Chinese semiconductor industry

I don't know IF one of our esteem members had posted it before so I apologized in advance.

China’s leading IC testing company Leadyo completes world’s first 3nm chip test
Chinese article by 日新
English Editor WM Zhang

07-13 15:50
By Li Panpan
China’s leading IC testing company Leadyo(利扬芯片) said it completed the test and development of the world's first 3nm chip.

The company based in Dongguan of southern China’s Guangdong Province shared this information in its investor relationship management platform of the Shanghai Stock Exchange on July 7, saying that with rich experiences in testing 8nm and 5nm chip products, it would advance mass test of 3nm chips in an orderly manner.
Leadyo was founded in February 2010 and listed in the STR Market of Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2020. It has tested 44 categories of 12-inch and 8-inch chip products of various process technology.
It has increased investment in testing and R&D of high-end chips, especially the computing power chip testing technology, with a complete set of testing solutions for the discrete problems of advanced manufacturing processes.
Its testing solutions are widely used in chips for 5G communications, computers, consumer electronics, automotive electronics, biometrics, MCU, AIoT, and industrial control.

And Samsung is the first FAB customer to use it to mass produce their 3nm chips.


08/07/2022

Leadyo Chip: Completed the test development of the world’s first 3nm chip​

Chinese semiconductor company Leadyo chip today in response to investor questions, said: the current 3nm advanced process process chip test program has been successfully debugged, marking the company completed the world’s first 3nm chip test development, will be to the mass production test phase in an orderly manner.
Q: Recently, we saw the media report that Samsung launched the world’s first 3nm chip, which is OEM for a domestic mining chip design company, does your company have the opportunity to become their test supplier?
A: In recent years, the company has been increasing its investment in high-end chip research and development, especially the company’s arithmetic chip testing technology for advanced process discrete problems to provide a full set of test solutions, focusing on solving the power consumption ratio, chip internal resistance, high-current test circuit, test temperature control and other key technical difficulties, the first 8nm and 5nm chip products for a number of customers to provide mass production test services. At present, the chip test solution for 3nm advanced process has been successfully debugged, marking the completion of the world’s first 3nm chip test development, and will advance to the mass production test stage in an orderly manner.
Samsung Electronics announced on June 30 that the company has begun mass production of 3nm semiconductor chips in its Hwaseong plant in South Korea, the world’s first company to mass produce 3nm chips. Unlike previous generations of chips using FinFETs, Samsung uses the GAA (Gate All Around) transistor architecture, which greatly improves power efficiency.
Established in February 2010, Guangdong Leadyo Chip Testing Co., Ltd. claims to be a well-known independent third-party professional chip testing technology service provider in China, a national special-purpose small giant enterprise and a high-tech enterprise, whose main business includes IC testing solution development, 12-inch and 8-inch wafer testing services, finished chip testing services and supporting services related to IC testing.
Officially, the company has been focusing on IC testing since its establishment, and has accumulated a number of independent core technologies in this field. It has developed 44 categories of chip testing solutions, which can be applied to the testing needs of different terminal application scenarios, and completed the mass production testing of more than 4,300 chip models.
In addition, the company also provides independent third-party testing services for mid-to-high-end chips for well-known chip design companies in China, with products mainly used in communications, computers, consumer electronics, automotive electronics and industrial control, covering advanced processes such as 8nm, 16nm and 28nm.
The company has not yet announced its second quarter financial results. The operating income in the first quarter increased 57.47% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company increased 14.69% year-on-year if excluding the impact of share-based payment on net profit from the implementation of equity incentives.
Leadyo Chip A shares once rose more than 11%, has now partially fallen back, now reported 32.58 yuan per share, market value of 4.438 billion yuan.

So at least China had a foot on the door regarding 3nm node processed, so maybe within 3 years we may see it mass produce either thru an EUVL Chinese machine or ASML advance DUVL (NXT 2100i) using nVSAFET and CFET architecture?

A chip company raised 2 billion yuan in 15 months.

Tianshu Zhixin launched the general-purpose GPU design in 2018, and its "Tiangai 100" achieved mass production last year, with product orders exceeding 230 million yuan.

