chips

The benefits of Chips chips manufacturer have fallen 45% in 2024. US sanctions have injured

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In the middle of last January we tell you that during 2024 the semiconductor industry of China has produced 12.5% more than in 2023. Not bad at all, especially if we are in mind that US sanctions And his allies prevent Chinese integrated circuit manufacturers access lithography equipment for extreme ultraviolet (UVE) produced by the Dutch company ASML. And since the beginning of 2024 they cannot buy more machines from deep ultraviolet lithography (UVP). At the current situation it is reasonable that we ask ourselves what kind are the integrated circuits that Chinese manufacturers are massively producing. And the answer is very revealing: these are chips derived from mature integration technologiesusually 28 nm or less advanced. After all, the semiconductors that we find mostly on electronic devices, appliances or cars, among other products, have been produced using them. The sanctions hinder the production of avant -garde chips to SMIC A good part of Chinese chip manufacturers, such as Hua Hong Semiconductor, China Resources Microelectronics or Guangzhou Zensemi, is manufacturing integrated circuits of 28 Nm or with even more mature technologies. And the company Beijing Yandong Microelectronics (YDME) will build A plant of 4.6 billion dollars expressly to produce 28 Nm semiconductors in 300 mm wafers. It is evident that these companies would not turn in this way in the manufacture of mature chips if it was not a profitable strategy, and, above all, necessary to support the Chinese industry of the integrated circuits at such a critical moment as the current one. SMIC has the ability to manufacture integrated 7 nm circuits. And probably also 5 nm However, the business of SMIC (Semiconductor manufacturing international corp), which is the largest Chinese manufacturer of semiconductors with a fee in the world market of about 5%it goes for other paths. This company currently has the ability to manufacture Integrated 7 Nm circuits. And probably also 5 nm. We know it with total certainty because this company manufactures, for example, the soc Kirin 9000s integrated into the smartphone Mate 60 Pro of Huawei, which has been scrupulously analyzed by several laboratories aligned with the US, such as the Canadian Techinsights. Unlike most of Chinese integrated circuit manufacturers, SMIC does not live from mature chips. Your business revolves around the avant -garde semiconductors. To manufacture the 7 NM circuits that is delivering to Huawei and other customers using the UVP lithography equipment that has in its possession has been forced to resort to a technique known as Multiple patterning. And this strategy has two problems: it has an upward impact on the cost of chips and the decrease in production capacity. In addition, it is important that we do not overlook that the sanctions deployed by the US and the Netherlands prevent SMIC from buying more UVP teams from ASML. And it also does not have access to some maintenance and support services. These circumstances have caused their performance and competitiveness for 2024 They have deterioratedand as a consequence Its benefits have fallen 45%: Of the 902.5 million dollars that reached in 2023 to 492.7 million in 2024. There is no doubt that it is a hard blow for a company with the size that SMIC has, so it will be interesting to verify how it reacts for 2025 To improve your competitiveness. More information | SCMP In Xataka | China prepares for the worst scenario: fears that the US prevents TSMC to give it chips for cars and smartphones

