China’s largest foundry raises alarm with production of basic 7nm SoCs

Posted: July 24, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | 9 Comments

JUL 23, 2022, 12:11 AM

Alan Friedman

@wolfcallsputs

China very badly wants to be self-sufficient when it comes to manufacturing chipsets. But it has had a problem as the U.S. has tried to prevent this from happening. China’s largest foundry, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), could only produce chips using its 14nm process node compared to the 5nm process node being used by leading foundries TSMC and Samsung (and both will be shipping 3nm chips later this year).

Despite U.S. sanctions, SMIC is beginning work on reducing the process node lead that TSMC and Samsung have

This is important because the lower the process node, the higher the number of transistors that can fit inside a chip. And the more transistors inside a chip, the more powerful and energy-efficient the chip is. With 15 billion transistors in Apple’s A15 Bionic, you have to wonder how such components can be designed. The answer is a machine manufactured by Dutch firm ASML, the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine.

Even without a $150 million EUV machine, like the one in this picture, SMIC is able to work on the 7nm process node – China’s largest foundry raises alarm with production of basic 7nm SoCs

Even without a $150 million EUV machine, like the one in this picture, SMIC is able to work on the 7nm process node

The EUV machine etches circuitry designs on a wafer that are a fraction of the thickness of a human hair. The machine has been credited with keeping Moore’s Law alive; that is the observation made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors in chips would double, at first every year. When Moore revised his “Law” in the 1970s, he changed the time frame to “every other year.”

In 2020, an export rule change made by the U.S. Commerce Department blocked foundries around the world from shipping cutting-edge chips to China’s Huawei if those foundries manufacture chips using U.S. technology. As a result, Huawei has been forced to use Qualcomm’s current Snapdragon chips that are modified to run 4G speeds only thus blocking Huawei from producing 5G capable phones.

The U.S. also has taken steps in the past to prevent SMIC from obtaining EUV machines from ASML to prevent China from producing cutting-edge chips. But when we last looked at SMIC last September, it announced that it was spending billions to build new fabs and planned on going after TSMC in the 28nm segment which is used for Wi-Fi chips and other integrated circuits.

SMIC might have copied TSMC’s technology in order to build its 7nm SoC.

More interesting was that SMIC said that it had been developing a node called N+1 that could compete with 7nm chips. And all this was being achieved without an EUV machine. Now a firm called TechInsights (via Tom’s Hardware) says that it has discovered that SMIC used its 7nm process node to build a Bitcoin Miner SoC. After reverse engineering the chip, TechInsights said, “”initial images suggest it is a close copy of TSMC 7nm process technology.”

TSMC has sued SMIC twice for copying its technology – China’s largest foundry raises alarm with production of basic 7nm SoCs

TSMC has sued SMIC twice for copying its technology (image omitted)

This might not be so surprising since TSMC has sued SMIC twice for copying its technology. But however SMIC managed to do it, the cat is now out of the bag and the feline cannot be stuffed back in the sack. If TechInsights is correct, SMIC can build 7nm chips. And even though the foundry remains several nodes behind TSMC and Samsung, alarms are being raised.

Because profits might not matter to a company like SMIC that counts State-owned firms as investors, it might not matter to the Chinese government how uneconomical SMIC is in producing 7nm chipsets. As a result, there is a fear that SMIC can get even closer to TSMC and Sammy. And if SMIC did steal tech from TSMC, China could be moving toward process node parity with the top foundries faster than we might think.

The MinerVa Bitcoin mining chip shows signs of being an early stage production. Bitcoin miners do not use much RAM memory which allows the 7nm SMIC chip to get by without the full capabilities that similar chips from other cutting-edge foundries would have.

Still, while we hate to repeat ourselves, the Chinese government has the money and the brainpower to eventually get around the lack of an EUV machine. In the meantime, SMIC is sure to build more complex chipsets based on its 7nm process node. Right now, SMIC’s 7nm node isn’t even ready to tackle smartphones, or else we’d see Huawei use it in its handsets.

As TechInsights notes, “This is the most advanced technology product TechInsights has seen from SMIC so far and may be leading to a true 7nm process that incorporates scaled logic and memory bitcells. It also has key implications for Chinese chip companies, as it helps to reduce China’s reliance on Western technologies during this time of restricted access.”

Source: PhoneArena “China’s largest foundry raises alarm with production of basic 7nm SoCs”

Note: This is PhoneArena’s article I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean whether I agree or disagree with the article’s views.

