SK hynix has proposed a new way to manufacture chips using EUV lithography machines in China
As we all know, under the restrictions of the United States on EUV lithography machines, exports to China are not allowed, and even TSMC, Samsung, and SK hynix in Chinese mainland cannot purchase EUV lithography machines.
The United States attempted to block Chinese mainland's access to advanced microimaging technology, and finally obtained permission for Chinese mainland to manufacture advanced chips"State bailout"。
Therefore, companies such as Samsung, SK hynix, and TSMC do not need to use EUV lithography technology, while China cannot operate normally due to the lack of EUV lithography machines.
However, along with technological progress, many problems have inevitably arisen, such as SK hynix, which has about 40% of its DRAM production capacity from China.
Due to the continuous updating of the DRAM process, SK Hynix's plant in Chinese mainland will also use the 10 nm DRAM process with a 4 nm process, but there are still many problems to be solved due to the need to use the EUV lithography process.
But Chinese mainland cannot introduce extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, so what about SK hynix?This must be updated, if the new technology is not updated, it means that their products will be replaced by other manufacturers.
TSMC said that Chinese factories will not be the future development trend from any point of view, because the cost of setting up factories in the mainland is the cheapest in the world, and the cost of setting up factories in China is lower elsewhere.
In addition, 40% of SK hynix's production capacity in Chinese mainland could not be transferred due to the lack of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, so SK hynix had to find another way.
Some time ago, there was news that SK hynix will take"Curveballs"way, i.e., the manufacturing process is implemented by phase and partition.
The chip is first processed for EUV lithography in Wuxi, China, and then sent to South Korea for EUV lithography, and then a final process in China, thus achieving a 4 nm process upgrade.
According to news reports, shipping from Chinese mainland to South Korea and then to Chinese mainland costs a lot of money, but considering the size of the memory, the cost of shipping is not high, so it can still be considered.
If SK hynix can do this, then other chip companies won't do it, because their best is the most important thing.
If the quality of the products manufactured in this way is lower than that of foreign countries or other places, I believe that many companies will do the same, right?