We already know when and where will 1 nm chips manufacture

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The economic results that has reached TSMC for 2024 They have been extraordinary. In fact, their income has broken a record by increasing 34% compared to those obtained in 2023. Only during last December the 8,400 million dollarsa figure that represents an increase of 57.8% compared to the same month of the previous year. The engine of these figures are semiconductors for applications of artificial intelligence (AI) that TSMC manufactures for Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom and other customers. However, the arrival of Donald Trump to the US government pours some clouds over this Taiwanese company. During the electoral campaign he promised that he would make the decisions that were necessary to reinforce the business of US companies within the US. And he also assured that he would sanction tariffs all those countries that threaten the interests of the nation that leads since January 20. As soon as he has been in the government for three weeks, and he is already doing both. “In the very close future we will impose tariffs on foreign production of computer chips, semiconductors and pharmaceutical products to return the manufacture of these essential goods to the US (…) went to Taiwan; now we want them to return. We do not want to give them Millions of dollars in the ridiculous Biden program. 100%”, Donald Trump recently declared during a conference that was held in Florida (USA). Punta technology is the best TSMC asset The express mention to Taiwan that the US president has made is a very clear allusion to TSMC. On this Asian island there are other semiconductor manufacturers, such as UMC (United Microelectronics Corporation) or PSMC (Powerchip semiconductor manufacturing corporation), but its relevance in the chips market is much lower than that of the company currently leads CC Wei. TSMC dominates the integrated circuit market with A quota of approximately 60%so your leadership in the chip manufacturing industry is indisputable. TSMC is developing its infrastructure in the US to protect your business in the US market Anyway, the passing step that the US administration is going to give will not take TSMC by surprise. This company has been outlining its strategy for more than four years to extend its semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure Beyond Taiwan’s borders. And he is doing it for two reasons. On the one hand it is an effective way to protect your business if at any time it is triggered A war conflict between China and Taiwanand their plants on the island were useless. And, in addition, TSMC is significantly developing its infrastructure in the US to protect your business in the US market. However, this is not all. The newspaper Taiwan Economic Daily He has published a report in which he ensures that TSMC plans to tune up a cutting -edge semiconductor plant that will be expressly designed to produce 1 Nm chips. It will be housed in the Taiwanese town of Tainan, and will be called ‘Fab 25’. He will work with 12 -inch wafers, will have six production lines and start large -scale manufacturing in 2030. It may seem that there is still a long time left, but it is not so. Building a state -of -the -art chips factory usually requires at least three years. And then TSMC engineers will have to purify and Optimize your 1 Nm production nodes. We will see if this company finally fulfills its purpose, but there is no doubt about one thing: the most effective protection against the measures that the administration led by Donald Trump approves in the future is having the best technology in the semiconductor industry. This is precisely what TSMC pursues. Image | TSMC More information | Taiwan Economic Daily In Xataka | Intel was about to snatch Apple as a client from TSMC. Having achieved its story would be another

Philips was the second largest chips manufacturer on the planet. Now it is out of a market led by its creation: ASML

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What we have promised you in the head of this article is strictly true. As Marc Hijink explains in his highly recommended and fresh out of the oven ‘Focus: The Asml Way’during the decade of the 70s of the last century Philips was the second largest manufacturer of semiconductors of the world. The leader in this market at that time was the American company Texas Instrumentsbut the Dutch firm had a long career in the field of innovation and technological development. In the early 70th Philips had more than 400,000 employees, and approximately 90,000 worked in the Netherlands. At that time his business was mainly held on The design and manufacture of televisionsradios, medical equipment, appliances and lighting solutions. His Porfolio was not but that nothing wrong, although his true strength was that absolutely everything was designed and manufactured within Philips. Today this strategy would be impracticable. Anyway, if we stick to the production of integrated circuits, the interesting thing is that the lithography equipment used at that time had also been devised and manufactured by engineers of the company itself. In fact, its first flirting with the semiconductors dates back to the late 50s of the last century. At that time the Philips Board of Directors realized of the enormous potential the chips had And he decided to create several research centers, as well as collaborate with technological universities and laboratories. ASML is the result of an inspired alliance During the decades of the 60s and 70th Philips was already a great technological emporium. In the early 80s he had acquired a lot of experience in the field of semiconductor manufacturing, but the industry sued smaller and capable chips. These requirements represented a technical challenge for company engineers who were responsible for the design of photolithography equipment, so in 1984 the Philips directive dome made a very important decision: he decided to associate with the Dutch company ASM International (Advanced material semiconductor). Currently all companies that produce advanced semiconductors have in their plants the UVP or ASML UVE machines The purpose of this alliance was to take advantage of Philips’s extensive experience in the set -up Design and manufacture avant -garde photolithographic equipment. The result of this collaboration was the birth of ASML (Advanced Materials Semiconductor), the Dutch company that leads the production industry of these machines thanks to the enormous success that their teams have had extreme ultraviolet lithography (UVE). Currently all companies that produce advanced semiconductors have in their plants the machines of deep ultraviolet lithography (UVP) or extreme ultraviolet asml. Some of them are TSMC, Samsung, Intel, SK Hynix, Micron Technology, SMIC or UMC. However, once we have reached this moment it is reasonable that we ask ourselves why Philips is no longer a relevant actor in the integrated circuit manufacturing industry. In ‘Focus: The Asml Way’Marc Hijink tells us that after the creation of Asml Philips he settled. Its chips factories lost competitiveness and little by little they ceased to be able to develop the semiconductors required by the market. Jon Yu, the person in charge of the Newsletter The Asianometrysuggests essentially the same During the conversation who has maintained with Ben Thompson, the author of the interesting publication Stratechery. “As they count on ASML, Philips failed. It was a company with Too much bureaucracy and too much clinging to their customs. It is something similar to what happened with the Japanese in the 90s. Philips had already fulfilled his cycle and deserved to conclude, although he apparently sold his participations too soon. “It is a pity. And it is because there is no doubt that in the Current situation to Europe would have two leading companies in semiconductors. * Some price may have changed from the last review Image | ASML BIBLIOGRAPHY | ‘Focus: The Asml Way’by Marc Hijink More information | The Asianometry In Xataka | 2024 has been a year full of uncertainty for chip designers. So much that the market has changed leader

