The move to the 3nm node could cause the cost of semiconductors of Chinese origin to soar.
The Chinese semiconductor industry is in full swing. Beijing is seeking to break away from its dependence on Western machines and patents and pressure from the United States has only made things worse.
Beyond the embargo on some of the most modern chips, Washington insists to its allies/partners that machines like those of ASML can no longer be exported to China.
Do without the machines of the “West”
A few weeks ago, the Financial Times mentioned the possibility for two giants of the Chinese semiconductor industry – Huawei and SMIC – to produce 7nm and even 5nm chips before the end of the year.
There is obviously no question of calling into question this possibility and, on the contrary, the latest information published by Wccftech would rather tend to drive the point home. Citing the South Korean newspaper Joongang, our colleagues specify that SMIC is on the verge of starting the production of 5nm chipsets.
Chipsets planned for its partner Huawei therefore and which should result in a very wide variety of chips for which SMIC would have been forced to use so-called DUV (deep Ultraviolet) machines.
Low yields and high production costs
The embargo on EUV (extreme ultraviolet) machines designed by ASML requires Chinese manufacturers to redouble their ingenuity, but this does not seem to completely prevent SMIC from progressing.
Indeed, beyond the 7 nm and 5 nm thresholds, the Chinese company is on track towards the 3 nm node. Still according to information released by Joongang, SMIC already has a research and development team around 3 nm. In the absence of EUV machines, SMIC’s biggest challenge would be the risk of low yields and high production costs.
SMIC is therefore currently in discussions with the Chinese government for potential and significant subsidies. Critical funds while previous reports reported production costs 50% higher than those of TSMC on the 5 nm node… Each generation being much more expensive than the previous one, we can imagine the additional costs on 3 nm.
Source : Joongang, Wccftech
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