Chinese semiconductor industry

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Alb

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@localizer,

Yup legally stealing somebody tech and claiming their own. That's the deal for TSMC to establish the Arizona FAB, 5nm tech in exchange for more market access, with Huawei sanction all US company had been vying for the TSMC 5nm, killing two birds with 1 stone, eliminating a competitor for APPLE and Qualcomm and gaining the tech. Now Hisilicon is dead even if they had develop a 3nm node cause who will FAB for them. And from what I learned Qualcomm snapdragon 888 5nm chips is having a heating problem , FAB by Samsung its performance is the same with snapdragon 7nm 865 series FAB by TSMC. So the gap between TSMC and Samsung is significant, they had gain the cream of the cream of the Tech world with a sign of the pen, a daylight robbery.
Hopefully when SMIC 7nm goes live in April Hisilicon will be able to get its 7nm SOCs back to life. I also hope that tb
He new legislation will convince TSMC to resume 5nm production for Huawei.
 

weig2000

Captain

China's top maker of memory chips plans to double output in 2021​


TAIPEI -- Top Chinese memory chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies plans to double its output this year and start producing advanced chips rivaling those from Samsung and other global leaders, Nikkei Asia has learned.

Yangtze's targets, if achieved, would be the most important step forward in recent years for China's ambitions to create a full-fledged domestic semiconductor supply chain. NAND is a crucial component for memory and storage used in almost all computing devices, from smartphones and PCs to servers and connected cars, but production is controlled by just a handful of global players.

The Wuhan-based national champion plans to double its monthly output of memory chips to 100,000 wafers -- around 7% of total global output -- by the second half of 2021, two people with knowledge of the matter told Nikkei. This would help the young company, which was founded in 2016, narrow its gap with market leaders. Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest maker of NAND flash memory chips, produces around 480,000 wafers a month, while Micron, the biggest U.S. player in memory chips, churns out about 180,000 per month.


In addition to ramping up output of current chips, Yangtze Memory is also accelerating its technology development with an eye toward challenging Samsung and other global leaders, including Japan's Kioxia, South Korea's SK Hynix and Micron.

The Beijing-backed chipmaker is set to put the country's first batch of 192-layer 3D NAND flash memory chips into trial production as early as mid-2021, sources briefed on the matter said. The company currently produces 64- and 128-layer chips. It is more cost-effective to have chips with more layers, but they are also more challenging to develop and produce.

This plan could be delayed until the second half of the year, as it takes time to ensure quality when mass-producing such chips, but even that timetable would mark a major step forward for a homegrown Chinese chipmaker, the sources added.

Top-tier players like Samsung and Micron are still working to develop 176-layer 3D NAND flash chips. The most cutting-edge versions being mass-produced have 128 layers.

Yangtze Memory's planned 192-layer chips are, by definition, more advanced than those being developed by Samsung and Micron, but market watchers are cautious, saying it remains to be seen whether the Chinese company's chips will boast the performance and quality needed to surpass the market leaders.

"For the production increase part, the company has been busy moving in and setting up all the necessary chip equipment and expanding production lines since the third quarter of 2020," one of the sources said. "It currently produces a mix of 64-layer and 128-layer 3D NAND flash memory chips but will gradually devote more capacity to the latter."

Yangtze Memory began mass-producing 128-layer of NAND flash memory chips at the end of last year, after
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that it had completed development for such chips.

"The yield rate [for 128-layer chips] is around 70% currently and still has room for improvement," one source said. Yield rate refers to production performance and quality.

"It's already a major breakthrough, but [Yangtze Memory] still needs a lot of business engagement and to wait for top-tier global customers to recognize and adopt its NAND flash chips," another executive in the chip industry told Nikkei.

Yangtze Memory's clients include China's Lenovo Group and also Huawei, which uses its products in its base stations, one of the sources said. Yangtze Memory also introduced its first consumer-grade solid-state storage drive, dubbed Zhitai, last year.

The company has already shaken up the market for NAND flash memory. When Intel sold its NAND flash memory business to SK Hynix in 2020, some market watchers viewed the move as an attempt by the U.S. chipmaker to avoid fierce competition expected from the Chinese chipmaker.

Yangtze Memory has also given China's ambitions to build a viable semiconductor industry a major boost. Before Yangtze Memory, China had no homegrown chipmaker capable of producing 3D NAND flash memory. Its success -- starting with production of 64-layer chips in 2019 -- has helped the nation
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on foreign-made memory chips.

This breakthrough, however, came as the U.S. placed China's top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., on a trade blacklist to restrict its access to American technologies. Washington cited alleged links to the Chinese military, something the contract chipmaker has repeatedly denied. Both SMIC and Yangtze Memory still rely on U.S. chip equipment, design tools and materials, though they have started
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to reduce their reliance on American technology.

The first phase of Yangtze Memory's $24 billion plant in Wuhan, which is already in use, is being expanded to reach the target of 100,000 wafers per month. Construction on the plant's second phase, which will be able to churn out a further 200,000 wafers each month, began last June. The facility managed to stay open
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despite being located at the epicenter of the outbreak.

The company has also worked hard to shield itself from the Washington-Beijing tech battle. It introduced its own Xtacking technology -- a fundamental structure for building 3D NAND flash memory -- at the annual Flash Memory Summit in 2018 to prove to the world that it could innovate.

Company CEO Simon Yang told an industry forum the same year that his company is not a "copycat" and reassured other players that it did not intend to
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in the market.

