The SOC Kirin 9020 of Huawei demonstrates how much China has advanced with the chips. And also how much you have to do

Huawei and SMIC (Semiconductor manufacturing international corp) They go hand in hand in their adventure to sustain the Chinese semiconductor industry. The sanctions that The US government has deployed During the last two and a half years they seek to stop the development of Chinese companies that are dedicated to the design and manufacture of integrated circuits. The country’s semiconductor industry led by Xi Jinping brings together hundreds of companies, but these two are its spearhead.

And they are because presumably are the ones that have the most resources at their disposal to innovate. And they are doing it. In fact, SMIC currently has the ability to manufacture Integrated 6 and 7 nm circuits. In addition, you are about to start 5 Nm chip production and plan to start Its first 3 nod nodes equipped with gaa transistors (Gate-alall-around) in 2026. It is not but that we are bad if we keep in mind that Chinese manufacturers do not have access to equipment extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) of ASML, which are the ideal to produce these semiconductors.

The Soc Kirin 9020 is a half success

The launch of the new smartphones family Huawei pure 80 It invites us to take a look at your SOC to identify what it proposes and what integration technology is involved in its manufacture. This chip has been produced by SMIC in its 7 Nm node and class N+2. This terminology indicates that it is a 7 Nm and second generation lithograph Mate 60 Pro of Huawei.

We have not yet had the opportunity to try any of the pure family 80 smartphones equipped with this SOC, but it is reasonable to anticipate that it will give users a satisfactory experience. Even so, it is evident that your performance by watt will not be comparable to that of The soc that manufactures TSMC in its nodes of 3 and 5 nm. As I mentioned a few lines above, SMIC already has the ability to manufacture integrated 6 NM circuits, and soon it can also produce 5 Nm semiconductors, but it is limited by the performance of the deep ultraviolet lithography equipment (UVP) you have in your possession.

It is meritorious that SMIC and Huawei engineers have managed to refine their integrated circuit manufacturing processes what is necessary to produce chips of 5, 6 and 7 nm with the ASML UVP equipment, but a priori it is very unlikely that with these machines they will be able to go beyond the 3 Nm. And it is because the technique of Multiple patterningwhich is what they are using, imposes important limitations. A note: 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. For China it is a big problem not to have the necessary technology to produce avant -garde semiconductors comparable to those who manufacture Intel, AMD or Qualcomm, among other western alignment companies. The great hope of the country led by Xi Jinping is having as soon as possible Your own UVE photolithography teamsand it seems that they are close. In fact, A filtration has revealed that Huawei is already testing a prototype of one of these machines. If this information is finally confirmed and China has its commercial UVE machines in 2026 will have taken a crucial step in its pulse with the US.

Image | Hiilicon

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