China’s big problem with chips is its difficulty to go beyond 7 Nm. Huawei’s new megaphabic confirms it

China is doing everything in your hand to achieve total independence of its semiconductor industry. The commercial and technological war that sustains with the US prevents the country of Xi Jinping access to the manufacturing equipment of Most advanced integrated circuits that produces The Dutch Company ASML. And this in practice does not allow Chinese manufacturers, such as SMIC or Hua Hong Semiconductor, produce integrated avant -garde circuits easily.

In the previous paragraph I have used the adverb “easily” intentionally because, in reality, China is manufacturing avant -garde semiconductors. They are doing it At least SMIC and Huawei using, as we have explained in other articles, a lithography technique known as Multiple patterning. This strategy in broad strokes consists in transferring the pattern to the wafer in several passes with the purpose of increasing the resolution of the lithographic process.

His problem is that he usually has an upward impact on the cost of chips and the decline in production capacity, although it works. In fact, the most advanced chips we can find in the last smartphones and hardware for artificial intelligence (IA) more sophisticated in Huawei have been manufactured using the technique of Multiple patterning with the purpose of reaching 7 Nm. However, presumably this Chinese company will produce Your new GPU for the Ascend 920 During the second half of 2025 using 6 Nm integration technology.

Satellite images show the huge complex that Huawei is building

A little over a year ago, in February 2024, the newspaper Financial Times said having had access to the statements of two experts who defended that SMIC was finalizing the refinement of their semiconductor manufacturing processes in their deep ultraviolet machines (UVP). Its purpose, according to this source, was to have the necessary technology to manufacture Integrated 5 nm circuits Massively before the year 2024. For SMIC and its clients, among which Huawei is, this would be a very important achievement.

However, Huawei’s 5 NM socates have not yet appeared. The chip Kirin 9010 which has happened to the 9000S model is also being manufactured in the 7 NM SMIC node using The technique of Multiple patterning. We can find this soc, for example, in the new triple folding of Huawei, the Mate XT Ultimate Designwhich we tried during the latest edition of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Anyway, we can be sure that Huawei is trying to develop its own integration technology to go beyond 6 and 7 nm. In addition, it has the support of the Chinese government. In fact, Financial Times He has achieved photographs taken from a satellite in which it is possible to see a titanic manufacturing complex of integrated avant -garde circuits that Huawei is building in Shenzhen.

It is meritorious that a single company is trying to develop all the links in the semiconductor supply chain and AI, As Dylan Patel arguesthe founder of the semi -health consultant, but There is a problem. And is that according to Eleanor Olcottthe Financial Times correspondent in China expert in technology, this megaplant of chips production aspires to manufacture integrated 7 nm circuits destined for smartphones and hardware for Huawei.

If this information is confirmed, it will be evident that this company is still anchored at 7 Nm, although it is important that we do not overlook that this semiconductor production plant will presumably belong to Huawei. Until now, its 7 Nm chips were manufactured by SMIC, but it seems that in a short time this company will have the ability to produce its own avant -garde circuits. It is only a matter of time that finally the barrier of the 6 and 7 nm is shot down.

Image | Huawei

More information | Financial Times

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