Semiconductor Manufacturing Worldwide Corp. (SMIC) reaching the 7-nm chip fabrication course of has been a jaw dropper. Nonetheless, whereas it’s making headlines within the expertise and commerce media, it’s vital to look at the true worth of SMIC’s so-called nice leap ahead. Can SMIC mass produce chips at its newly developed 7-nm node? The weblog makes an attempt to reply this vital however difficult query.
Nevertheless, earlier than that, let’s recap SMIC’s ascent to the 7-nm course of node, which itself has been acknowledged as a watershed second in chip manufacturing when it was launched in 2018. In comparison with the predecessor 14-nm node, the 7-nm chips considerably boosted efficiency whereas additionally being much more economical by packing much more transistors per unit space on a chip.
And a 7-nm node may be constructed with out excessive ultraviolet lithography (EUV) gear, and the broadly accessible deep ultraviolet (DUV) expertise can be utilized to manufacture a 7-nm chip. Actually, TSMC used DUV machines within the early levels of its 7-nm chip manufacturing. In keeping with some trade experiences, whereas catching up on this course of node, SMIC copied some fabrication expertise chunks from TSMC’s course of geometry dubbed N7.
Subsequent, as TechInsights work about SMIC’s 7-nm chip reveals, the usage of DUV expertise provides plenty of complexity to the chip design. For a begin, utilizing DUV gear entails extra layers of masks, main to 3 and even 4 rounds of patterning for a 7-nm chip. Then again, EUV machines can put chip patterns on a wafer floor by exposing it to gentle solely as soon as, making EUV expertise a mainstay for 7-nm and smaller nodes.
On this specific backdrop, Douglas Fuller, an professional on China’s semiconductor trade, advised Monetary Occasions that the furor over SMIC’s 7-nm progress is overblown and that China’s high fab is utilizing further publicity to make up for the dearth of EUV instruments. He additionally resonated doubts in regards to the yield of SMIC’s 7-nm chip fabricating course of.
In keeping with some trade observers, SMIC’s 7-nm yields per wafer are within the vary of 15%. That, in flip, makes the chips manufactured at this course of node very expensive, round 10 occasions the market value of a chip manufactured at TSMC’s 7-nm node. It’s additionally value noting that the crypto-miner chip recognized to have been manufactured at SMIC’s 7-nm node contains a extremely parallel design, which means decrease complexity.
Within the ultimate evaluation, SMIC’s 7-nm story relates extra to China’s political reason behind semiconductor self-sufficiency than market economics. On the identical time, nonetheless, it’s a quasi-7-nm chip manufacturing course of that would grow to be a stepping stone for a real 7-nm course of node. Right here, the lacking hyperlink is ASML’s EUV expertise, presently banned for semiconductor fabs in China.
It’s vital to notice that after imposing an export ban on the EUV expertise, there have been experiences about the US approaching Netherlands’ ASML and Japan’s Nikon to cease the supply of DUV gear to China as nicely. However that’s not prone to matter as fabs in China will need to have already purchased a ample variety of DUV machines by now. The DUV-based lithography expertise has been round for the reason that Nineteen Eighties.
SMIC has clearly been swimming towards the tide in its quest for smaller chip fabrication nodes. Although it’s come a great distance since having 28-nm course of expertise in 2021, its future roadmaps are fraught with gigantic expertise hurdles. On reflection, the delivery of a 7-nm chip marks solely the primary vital step amid considerations about yield fee, manufacturing price, and extra importantly, EUV expertise embargo.
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