The key to the "breakthrough" of domestic chips, there are also Chinese enterprises outside SMIC that have emerged and upgraded their industries
Huawei HiSilicon is the world's leading chip design company, able to design China's strongest mobile phone chips, but limited by US sanctions, Huawei HiSilicon, the original leading company, was forced to stop production once it did not have a chip foundry.
Huawei HiSilicon cannot produce mobile phone chips, the main reason is that only TSMC and Samsung are the largest advanced process foundries, and they have now announced the mass production of 3nm chips, although in recent years Chinese companies are also trying to catch up, but the gap is still very obvious.
At present, Chinese companies have the ability to increase the mass production of 14nm process chips, but this level of process is obviously not enough for mobile phone chips, low-end mobile phones are almost unusable, and high-end mobile phones are certainly not good.
Therefore, to overcome the problem of domestic tablet computers, the key is to seek breakthroughs and master advanced technology. In this regard, SMIC has made breakthroughs one after another, and since its establishment more than 20 years ago, SMIC has mastered the mass production technology of mature processes such as 28nm and 14nm.
Today, SMIC continues to expand its mature process facilities, with four 28nm factories under construction in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Shenzhen, with a total investment of $170 billion, which will have even more production capacity when completed and operational.
In view of the importance of SMIC's technology and production capacity, the Chinese people have high hopes for SMIC, hoping that it will promote the development of the national integrated circuit industry chain and master more advanced technology while increasing the self-production rate of integrated circuits.
Only by mastering advanced technology will the future not be affected by US sanctions, and the real initiative will be in your own hands. But in fact, the key to China's progress in the wafer field is that in addition to SMIC, there is another Chinese company.
A few days ago, some foreign media published reports mentioning that Hua Hong Semiconductor, which has mastered the earlier chip technology, has brought new hope to Chinese chips, and the reason why foreign media say this is because they have found a way out for themselves.
Hua Hong may not be as well-known as SMIC, but the company, like SMIC, is actually headquartered in Shanghai.
In terms of business, Hua Hong Semiconductor has mastered the 8-inch wafer integrated circuit production line, focusing on wafer manufacturing, and is currently one of the top ten foundries in the world, with revenue of $1 billion by 2022.
Although it is not as large as SMIC in terms of scale, Hua Hong Semiconductor was actually established earlier, founded in 1996, and has a total of four wafer factories in Shanghai, Wuxi and other places.
This is why this veteran chip technology company is now regarded by foreign media as the key to China's chip breakthrough, because of the rise of new energy vehicles, the Internet of Things and 5G communications.
With the rise of emerging industries such as new energy vehicles, the demand for mature process chips has also increased significantly.
Unlike digital products such as mobile phones and computers that require the use of advanced process chips to achieve better performance and energy efficiency, products such as new energy vehicles do not require advanced technology, and mature processes can meet performance and computing needs.
The key is that mature wafers can also save costs, so with the expansion of large industries such as new energy vehicles, SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor and other companies have seized new opportunities, which are regarded by foreign media as the key to China's wafer breakthrough.
The semiconductor industry is ushering in a century of great changes, all roads lead to Rome, and the chip industry has not yet mastered the advanced technology.
SMIC is a good example, although mature but large-scale process field can also play a corresponding industrial value, as long as we insist on laying a good foundation, the future of China's chip enterprises will be diversified.
For example, Huawei has previously demonstrated a patent for stacked chips, which can make the chips achieve stronger performance and make up for the lack of process through the stacking combination of chips.
In general, as long as Chinese companies continue to lay a good foundation in the field of semiconductors, it is possible to wait for opportunities in the future to carry out diversified development and launch chips on the basis of mature technologies, which is also very promising.