Copper has reigned in the chips industry for decades. It already has an unbeatable substitute: Ruthenium

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Rare earth monopolize the prominence in the field of semiconductors and other industries since they began The tensions between the US and China. Gallic, Germanio and antimony do not belong to this group of exotic chemical elements, but they are also being used as exchange currency For these two great powers To assault yourself. Anyway, in the domain of integrated circuits there is a chemical element that is much more humble, but that is also essential. And it is not the essential silicon. It is copper. This transition metal is not one of the most abundant chemical elements on our planet, but it is not uncommon either. And fortunately, it is relatively simple to extract and process it. It stands out for its high electrical conductivity and good thermal conductivity, as well as its ductility and corrosion resistance. These properties have caused it to be one of the essential elements in the manufacture of semiconductors for decades, but little by little an alternative is being made that seems to be called to unseat it. And it is really exotic. Ruthenium is making its way in the integrated circuit industry Before we investigate the properties of Ruthenium, it is good for us to know precisely what the chips manufacturers use the copper. And they use it first of all in the connections of the transistors within the integrated circuits. Copper links are responsible for transmitting electrical signals between some transistors and others, so their intervention is essential within the semiconductors. In fact, the electrical properties that I have highlighted in the previous paragraph are responsible for this metal having such a relevant role. However, its adoption was initially not simple. And it was not because copper can be filtered in silicon. This process is known as the diffusion of copper in silicon, and is similar to the electromigration of which We talk to you in this other article To explain why this last phenomenon represents a threat to our electronic devices. In any case, during the diffusion the copper atoms move and infiltrate the crystalline structure of the silicon, degrading it and conditioning its physicochemical properties. “Now I think the industry is probably considering ruthenium as the next great advance in interconnections beyond copper.” Fortunately, IBM found the solution to this problem in 1998. His researchers realized that it was possible copper infiltrate silicon. This strategy was so effective that the semiconductor industry adopted it and has maintained it so far. However, innovation makes its way, and Ruthenium, as I mentioned a few lines above, seems to be called to replace copper in connections between transistors. Jon Yu, the person in charge of the Newsletter The Asianometryhe has suggested very rightly During the conversation who has maintained with Ben Thompson, the author of the interesting publication Stratechery. “The entire industry followed the steps of IBM And copper had to be treated in an innovative way that has worked well for more than 20 years. Now I believe that the industry is probably considering ruthenium as the next great advance in interconnections beyond copper. “ Like copper, Ruthenium is a transition metal. The two properties that make it so interesting to occupy the place of copper within the integrated circuits are its high electrical conductivity and its excellent corrosion resistance. However, we cannot overlook something very important: Ruthenium is very scarce in the earth’s crust. Very scarce. Only 0.0000002% of the cortex of our planet is Ruthenium. The main reserves of this metal are found in South Africa, Russia, Zimbabue, Canada and the US. We will see if it is finally consolidated as one of the essential ingredients of The next generation of integrated circuits. If so, in all likelihood it will become another object of desire for the great powers. Image | TSMC More information | The Asianometry Newsletter In Xataka | The 2 Nm chips race will start in 2025. And it will be the most fierce of all

