In recent years, with the increasingly fierce competition in the global chip industry, the upgrading and breakthrough of manufacturing processes have become the focus of competition for technology companies in various countries. In this field, the United States occupies a hegemonic position with its strong technological strength and market influence. At the same time, domestic enterprises have also ushered in huge challenges and pressures, and there is a large gap in the chip manufacturing process.
Although China has many excellent chip design companies such as Huawei HiSilicon and high-level chip manufacturing companies such as SMIC, due to the technological blockade by the United States, domestic enterprises cannot obtain EUV lithography machines to manufacture high-end chips, resulting in the relative lag of domestic chips. However, in August this year, the successful mass production of Huawei's Kirin 9000S chip showed that domestic companies have the ability to manufacture 7nm chips, thereby alleviating the development pressure caused by the US chip embargo.
The improvement of chip performance is inseparable from the upgrade of manufacturing process. The space of the chip is limited, so in order to effectively improve the performance, it is necessary to continuously optimize the process to increase the density of the transistors under the limited transistor density. In other words, the chip manufacturing process directly determines the performance of the chip. For example, on a silicon wafer of the same size, the transistor density of a 3nm chip is hundreds of times that of a 7nm chip, so the performance is much better than that of a 7nm chip.
Surprisingly, ASML announced that it will launch a 2NMEUV lithography machine next year, with a production capacity of 10 units, of which 6 have been booked by Intel. This means that Intel is expected to surpass TSMC and Samsung in chip manufacturing, realize the localization of high-end chip manufacturing in the United States, and reduce the risk of being blocked by technology. However, due to the restrictions in the United States, these 2NMEUV lithography machines may not be able to enter the Chinese market in the next few years, which will further widen the gap between the domestic chip industry and the United States, affecting the market competitiveness of domestic technology companies.
In order to promote the development of the local chip manufacturing industry, China has not only invested heavily in infrastructure construction, but also issued a series of preferential policies to support semiconductor-related enterprises. Under the call of the first company, a large number of enterprises have entered the semiconductor field, and more than 100,000 new semiconductor companies have been established in just two years, setting off a wave of development"China Chip"of the craze. However, there are also many businesses that exist"Subsidies are cheating on the spot"problems, in 2023 alone, there will be 1090,000 semiconductor companies disappeared, most of which were newly established. The false existence of these enterprises has seriously affected the country's advancement"China Chip"strategic objectives.
In the face of the dual pressure of international competition and technological blockade, domestic technology companies urgently need to make breakthroughs in chip manufacturing processes. Although some progress has been made in China, there is still a big gap compared with the United States and other Western countries. In order to promote the development of the chip industry, the country and enterprises need to strengthen R&D investment, train more professionals, and accelerate the solution of key technical problems. At the same time, it is also necessary to increase policy support and financial support to provide a better innovation environment for enterprises and promote the rapid rise of the domestic chip industry. Only in this way can we realize the independent and controllable domestic chip manufacturing, narrow the gap with the international advanced level, and enhance the market competitiveness of domestic science and technology enterprises.