SMIC's 14nm technology breakthrough has attracted people's attention in the market
As we all know, there are two major chip foundries in China. One is TSMC, which produces advanced 3nm and 4nm chips. The other is SMIC, which can produce mature 28nm chips and can produce chips with sub-28nm processes on a small scale.
Although SMIC's global strength is not as strong as TSMC, SMIC has only been established for 20 years. In just 20 years, SMIC has grown from one"Self-made"of"Xiaobai"To one of the world's top ten wafer foundries, it is not unprecedented, but it can also be said to be unprecedented.
It is reported that in 2019, SMIC mastered the production process of 14nm chips, and SMIC also produced 14nm chips for domestic mobile phone manufacturers on a small scale. It is no exaggeration to say that SMIC already has the foundry capability of 14nm chips, and as long as SMIC is given enough time, SMIC's large-scale mass production of 14nm chips will not be a problem.
The same is true of the current situation: in recent years, SMIC has made a number of breakthroughs in 14nm wafer manufacturing technology, which shows that SMIC has sufficient technology accumulation, and it is a high probability event to catch up with TSMC in the field of 14nm wafer foundry at the right time.
Just when people were looking forward to SMIC's 14-nanometer chip, a strange phenomenon appeared. Some time ago, SMIC's official ** introduction of the 14nm chip process was taken offline, and only the introduction of the 28nm and above process was retained.
Like SMIC's official website, the introduction of chip technology determines the type of its own product. In other words, SMIC's official website has removed the introduction of the 14nm wafer process, which is likely to indicate that SMIC is no longer focusing on the 14nm wafer process, but is focusing on the 28nm and 28nm+ processes.
Since the 14nm process is not good, why focus on the 28nm and 28nm+ processes?I think there are three reasons for this.
First of all, SMIC does not have foundry equipment for 14nm chips. As we all know, the lithography machine is the main equipment of the chip foundry. Without advanced lithography machines, foundries cannot produce advanced wafers. SMIC reportedly purchased an EUV lithography machine from ASML in 2018 that can produce 7nm chips. However, due to the old obstruction of the United States, this EUV lithography machine could not **.
In 2023, the United States, together with Japan and the Netherlands, will form the United States"Coalition", to prevent ASML, Nikon and other manufacturers from providing advanced DUV lithography machines to Chinese companies. Although DUV lithography machines are inferior to EUV lithography machines in the production of 7nm chips, they are still not a big problem in the production of 14nm chips.
Now that ASML, Nikon and other manufacturers are restricting advanced DUV lithography machines to Chinese companies, SMIC's ability to produce 14nm chips will not be able to meet customer needs, which is one of the reasons why SMIC's official website has withdrawn the 14nm chip process.
The second reason is that SMIC has mastered the 28nm chip manufacturing process, which can meet more than 70% of domestic demand. According to reports, SMIC has mastered the 28nm chip manufacturing process and established four factories, namely SMIC Shenzhen, SMIC Beijing, SMIC Oriental and SMIC Xiqing.
With these four factories, SMIC already has the strength to compete with TSMC and Samsung in the field of 28nm chips, and has a large enough say in the field of 28nm chips.
You must know that 28 nanometer and above process chips can already meet more than 70% of domestic industrial production needs. In other words, SMIC's focus on the 28nm process is a steady approach. As for the 14nm chip, it will have to wait"The time, the place, the people"Collect them all.
In addition, for SMIC, the 14nm chip technology is not strong enough, and the 14nm chip has not kept up with the most advanced processes. By far, 3nm and 4nm chips are the main demand for electronic devices. Taking smartphones as an example, the current smartphone chip process is between 4nm, 5nm and 6nm, and by 2023, 3nm chips will also be popularized.
In other words, even if SMIC puts a lot of effort into producing 14nm chips, few phone makers will buy these chips to make smartphones. Moreover, in the field of 14-nanometer chips, the 14-nanometer chips produced by SMIC are still inferior to the 14-nanometer chips produced by TSMC four or five years ago.
It can be seen that even if SMIC mass-produces 14nm chips, it will be difficult to achieve profitability.
Objectively speaking, in the field of chip foundry, mainland chip foundries cannot be compared with TSMC, Samsung and other manufacturers. Whether it is wafer foundry technology, wafer foundry equipment, or wafer production process, there is still a big gap between mainland wafer foundries and TSMC and Samsung.
In addition, mainland chip foundries have suffered from the suppression of the United States some time ago, and many chip materials cannot be purchased, resulting in the chip production capacity of mainland chip foundries not keeping up.
Here, we would like to give more time and support to mainland semiconductor companies, and thank you for your tolerance. Only in this way can our wafer industry really develop.