It will impose tariffs from 25 to 100% to the chips manufactured in Taiwan

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Donald Trump is fulfilling his word. During the electoral campaign he promised that he would make the decisions that were necessary to reinforce the business of US companies within the US. And he also assured that he would sanction tariffs all those countries that threaten the interests of the nation that leads since January 20. As soon as he has been in the government for a week, and he is doing both. “In the very close future we will impose tariffs on foreign production of computer chips, semiconductors and pharmaceutical products to return the manufacture of these essential goods to the US (…) went to Taiwan; now we want them to return. We do not want to give them Millions of dollars in the ridiculous Biden program. 100%”, Donald Trump declared yesterday during a conference that was held in Florida (USA). This measure of the Donald Trump’s government has not taken TSMC offset The express mention to Taiwan that the US president has made a few hours ago is a very clear allusion to TSMC. On this Asian island there are other semiconductor manufacturers, such as UMC, but its relevance in the chip market is much lower than that of the company currently leading CC Wei. TSMC dominates the integrated circuit market with A quota of approximately 60%so your leadership in the chip manufacturing industry is indisputable. TSMC has been leaching its strategy for more than four years to extend its semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure beyond Taiwan’s borders Anyway, the passing step that the US administration is going to give will not take TSMC by surprise. This company has been outlining its strategy for more than four years to extend your manufacturing infrastructure of semiconductors beyond the borders of Taiwan. And he is doing it for two reasons. On the one hand it is an effective way to protect your business if at any time it is triggered A war conflict between China and Taiwanand their plants on the island were useless. But, in addition, TSMC is significantly developing its infrastructure in the US. His plan is that their new Arizona factories not only serve to protect their business from a possible conflict between China and Taiwan; They also protect it from the foreseeable US tariffs. The first of these plants is already producing integrated circuits in the N4 lithographic node, which belongs to the Finfet family of 5 Nm. In fact, he is about to deliver Apple’s first chips games. The second Arizona factory will be operational in 2028 and will produce circuits integrated in N3 (3 Nm) and N2 (2 Nm) nodes. And finally, the third factory will not be listed at all until the end of this decade and will produce chips in the N2 (2 nm) node. So far the most advanced TSMC integration technologies were only available In its Taiwan plantsbut, as we have just seen, Soon they will also be in the US. And in this way it will solve two problems of a stroke: it will be fought from the tariffs that the Trump government will approve and will reinforce its production infrastructure beyond its country of origin. One last note: in addition to the US, TSMC is building New plants in Japan and Europe. Image | TSMC More information | C-Span In Xataka | Intel’s plan in front of an unattainable TSMC: beat Samsung and consolidate as the second largest chips manufacturer