New US$12 billion factory for SMIC 7nm and other sub-14nm wafers

Posted: February 9, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Comments Off on New US$12 billion factory for SMIC 7nm and other sub-14nm wafers

The Shanghai Municipal and Development Reform Commission has announced US$12 billion in project funding for a new SMIC-owned semiconductor foundry to produce sub-14nm wafers. This is another step towards creating an independent semiconductor industry in China that avoids US sanctions.

Craig Ward,

02/08/2021

Shanghai China-based SMIC, the third-largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world, and the Shanghai government have announced the development of a new US$12 billion plant to focus on its 14nm and smaller lithography.

As reported by WCCFTech, SMIC’s new factory was one of the dozens of new projects funded by the Shanghai regional government to create a self-sustaining supply chain for electronics production. Producing its own 7nm wafers is particularly relevant for the company after being added to the United State’s trade entity blacklist in late 2020.

This new manufacturing plant currently has targeted output of 35k 12-inch wafers per month. This will be a drop in the bucket compared to SMIC’s current 385k 8-inch and 195k 12-inch wafer production, but it is significant because this fab will make up a large portion of the company’s sub-14nm production.

SMIC’s new 7nm node, announced in October of last year, will be produced at the new factory. This node reportedly compares well to competing nodes from other semiconductor manufacturers in all but performance, leading to tailoring the output to low-performance/low-power uses.

Source: notebookcheck.net “New US$12 billion factory for SMIC 7nm and other sub-14nm wafers”

Note: This is notebookcheck.net’s report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean that I agree or disagree with the report’ views.

China a step closer to microchip independence

Posted: December 2, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Breakthroughs reported in homegrown semiconductor development and advanced EUV lithography machines

By DAVE MAKICHUK

DECEMBER 1, 2020

China has recently made new breakthroughs in its 7nm chip-making process, reportedly developing tools and know-how. Credit: Courtesy, KR-Asia.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself … you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.”

— General, strategist and philosopher, Sun Tzu

It appears that US attempts to enforce trade restrictions on China over semiconductor chips, has done what many analysts predicted — it has awakened a sleeping giant.

Among others, Thomas Friedman, a columnist for the New York Times, said during a recent online forum that China intends to build an entire microchip supply chain from end to end.

In other words, it will no longer be dependent on US technologies, according to the country’s latest five-year plan.

And if any nation can do that, you know it is China.

According to a report from China.org.cn and carried by PR Newswire, China has moved a step closer to self-reliance in 7nm chip production.

It has recently made new breakthroughs in its 7nm chip-making process, reportedly developing tools and know-how for several segments of the manufacturing process.

Last month, China’s chip customization solution provider Innosilicon announced that it had taped out and completed testing of a prototype chip based on the FinFET N+1 process of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), PR Newswire reported.

This achievement marks a major step forward in China’s homegrown chip development amid efforts to reduce reliance on foreign equipment and material vendors.

Amid major trade restrictions enforced by the United States, SMIC’s new generation foundry node is said to be comparable to the 7nm process by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, PR Newswire reported.

As China’s largest chip foundry, SMIC will introduce its N+1 7nm node, marking a significant improvement over its current 14 nm production node, boasting a 20% increase in performance, power consumption reduction of 57%, a reduced logic area of 63%, and SoC (System on a Chip) area reduction of 55%, according to the company.

Moreover, the N+1 foundry node may enable SMIC to break its reliance on advanced Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines produced by Dutch microchip machine maker ASML, according to Liang Mengsong, co-CEO of SMIC. ASML is subject to US export controls as its products contain American technology, PR Newswire reported.

At the same time, China is working hard to develop its own lithography system.

The Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-Bionics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Sinano), along with the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, recently announced a breakthrough in a new type of 5nm laser lithography technology.

Experts believe it could lay the foundation for research into a self-developed advanced lithography machine, PR Newswire reported.

The new technology has broken the traditional constraint in laser direct writing (LDW) with its ability to process at the nano level. In addition to ultra-high precision, the technology also demonstrates potential for mass production.

As the world’s largest semiconductor market, China has been spending aggressively in semiconductor investment, acquisition, and talent recruitment to bolster the industry by on-shoring chip manufacturing equal to those of the world’s top foundries.

A report by Goldman Sachs on July 2 predicted that China may be capable of producing 7nm chips by 2023.

