the research literature, is that US toolmakers where big part of this research, so was almost guaranteed that any future sales was going to them, also helped US equipment makers to finetune their tools to different processes than other big fabs like Micron. Now thanks to advise of overpaid think tank stooges, most of the research is done with domestics tools and is almost guaranteed that future sales are going to them and their tools are going to get better much much better.
 
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