Though Yangtze Memory is an affiliate of Tsinghua Unigroup, which is facing a serious debt problem, it continues to enjoy strong state support. It received funds from the first and second phases of the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, the so-called Big Fund, the country's most important chip funding program. Multiple sources say Yangtze Memory will not be affected by Tsinghua Unigroup's financial woes, even though other affiliates have faced
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.

Yangtze Memory did not respond to Nikkei's request for comment.

Nikkei staff writer Lauly Li contributed to the report.

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This is very significant progress for China's semiconductor industry. For all the talks about 14/7/5nm technologies, China needs to mass produce semiconductor chips to take market shares, recoup the vast investment into the sector, and start to make a dent in closing the yawning gap in semiconductor trade. Memory chips constitute the largest portion of semiconductor imports.

I see China's semiconductor industry will start to turn the tide in about 5-10 years, as it has done so in the display industry.
 

localizer

Colonel
Registered Member
Semiconductor self reliance will be more important as military technology becomes dependent on AI.

Future drones/missiles will require powerful chips to run machine vision to seek out targets. Satellites will need it to process images.

I can imagine future military targets to be SMIC fabs.
 

WTAN

Junior Member
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China has a new Manufacturer of Lithography machines.
CETC (China Electronic Technology Corp) has developed a 45nm Lithograph and will be mass producing it this year at a new factory.
CETC manufactures Semiconductor machinery and is known for producing Ion Implanters.
CETC is a large Electronics Conglomerate and is well funded. We will see many new models of DUVL from them in the future.
Looks like SMEE has got some competition.

Recently SMEE won a contract from Yangtze Memory to supply a unit of their new 28nm Immerssion DUVL. Most likely to be used for the expansion of their 3D NAND production.
 

hullopilllw

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Yangtze Memory will increase output to 100,000 wafer per month and start produce 192 layer 3D NAND in second half of this year.

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集微网消息,据日经亚洲评论报道,长江存储计划今年将产量提高一倍,并开始率先生产192层3D NAND闪存。

两名知情人士表示,长江存储计划到2021年下半年将存储芯片的月产量提高一倍,至10万片晶圆,约占全球总产量的7%。

huh 192 ? Last I read they are still testing mass production of 128 layers. Between, I have seen YMTC appearing on the radar of US thinktanks' call for entity ban list for quite some months now.
 

WTAN

Junior Member
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Wow. CETC might not match ASML/Nikon/SMEE yet, but they've got Canon beat.

I presume that CETC also has an interest in EUVL?
Its quite certain that CETC would eventually get into EUVL production.
CETC is well funded with alot of researchers and is involved in Semiconductor Machinery, Electronics Systems and Defence Electronics.
It certainly has the resources to pursue EUVL development.
SMEE has its upside as well as it has alot of experience in DUVL but the main issue is lack of funding and being the sole Lithograph manufacturer it is not as efficient as it should be.
A little competition in the Lithograph sector is probably good.
Competition could speed up EUVL development in China.
 

Oldschool

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China has a new Manufacturer of Lithography machines.
CETC (China Electronic Technology Corp) has developed a 45nm Lithograph and will be mass producing it this year at a new factory.
CETC manufactures Semiconductor machinery and is known for producing Ion Implanters.
CETC is a large Electronics Conglomerate and is well funded. We will see many new models of DUVL from them in the future.
Looks like SMEE has got some competition.

Recently SMEE won a contract from Yangtze Memory to supply a unit of their new 28nm Immerssion DUVL. Most likely to be used for the expansion of their 3D NAND production.
More players involved the better. CETC is a huge state enterprise with many research groups and companies.
Its Soul Core DSP chips are powering all the Chinese radar system.
I think it manufactures its own chips. So developing lithography equipments for its own fab make sense especially they are for military. So it can validate its own equipment with it's own chip products.
the 45nm equipment coincide with Huawei starting fab. Its only getting it's feet wet on this.
Since SMEE already have the 28nm, CETC should target the next product at 14nm with single exposure.

CETC is much more resourceful than SMEE. It definitely can beat SMEE on EUV.
 
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ansy1968

Brigadier
Registered Member
China has a new Manufacturer of Lithography machines.
CETC (China Electronic Technology Corp) has developed a 45nm Lithograph and will be mass producing it this year at a new factory.
CETC manufactures Semiconductor machinery and is known for producing Ion Implanters.
CETC is a large Electronics Conglomerate and is well funded. We will see many new models of DUVL from them in the future.
Looks like SMEE has got some competition.

Recently SMEE won a contract from Yangtze Memory to supply a unit of their new 28nm Immerssion DUVL. Most likely to be used for the expansion of their 3D NAND production.
@WTAN,

How about CXMT, any news on its expansion plan or using domestic tech?
 

weig2000

Captain
China has a new Manufacturer of Lithography machines.
CETC (China Electronic Technology Corp) has developed a 45nm Lithograph and will be mass producing it this year at a new factory.
CETC manufactures Semiconductor machinery and is known for producing Ion Implanters.
CETC is a large Electronics Conglomerate and is well funded. We will see many new models of DUVL from them in the future.
Looks like SMEE has got some competition.

Recently SMEE won a contract from Yangtze Memory to supply a unit of their new 28nm Immerssion DUVL. Most likely to be used for the expansion of their 3D NAND production.

Once upon a time (20+ years ago), China had a booming lithography machine industry with multiple players. One of the institute (can't remember which one off top of my head) in CETC was one of them. One after another, they either stopped investment or moved on, due to insufficient market demands or later foreign competitions.

The domestic EDA industry followed a similar pattern.

I suppose now they'll all regroup and start a new journey. Reminds me the domestic commericial aircraft industry, which had taken several false starts over a few decades before it gets on the right track.
 
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