Very familiar profiles of the founders:

Experienced team
Jianping Lv graduated from Yale University with a Ph.D. in Computer Science.

Before joining Tianshu Zhixin, he served as global vice president of Samsung, senior director of MediaTek, senior global GPU architect of NVIDIA, and senior architecture manager.

During his tenure at NVIDIA, Jianping Lv participated in the research and development of various GPU architectures, such as the development of RSX GPUs in PS3 consoles for Sony, and the development of several dedicated GPUs for Macbooks for Apple.
Talking about the reasons for returning to China to start a business, he said, "GPU practitioners hope to be able to build their own graphics architecture. Except for China, there is no such vast market in the world to support the landing of a new GPU."

…

Here is the Google translate version of the report


This is the original report in Chinese:

GaNo Opto launches first silicon carbide EUV photodiode​

GaNo Optoelectronics Inc – a spin-off from China’s Nanjing University that offers ultraviolet (UV) detectors and modules based on wide-bandgap semiconductors including gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) – has formally released what it claims are the first commercial SiC-based extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photodiodes.



Figure 1: Distribution of optical emission spectrum from THz to x-ray.

With the rapid development of VLSI fabrication technologies down to 7/5nm nodes (for micro-chips containing billions of transistors), advanced photolithography is transitioning from deep ultraviolet (DUV) immersion lithography based on a 193nm light source to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography based on 13.5nm light source. An EUV lithography system is so complex that demanding technical challenges must be overcome for meeting chipmakers’ requirements for high-volume manufacturing. Among them, the development of high-performance EUV detectors is critical because, to precisely control the photoresist exposure dose, the intensity and uniformity of the EUV light beam must be constantly monitored. Besides EUV lithography, semiconductor EUV detectors are also core components in solar-observing satellites, materials science and many fundamental research fields.

Traditionally, commercial EUV detectors are solely based on silicon (Si), which have been demonstrated with certain success but suffer from several intrinsic drawbacks. For example, although silicon EUV detectors could exhibit moderate quantum efficiency in the EUV wavelength range, they require highly complex optical filters to achieve a high UV/visible rejection ratio as their peak response stays within the visible wavelength range. In addition, silicon detectors are not suitable for working in harsh environments, which would degrade considerably upon high-fluence EUV irradiation.

“It has been well accepted that wide-bandgap semiconductor is the most suitable material for making UV photodetectors,” says chief technology officer Dr Hai Lu, who is also distinguished professor at Nanjing University. “Due to the wide-bandgap nature of SiC, EUV photodiodes based on SiC have no response to background white light and could exhibit very low dark current down to 1pA even at a high temperature of 150℃. This means that the SiC EUV photodiodes have extremely low noise, leading to very high signal-to-noise ratio and detectivity. Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the radiation hardness of SiC photodiodes is at least 1000 times higher than their silicon counterparts, due to the high electron-hole pair ionization energy and displacement threshold energy of SiC semiconductor,” he adds.

GaNo Opto says that its new intrinsically visible-blind EUV photodiodes can work in either photovoltaic or photoconductive mode with high EUV photon detection efficiency, high response speed and high stability.

Despite the apparent advantages, the implementation of SiC EUV photodiodes is very challenging due to substrate- or epi-related material defects, relatively poorly modeled device operation, and immature device processing technology. “Our process shows that appropriate surface electric field modulation and surface passivation techniques are critical for realizing SiC EUV photodiodes with low leakage current and long-term stability, both of which are necessary for high-end applications in advanced lithography systems or space satellites,” Lu says.



Figure 2: Some of GaNo Opto’s newly released EUV and vacuum UV detectors.

After pilot production and multiple customer verifications beginning from October 2021, GaNo Opto has started to ship SiC EUV photodiodes and components to several major customers worldwide.

“Our next step is to develop EUV imaging arrays based on SiC photodiodes,” says Lu. “In this case, uniformity among each photodiode pixel and scalability would be the main technological barriers. New implantation and dopant activation sequences, and back-end processing techniques, are being developed to achieve this goal.”

