Some Chinese companies have been struggling with US sanctions for a long time, and now China’s self-sufficiency in the production of 7nm chips is a good thing for them.
Maybe in our country, the statement that sanctions are a bunch of torn paper is more like a joke, but in China, the situation seems different. We all know that the US government has been trying to put restrictions on Chinese technology companies for a long time and is doing this in various ways.
We saw a great example of this issue in the Trump administration’s serious confrontation with the Huawei company, and just a few days ago there was news about it The US sanctions China’s largest chip maker Released. But the Chinese continue to grow with ease.
Read more: The largest chip manufacturers in the first quarter of 2022; TSMC’s significant advantage over Samsung
China’s self-sufficiency in the production of 7 nm chips
China’s largest chip maker, SMIC, used to produce the most advanced chips in China with its 12 nm lithography, but now it has made a significant improvement in its production and is now officially the first 7 nm chip manufacturer in China.
7nm technology is very strategic and vital, and considering China’s current problems and the sanctions imposed on Chinese brands, it can solve important problems.
The United States has long blocked SMIC’s access to EUV tools, and recently even went so far as to restrict the company’s access to relatively simple tools for making DUV chips!
Although this tactic slightly slows China’s progress in advanced chip manufacturing, the country continues to invest in the development of its chip manufacturing tools and software ecosystem (EDA).
SMIC has proven an interesting point, that it can produce products with advanced gross nodes with less complex equipment, and even if this production process is not cost-effective, it seems that the Chinese intend to continue with it. This makes SMIC an attractive option for chip production and is chosen by many manufacturers.
Of course, it is not clear at the moment whether it is possible to export the products of this company due to the restrictions, but currently China has a growing ecosystem in the field of chip design and production, and as a result, designers and manufacturers can only be motivated to acquire a share in The large domestic market should also start producing their own products.
According to the information published by the specialized semiconductor analysis center TechInsights which is a custom 7nm chip produced for the company MinerVa examined, there are doubts that the process 7 nanometer SMIC From 7nm manufacturing technology TSMC copied
Apparently, despite the lack of access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing tools and restrictions imposed by the United States, SMIC has been able to create an almost complete 7nm node, a success that could lead to the production of more 7nm chips with more diverse applications in the future.
Functionally too TechInsights By closely examining similar chips from three companies, Microsoft, Google, and Apple, he found that the two 7nm technologies of Samsung and TSMC are both more advanced than the model provided by SMIC, and it can be said that he has seen a higher level design for the die chip in this field. will be Of course, the discussion about the similarity of the manufacturing technology is still in the middle.
TSMC has sued SMIC twice (in 2002 and 2006) for copying its chip manufacturing process technology. With that, TechInsights’ claim that SMIC may have copied TSMC’s 7nm could lead to further legal battles between the two companies.
However, if performance and design are improved, SMIC’s new 7nm chips can meet a large part of Chinese companies’ needs. The introduction of a 7nm chip made in China is a very critical issue; This incident clearly shows that this country can produce advanced nodes despite the extensive restrictions and sanctions in front of it.
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