The price of energy that its chips factory is using in Ireland

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The tuning of an advanced semiconductor factory equipped with machines with avant -garde lithography It costs up to 30,000 million euros. This is precisely what will cost the plant that Intel will build in Magdeburg (Germany) If the project finally goes ahead. And, as we tell you at the beginning of last November, this company has decided delay the start of construction of this factory until 2029 or 2030. Initially the works were going to start during the first half of 2023, but The negotiation of subsidies forced to delay this date until the summer of 2024. However, Finally Intel and the German government agreed as a construction start date May 2025. Anyway, the four or five years of lag planned by this company are a consequence of the delicate situation in The one that is intel. The cost of energy is crucial to preserve the competitiveness of a factory The center of the conversation on this occasion is not occupied by the Magdeburg plant, although we stay in Europe; It is monitored by the factory that Intel has in Leixlip (Ireland). These facilities began producing integrated avant -garde circuits In the Intel 4 node In September 2023, and they are also manufacturing semiconductors in the Intel 3 node. This plant is equipped with equipment of extreme ultraviolet lithography (UVE) produced by the Dutch company ASML, and has a fundamental role in Intel infrastructure to serve its European clients. Intel is paying for electricity in Ireland that in the US or Israel As we have seen in the first lines of this article, the cost derived from the tuning of a last niche plant is very high, but, in addition, Intel has just stumbled with a problem in his Leixlip factory: The price of electricity in Ireland. According to this US company, this cost amounts to 15 cents per kilovatio houra figure that is approximately double high as in the US or Israel, which are the venues of some of its most advanced semiconductor production plants. As we can intuit, the price of electricity paid a chip factory has a direct impact on the final cost of the integrated circuits it produces. And, therefore, also in its competitiveness. Intel has rushed to ensure that the future of the Leixlip plant is assured due to the very important role he plays in his infrastructure, but in Rte They argue that he is negotiating with the Irish government to find a way to reduce the cost of electricity that he is currently paying. Presumably it is likely that the State finally assume a part of the cost of energy. Image | Intel More information | Rte In Xataka | The US does not press only Nvidia and Asml against China. Prepare more restrictions for TSMC, Intel and Samsung

Chips that recover energy when working

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Michael Frank has been working in a technological discipline that seems like science fiction for more than three decades. One that apparently pursues something impossible. And yet, it may not. The goal? Than using a chip manages to recover energy. Chips have always done the opposite. They consume energy. A lot. More and more, especially now that we are immersed In the era of glottone artificial intelligence. And yet Frank is immersed in the development of the call “reversible computing“As they explain In IEEE SpectrumLast summer Frank left his work as a scientific engineer in Sandia National Laboratories to join a very special startup called Vaire Computing. It is there where he intends to become what he has already estimated in his studies: according to his investigations, reversible computing could Allow energy efficiency 4,000 times higher to that of alternative options. In Vaire Frank and his team are working in a chip prototype that will be manufactured in the first quarter of 2025 and that is very ambitious. Even so, for the first time a chip is expected to recover energy when used in an arithmetic circuit. Then, in 2027, they hope to have a supply processor designed for artificial intelligence inference. The advanced version of said chip, which will theoretically be 4,000 times more efficient than the current ones, It will take 10 or 15 years to arrivetheir creators warn. What is reversible computing In 1961 Rolf Landauer, an IBM engineer, discovered that deleting a bit of information on a computer had an energy cost and produced heat. For him there was a solution: try to compute tasks without erasing information. A traditional xor door is not reversible: you cannot recover entries just knowing the exit. If an additional output is added, a copy of one of the inputs is reversible. Thus, the two outputs can be used to “disassemble” the door Xor and recover the entrances and, with them, the energy used in the calculation. Source: IEEE Spectrum. Landauer made clear that it seemed unchanged, because store all the information You would fill the memory With unnecessary data. More than a decade later Charles H. Bennett, physicist and information theoretical in IBM, discovered a solution. Instead of storing intermediate results in memory, you could reverse the computing process, “disbelieve it” to store only the final inputs and outputs. “Almost 100% of the energy used by a chip ends up being dissipated as heat, so we are basically evil. But in a reversible chip you never dissipate energy. Do not allow energy to become heat, and recycles internally.” The idea was taking shape in academic environments, and in the 90 Frank ended up being one of those who immersed themselves in their promises. The problem is that when developing that concept they saw that although energy was recovered in the circuit, it was lost in the external power supply. Vaire Computing was founded by researcher Hannah Earley and entrepreneur Rodfo Rosini. Earley explained In TechCrunch How “almost 100% of the energy used by a chip ends up being dissipated as heat, so we are basically missing it. But In a reversible chip you never dissipate energy. Do not allow energy to become heat, and recycles internally. “ In Varie they have apparently propose na solution with traditional CMOS transistors. To do this, they use the so -called “resonator”, a system that manages to recover energy by changing a bit from 0 to 1 so as not to turn it into heat and store most of it into the transistor itself. That idea has already been explored in the past, but in Vaire they seem to have managed to integrate that resonator into the chip. They will start with a little ambitious chip and then work on those chips for inference to which they will be theoretically what will be what will be theoretically really demonstrate How far can you get with reversible computing, also well explained in this small essay published in the Newsletter Exponential View. Of course, It is one thing to promise those efficiencies and another very different to achieve them. The proposal is very interesting and of course could raise a revolution that accelerated the development of much more powerful chips and that were not so voracious in terms of energy consumption. It remains to be seen if they will achieve it. Hopefully yes. Image | Wu Yi In Xataka | The 2 Nm chips race will start in 2025. And it will be the most fierce of all

