Chinese semiconductor thread II

[tokenanalyst]

Peking University Yang Xuelin and Shen Bo's team made important progress in the study of atomic-level dislocation climbing dynamics in GaN epitaxial materials​

The team led by Yang Xuelin and Shen Bo from the Institute of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, the Center for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors, the State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructures and Mesoscopic Physics, and the Center for Nano-Optoelectronics Frontier Sciences have made important progress in the study of the atomic-scale climbing dynamics of dislocations in GaN epitaxial films . The relevant results were published online in Physical Review Letters on February 5, 2025 under the title " Atomistic Understanding of Dislocation Climb in Nitride Semiconductors: Role of Asymmetric Jogs".

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

 

[tokenanalyst]

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Affected by the new ban, another batch of Chinese IC design companies have their shipments suspended by TSMC

Recently, TSMC issued a formal notice to a large number of IC design companies in mainland China: from January 31, 2025, if the relevant products of 16/14 nanometers and below are not packaged in the "approved OSAT" in the BIS whitelist, and TSMC has not received a copy of the certification signature from the packaging factory, the shipment of these products will be suspended.

Jiwei.com verified with several affected mainland IC design companies, and many company executives said the news was true. Many companies said that it is indeed necessary to transfer the chips within the regulations to the approved packaging factory in the United States for packaging. For those companies that already have an account with the packaging factory, the impact is relatively small; while those companies without an account face the dilemma of seriously affecting the delivery time.

In addition, a person familiar with the matter revealed that some mainland IC design companies were also required to outsource all the tape-out, production, packaging and testing of some sensitive orders, and IC design companies cannot intervene in the entire production process. This series of requirements undoubtedly brought huge challenges to mainland IC design companies.

This will put ton of pressure towards SMIC and others to built capacity which in turn will put ton of pressure towards Chinese equipment and materials suppliers to get better, especially SMEE, which in turn will put ton of pressure China semiconductor research institutions to accelerate development which in turn will put ton of pressure towards the government for more funding.

 

[tphuang]

Black Sesame stock prices shot up after it revealed that BYD will be using its ADAS chips

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

 

[tokenanalyst]

The next fab boom in China will be 14-7 nm

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

 

[Michael90]

huawei expect to ship over 100 millions this year.

That will be impressive if true. Any link/article that shows this?

 

[Michael90]

This will put ton of pressure towards SMIC and others to built capacity which in turn will put ton of pressure towards Chinese equipment and materials suppliers to get better, especially SMEE, which in turn will put ton of pressure China semiconductor research institutions to accelerate development which in turn will put ton of pressure towards the government for more funding.

To be honest, I think they are already under far more pressure than needed. Being under even more than this won't make much difference.

 

[tokenanalyst]

To be honest, I think they are already under far more pressure than needed. Being under even more than this won't make much difference.

Oh no I think this really rise the stakes, before was 7nm and mostly AI chips, now is 16nm and is every chip. If design houses can't get their chips make is going to put a lot of pressure for more 14nm capacity from SMIC and HLMC

 

[antiterror13]

That would allow the CPUs / GPUs to run at higher clock frequencies. I wonder how much more, like possibly the equivalent of going up a step on the process node.

or possibly 2 steps (node)

 

[european_guy]

This will put ton of pressure towards SMIC and others to built capacity which in turn will put ton of pressure towards Chinese equipment and materials suppliers to get better, especially SMEE, which in turn will put ton of pressure China semiconductor research institutions to accelerate development which in turn will put ton of pressure towards the government for more funding.

This seems related to chips with 30 billion transistors or more.

US bans sales of 14nm and 16nm chips with over 30 billion transistors to China​

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Mainly US administration forces Chinese design companies that use TSMC for manufacturing to also use approved OSAT (i.e. American ones) for packaging.

It seems a kind of blackmail: "if you want to use TSMC, then you have to use US OSAT".

This will definitely have an impact in the short term, let's say in 2025. I'm thinking for instance at the new ADAS chips for autonomous driving. I don't know if Horizon Robotics, Black Sesame and the others use TSMC foundry services. If this is the case, they will surely have an impact....maybe not an unexpected one though, considering that ADAS chips are a kind of AI chips and that ADAS market will be a huge thing in the next 1/2 years. Currently the incumbent is NVIDIA, but of course Chinese automotive companies cannot rely on NVIDIA.

From China POW the only way out is for SMIC to grow capacity in the advanced nodes.

Recently there have been rumors of SMIC starting a price war in the 28nm node, it is a sign of good free capacity there. They should urgently move that capacity down to 14/16. Where "urgently" means within end of 2025. I don't know if it is technically feasible, apparently the main Chinese SME vendors are already there...with the big question mark on SMEE.

Unfortunately SMEE proves itself once again the weak link in the supply chain. The SMEE train keeps running 2 years behind schedule. This is proving painful once again.

The delay of SMEE was accumulated all before 2019, when at SMEE the old management was allowed to fake litho machines prototypes paid with government money. At the time ASML supply was considered eternal and bullet proof. A serious oversight that China is still paying today.

 

[sunnymaxi]

The next fab boom in China will be 14-7 nm
View attachment 145236

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

This chart is not correct..

10th position belongs to AMEC. which has 1.25 billion USD revenue in 2024 so they surpassed ''Kokusai Electric''

ACM Shanghai 2024 revenue is 0.95 Billion USD, which is also more than ''Kokusai Electric''

so in 2024, Two Chinese companies NAURA/AMEC entered in top10 semi equipment manufacturer list.

the way Chinese SME companies are growing. i believe, within 2-3 years from number 5 to 10 all positions will held by Chinese companies.

Unfortunately SMEE proves itself once again the weak link in the supply chain. The SMEE train keeps running 2 years behind schedule. This is proving painful once again.

The delay of SMEE was accumulated all before 2019, when at SMEE the old management was allowed to fake litho machines prototypes paid with government money. At the time ASML supply was considered eternal and bullet proof. A serious oversight that China is still paying today.

Chinese firms still buying large number of DUV's from ASML.. so they can expand 14nm/16nm with rest tools from Chinese companies. all Non-litho tools are completed and entered in production. i don't see any big issue in this expansion..

that Optics Valley conference in summer 2024, they confirmed DUVi.. completed , tested and debugged.. all critical steps have passed so what's stopped SMEE to announce or at least give some hint.. you also post the pic of SSA800i scanner..