Intel, of course, is America’s largest producer of semiconductors, and one of the world’s biggest microchip manufacturers, National Interest reported.

In fact, it’s the only major US-owned producer that still manufactures state-of-the-art logic chips domestically — or at least is still trying to.

This capability matters decisively for US technological competitiveness because these are the products whose current capabilities and vast potential drive the so-called process innovation that enables the entire microelectronics industry to create faster, more powerful products, National Interest reported.

Most of the rest of the semiconductor sector — both in the US and elsewhere in the world — has transitioned to a so-called “fabless” business model, in which companies develop and design semiconductors while letting contract manufactures handle the challenge of building and operating ever more expensive fabrication facilities (or “fabs” for short).

As such, semiconductors continue to play a central role in making information technology hardware and enabling it to use all the software developed for these devices — including the networking gear that houses the Internet and are the keys to creating new generations of state-of-the-art weapons systems, National Interest reported.

It’s easy to understand then why alarm bells have gone off on Wall Street and in the American national security community.

Intel not only announced that it had bungled its effort to mass manufacture a new family of chips, but raised the prospect of exiting semiconductor manufacturing altogether.

As a result, America will become increasingly hard-pressed to use it to handle challenges in artificial intelligence, networking, cybersecurity, and the like that will continue to increasingly dominate military operations, National Interest reported.

Sources: China.org.cn, PR Newswire, The National Interest

Source: Asia Times “China a step closer to microchip independence”

Note: This is Asia Times’ report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean that I agree or disagree with the report’ views.

Tape-out based on SMIC’s N+1 technology succeeds despite sanctions

Posted: October 14, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off on Tape-out based on SMIC’s N+1 technology succeeds despite sanctions

By Zhang Hongpei

Source: Global Times Published: 2020/10/12 19:43:40

Innosilicon, a Chinese company focusing on one-stop intellectual property (IP) and customized chip design, announced on Monday that it has completed the world’s first chip tape-out and test based on the FinFET N+1 advanced technology of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), the largest Chinese chipmaker.

A tape-out is the final phase of a design life cycle for a chip design before manufacturing starts.

All IP is developed in-house and the functions are tested once, Innosilicon said on its website. The firm invested tens of millions of yuan into optimizing chip design in 2019, when SMIC’s N+1 process was not that mature, according to Innosilicon.

N+1, SMIC’s next-generation foundry node, offers a conspicuous improvement in performance and logic density. Compared with its existing 14-nanometer (nm) process, N+1 manufacturing technology can increase a chip’s performance by 20 percent and cut its power consumption by 57 percent, said Liang Mengsong, co-CEO of SMIC.

Xiang Ligang, director-general of telecom industry association Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times that the successful tape-out indicates the reliability of the advanced technology. The N+1 process can basically be realized at the 8-nm level, while N+2 equals the 7-nm level.

“Issues around technology can be solved step by step, and our current technology can basically meet our demand,” Xiang said.

However, making a technology breakthrough is one thing, but taking it to the point of mass production is another, and the latter is more crucial in the industry, according to Xiang.

In its annual report in April, SMIC said its N+1 process has made steady progress in research and development, and is “now in the customer engagement and product qualification stage.”

On Monday, SMIC’s shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange rose 12.70 percent and its shares on the Hong Kong bourse gained 11.47 percent.

The N+1 tape-out breakthrough came on the heels of SMIC’s falling onto the US’ export sanctions list, as the latter has been relentlessly cracking down on Chinese high-tech firms.

The chipmaker acknowledged earlier this month that some of its suppliers had been restricted by US export controls, and given the uncertainties in US equipment supplies, its business may be affected.

The US sanctions may disrupt SMIC’s next moves, including purchases of manufacturing equipment and raw materials, but the short-term impact would not be much given the Chinese firm’s inventories, said Ma Jihua, a veteran analyst in the high-tech sector.

Despite being years behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, SMIC is catching up, based on its reinvention of mature technologies, Ma noted. In comparison, the chip technology used by TSMC has gradually neared its limits.

TSMC is accelerating mass production of the 5-nm process. The higher version of the 5-nm chips will enter mass production in 2021. Its 3-nm process will be in mass production by the second half of 2022.

Source: Global Times “Tape-out based on SMIC’s N+1 technology succeeds despite sanctions”

Note: This is Global Times’ report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean that I agree or disagree with the report’ views.