When other countries have tried to establish a leading edge chip manufacturing operation they’ve always been able to rely on manufacturing equipment and design software from the USA.
China is engaged on one of the most difficult industrial challenges in history – trying to simultaneously modernise both its chip industry and its chip manufacturing equipment industry.
Now the Chinese are facing a declared target of catching up in chips without US input.
This has never been done before and it may turn out to be a fool’s errand.
Under threat of being denied access to US tools, SMIC, the country’s leading logic manufacturer, has set out a plan for building an all-Chinese manufacturing line.
SMIC intends to run trial wafers on a 40nm production line built without access to US-controlled equipment supplies by the end of this year.
40nm processes were first introduced in 2008.
In 2023, SMIC intends to have an all-domestic production line making 28nm chips.
28nm processes were first introduced in 2011.
Currently China’s domestic suppliers can only provide about 20% of a 28nm line.
While SMIC tries to scale processes, the rest of the world will not be standing still – TSMC expects to be on 2nm in 2023.
China’s leading domestic suppliers of IC manufacturing equipment are:
Naura – CVD,
Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment – Etch,
Hwatsing – Chemical-Mechanical Planarisation,
ACM Research – Wafer Cleaning,
Mattson Technology – Rapid Thermal Processing,
Shanghai Precision Measurement Semiconductor Technology – Metrology and Test,
Shanghai Microelectronics Equipment – Litho,
Sizone Technology – Chemical-Mechanical Planarisation, Shenzhen Skyverse – Metrology and Test,
Shenyang Piotech – CVD, PVD.
China has set itself a huge mountain to climb and risks falling flat on its face if it makes a mess of it.
The chip business has always been internationalised and trying to go it alone is a bizarre endeavour.
To what end? Presumably China thinks that domestic self reliance in chip technology will give it the independence it needs to oppress Tibet, bully Uighurs, scrap with India, pursue territorial expansion in the South China Sea, threaten Taiwan, expand its economic clout in Africa and buy chunks of the Italian economy.
So one rather hopes the chip efforts fail.
Source: electronicweekly