Samsung has its biggest competitor at home. His future with chips depends on his rivalry with SK Hynix

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South Korean semiconductor manufacturer SK Hynix is ​​on a good streak. The memory market is dominated by the Samsung subsidiary specialized in the production of integrated circuits with an approximate share of 40%while SK Hynix defends a very worthy 29%. Behind both is the American Micron Technology, with 26% approximately. These are, precisely, the three companies that control the juicy HBM memory market (High Bandwidth Memory) that work hand in hand with GPUs to artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, SK Hynix is ​​NVIDIA’s main memory supplier. And having the company led by Jensen Huang as a client helps. It helps a lot. So much so that according to SCMPSK Hynix has surpassed Samsung in profits. And it has done so, precisely, thanks to its high-performance memories. However, it is not all good news. SK Hynix has predicted that sales of memory chips for consumer devices, such as smartphones or computers, will fall during 2025. “This year the memory chip market will be subject to great uncertainty because trade protectionism is growing and geopolitical risks are increasing. At the same time, PC and mobile phone companies are adjusting their inventories,” Kim Woo-hyun statedCFO of SK Hynix. This situation anticipates a complicated 2025 for both Samsung and SK Hynix, although the latter, as we have seen, has a very positive inertia in the HBM memory market. Together against China The rivalry between Samsung and SK Hynix in the memory market is a fact, but, in reality, the main threat to these South Korean companies comes from China. The memory integrated circuits industry has enormous growth potential precisely due to the high demand for these chips that has led to the proliferation of data centers for AI applications. And, as expected, Chinese semiconductor manufacturers do not want to be left out of it. The Chinese CXMT has deployed a very aggressive pricing policy to compete in the memory market Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is one of the Chinese companies specialized in the production of memory chips, and, like other companies in the country led by Xi Jinping, it has chosen to compete in this market so attractive unfolding a very aggressive pricing policy. Furthermore, CXMT in particular has increased its DRAM chip production capacity almost five times over the last four years, allowing it to increase its global market share to a very worthy 9%. This growth has placed this company just behind Micron if we stick to its market share, making it already the fourth largest memory chip manufacturer on the planet. To further complicate matters, the Chinese Government is financially supporting its manufacturers of this type of semiconductor in response to the sanctions deployed by the US and its allies, so the competitiveness of Chinese companies is on the rise. Image | Samsung More information | SCMP In Xataka | South Korea fears US retaliation. To avoid them, his old lithography equipment collects dust in a warehouse

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