China’s future in the chips industry is in the hands of a single company almost unknown: Sicarrier

Sicarrier is not a Chinese company. When we repair the country’s semiconductor industry led by Xi Jinping probably many of us think of companies like Huawei, SMICHua Hong semiconductor or Naura Technologyamong others. But not in Sicarrier. Until just a few weeks this company It was a real unknown Beyond China’s borders, but in a record time it has attracted the attention of the global industry of integrated circuits.

And he has done it for a weight reason: it is the authentic responsible for China currently having the ability to produce avant -garde chips. Although it was founded in 2021, during the last four years Sicarrier has maintained a very low profile. Its origin is not entirely clear, but The most reliable sources They collect that this company is probably a huawei split. What we know for sure is that it is a state company administered by the Shenzhen government.

Sicarrier’s soul are veteran engineers of ASML and Applyed Materials

I will not prolong the mystery more: Sicarrier is dedicated to designing and manufacturing photolithography equipment and wafering processing machines. In fact, the more than 30 products that it has presented just a few weeks ago in SemiCon China 2025 competes with the solutions of the Dutch company ASMLthe Japanese Tokyo Electron or the American Apply materials. It is shocking that a company with just four years already has proposals capable of competing in the market of chips manufacturing equipment. But it seems to have earned it.

Whatever this presumable success is not the result of chance. And is that his main team is led by engineers with more than two decades of experience in the ranks of ASML and Applyed Materials. In fact, these technicians are surely responsible for the milestone for which Sicarrier is probably in the spotlight of the US administration: the technology used by Huawei and SMIC for MANUFACT 7 NM INTEGRATED CIRCUITS derives from a patent that seeks to make the production of 5 Nm chips possible using equipment from deep ultraviolet lithography (UVP).

The most ambicious lithography equipment by Chinese integrated circuit manufacturers is the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine (UVE). ASML is the only company that produces them, but THE SANCTIONS TO CHINA DE USA They prevent you from giving it to your Chinese clients. The problem is that this equipment is necessary to produce on a large scale and with a competitive price semiconductors of 7 Nm or with even more advanced integration technologies.

Sicarrier has not presented a UVE photolithography team in China 2025. It is very unlikely to have it, but, at the same time, it is reasonable to anticipate that their engineers will be working on a machine of these characteristics. The teams that this company has already made known, or, at least, has officialized, are A 28 Nm immersion lithography machinean engraving equipment for advanced nodes below 7 Nm, diffusion machines for rapid thermal processing, chemical vapor deposition equipment for nodes of 28 to 5 Nm, verification machines and test for advanced integrated circuits, etc.

The retahíla of lithography and wafering processing that Sicarrier has presented in Semi -Con China 2025 is long. As I mentioned a few lines above, these products compete with the proposals of ASML, Applied Materials or Tokyo Electron, although the authentic Sicarrier fire test will be the tuning of a UVE lithography machine.

Du liqun, the president of this company, has declared that its strategy requires betting on the development of avant -garde lithography equipment, selective deposition machines and latest generation transist technologieslike ga (Gate-alall-around), which is already part of the Porfolio of TSMC, Intel and Samsung. It is still early to identify if Sicarrier will live up to the expectations it has generated, but there is no doubt: there is a new actor in the integrated circuit industry. And it is worth following the track very closely.

Image | Sicarrier

More information | Nomad semi

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