A sign of things to come, Apple refuse to accept TSMC price hike. TSMC bargaining power is slowing ebbing, can't ask customer to pay extra premium especially IF its your only sole client for the 3nm technology, They are now regretting ditching Huawei....lol

The Mainland Chinese tech company had been reading this, the reason why they won't invest a battery factory in the US to service Apple, exclusivity is a double edge sword, your company may grow exponentially BUT you are at their mercy and whims.

And I'm thinking the much hype Apple Car is vaporware, expected to be release in 2025, by that time its Chinese Rivals had taken over the market. Hoping to seizes the premium segment with the downturn and incoming depression, good luck with that and lets see IF it hit the ground running.

With demand cascading and massive increase in FAB capacity, who among the major FABS will thrive?

Apple Reportedly Refuses to Accept TSMC Chip Price Hike​

Wednesday September 28, 2022 6:29 am PDT by
Apple has reportedly refused to accept a price increase from its sole chip supplier, TSMC, according to .

The report claims that Apple, the largest customer of TSMC, has rejected the supplier's plans to increase chip prices next year. TSMC has been planning to increase its prices by six to nine percent, depending on the fabrication process.
TSMC's chips were already around 20 percent more expensive compared to those from its direct rivals, but smaller foundries have ramped up their own prices in recent years due to higher material and logistics costs, and TSMC has committed to $100 billion in new investment over the next three years, motivating the company to increase its prices to maintain its premium and pass added costs on to clients.
TSMC was also reportedly keen to stop its clients from and ordering more chips than needed in the hope of securing production line space and additional support from contract chipmakers, which has made it difficult for the company to understand real demand.
Following negotiations, Apple has apparently refused to accept further price increases. TSMC makes all of Apple's custom silicon chips, but Apple is estimated to make up more than one quarter of TSMC's entire revenue, meaning that the companies are fairly reliant upon each other. An improvement in the semiconductor industry's supply outlook despite inflation is believed to have hardened Apple's refusal to acquiesce to price hikes.
Like many of Apple's suppliers, TSMC has been wrestling with supply chain issues since 2020. Last year, it was speculated that Apple to account for substantial chip price rises.

It may sound like a marketing gimmick BUT being a leader in 5G transitioning to 5.5G is expected as Huawei leverage its expertise in 5G to industrial, manufacturing and consumer application Then the improvement, future iteration and application will carry over to 6G .

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90 views26 minutes ago

So in the middle of a global downturn TSMC wants APPLE to pay for those expensive EUV machines that they recently bougth...........Nice.

tokenanalyst said:

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So in the middle of a global downturn TSMC wants APPLE to pay for those expensive EUV machines that they recently bougth...........Nice.

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Bro we heard that they had idled 4 to 6 of their EUVL, now I think they may have to shut down more as not only Apple is reconsidering , Intel , Nvidia and other American company are planning to cancel their orders as well.

The American concern about China trying to destroy those TSMC FABS are misplaced, they're the one who is doing it...lol I'm thinking IF the investment plan for 6 FABS producing 7nm chip will proceed, cause they are restricted in servicing some Mainland Chinese client and possible SMIC challenge with cheaper price.





Sep 15, 2021 — The world's largest foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has plans to build a 6 nm and 7 nm chip fab in the Taiwanese city

SMIC should use a black market middleman and offer to buy those idled EUVL machines anonymously in cash lol. Anyone with a brain will suspect it's SMIC or another Chinese company, but who will say no to a 9 digit offer in suitcases of hard cash?

CMP said:

SMIC should use a black market middleman and offer to buy those idled EUVL machines anonymously in cash lol. Anyone with a brain will suspect it's SMIC or another Chinese company, but who will say no to a 9 digit offer in suitcases of hard cash?

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Even if that was possible i think ASML is smart enough to put no resale clauses in their contracts, so they have exclusivity over those machines.

tokenanalyst said:

Even if that was possible i think ASML is smart enough to put no resale clauses in their contracts, so they have exclusivity over those machines.

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Yup each of these machines cost more than 747, Im pretty sure its like F35 that needs activation codes every 24 hours or maybe constant online phone-home to Langely etc... And plus without their support engineers etc the thing wont run for long