chips

A critical component of current chips manufacturing machines

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The teams of extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) that manufactures the Dutch company ASML are extraordinarily sophisticated. In fact, they are those currently using TSMC, Samsung, Intel, Sy Hynix and Micron Technology for produce integrated avant -garde circuits. They are so complex that during the first phases of their design in the early 90s of the last century, ASML engineers They believed it was impossible. However, everything changed in 1997. That year Jos Benschop, the leader of the research department, reassess whether UNVE technology was a viable option. After the first tests he realized that The German company Zeiss He was able to develop extraordinarily sophisticated mirrors that would be necessary to transport ultraviolet light. And he was not wrong. That was the real starting point of technology that has made it possible for our mobile phones and computers to have such advanced chips. Zeiss’s feat arrived in the 90s One of the most complex elements of UVE lithography machines is The ultraviolet light source. The company of American origin Cymer, although since 2013 it is not an independent company. That year ASML executives decided to buy it to accelerate the development of the technologies involved in UVE lithography. An interesting note: the ultraviolet light is responsible for transporting the geometric pattern described by the mask so that it can be transferred with a lot of precision to the surface of the silicon wafer. Understanding what is the mask is simple: it is nothing other than a physical template that contains the design of the integrated circuit that is necessary to transfer to the Silicon wafer. In any case, there is another component without whose intervention It is not possible to carry out this crucial task. Other components, in plural, in reality, although all of them are of the same type. It is precisely the mirrors that Jos Benschop suspected in 1997 that Zeiss could produce. The light of 11.4 nm was discarded because it forced to use beryllium in the mirrors and is a toxic chemical element The role of the optical elements of this company in these lithography equipment is crucial. And it is because they are responsible for moving the UVE light with a wavelength of 13.5 nm from the source that is responsible for its emission to the mask contained in the geometric pattern that is necessary to translate into the silicon wafer. If the mirrors involved in the propagation of the UVE light are not manufactured with enormous precision the geometric pattern defined by the mask will be altered, and the chips will be damaged. Interestingly, the choice of the wavelength of the UVE light used by these machines was a very delicate decision. Initially the engineers involved in their tuning had four possible options: 13.5 nm, 11.4 nm, 6.6 nm and 4.8 nm. These last two wavelengths were finally ruled out due to the limitations they imposed Organic photorestoning materials. The light of 11.4 Nm was also discarded because it forced to use beryllium in the mirrors, and is a toxic chemical element. The wavelength of 13.5 Nm required to introduce molybdenum and silicon mirrors, but these elements do not pose any problem. This is the reason why UVE machines work with this light. In any case, this data clearly reflects the extraordinary level of precision with which it is necessary to manufacture the mirrors: Zeiss uses argon ions and other elements to polish layer per layer at the atomic level the mirrors, and then identifies and corrects the defects using a subnustric analysis technique. This last tool is capable of detecting defects with a lower precision than a nanometer (less than a millmillonieth part of a meter). * Some price may have changed from the last review Image | Zeiss BIBLIOGRAPHY | ‘Focus: The Asml Way’by Marc Hijink More information | Zeiss | Asianometry In Xataka | 2024 has been a year full of uncertainty for chip designers. So much that the market has changed leader

TSMC will manufacture its best chips on American soil, although presumably they will be 30% more expensive

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Taiwan’s silicon shield It has definitely fallen. The government of this island was determined to protect its economic interests preventing TSMC from manufacturing integrated circuits abroad using your most advanced lithography nodes. This plan entered into conflict with the expansionist strategy of the semiconductor manufacturer most important on the planetespecially at a juncture in which the US is forcing the displacement of chips manufacturers to their own territory. “Since Taiwan has regulations that seek to protect their own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2 nm chips abroad today,” Jw Kuo saidMinister of Economic Affairs of Taiwan, on November 8 during a meeting of the Taipéi Economy Committee. “Although TSMC PLANS MANUFACTURE 2 NM CHIPS Abroad in the future, its central technology will remain in Taiwan. “ Kuo’s statements reflected at that time that TSMC could not produce integrated 2 Nm circuits in the US or Europe until it was ready its lithography A14 (1.4 Nm). From that moment the latter would remain in Taiwan and could move the production of 2 Nm chips to other countries. For TSMC this restriction was a problem. And it was because the demand for its most advanced integrated circuits is very high because of the undoubted success that semiconductors are having for applications of artificial intelligence (AI). Chips manufactured by TSMC in the US will be 30% more expensive, according to Walter Bloomberg Finally, the Taiwan government has moderated its protectionist strategy. Jw Kuo He pronounced again In the middle of last January to declare that TSMC may produce 2 Nm chips in its US plants, although the Taiwanese administration will cautiously evaluate the use of this technology in the country led by Donald Trump. “Private companies must make their own commercial decisions covered in their own technological progress (…) TSMC is building factories in the US with the purpose of serving their US clients because 60% of the world’s chips designer companies are based precisely in the US. “ Lisa su and CC Wei have taught the first EPYC ‘Venice’ chip produced in the N2 (2 nm) node of TSMC Today, just four months later, we can be sure that the manufacture of integrated 2 NM circuits on a large scale in the TSMC plants in Arizona (USA) will arrive. Lisa her, the general director of AMD, and CC Wei, the president and general director of TSMC, have taught the first Epyc Chip ‘Venice’ produced in node N2 (2 nm) of this last company. This CPU has been manufactured in Taiwan, but both managers They have confirmed their commitment When strengthening the production of the plants that TSMC is putting ready in Arizona. The first of these factories is about to produce large -scale chips, but its plan does not end here. The second plant will be operational in 2028 and will produce integrated circuits 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. At the current situation and under the pressure of the US government, which is Pertrechado with its tariff policyit is very likely that the production of 2 Nm semiconductors in Arizona arrives long before 2028. It is not official information, but in the current circumstances it is a very reasonable forecast. However, there is something else that is worth not overlooking. According to G. Dan HutchesonAnalyst in Techinsights, producing a 300 mm wafer in the new Arizona plant costs TSMC less than 10% more than manufacturing that same wafer in one of its Taiwan facilities. It is explained by something that we should not overlook: the cost derived from labor represents less than 2% of the total cost. However, according to the financial journalist Walter Bloomberg TSMC will increase the price of integrated circuits produced by 30% in the US to compensate for the costs triggered by tariffs on the production equipment of imported chips from Europe and Japan. The Government led by Donald Trump has not yet revealed how the import tariffs of photolithography machines used by TSMC, Intel or Samsung plants in the US will affect the import tariffs. Will do it within a period Not exceeding two months. But it seems that Bloomberg assumes that the increase in chips will arrive. We’ll see. Image | TSMC More information | Walter Bloomberg | Tom’s hardware In Xataka | The US confesses its worst nightmare: if China invades taiwan and controls TSMC the US economy will go to pique

In full protectionist withdrawal, Xiaomi wants to be the new huawei and knows where to start: with its own chips

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Huawei has become in recent years The best example to follow by Chinese manufacturers. It has been the first company to achieve full self -sufficiency (Understanding this as the manufacture of the product does not depend on companies outside of China), and marking a new line that the rest of the competitors want to follow. Chinese sources They point out that Xiaomi has just created a new department for Chips’s own development, with a former Qualcomm executive leading it. The intention is clear: Xiaomi wants to be the next Chinese manufacturer to mark the way. A new focus. According to Suehome Xiaomi sources, a new chips development department is establishing under the command of Qin Muyun, former product director at Qualcomm. The company would be allocating resources to meet something that Huawei has been chasing for years: its own manufacturing to reduce dependence with giants such as MediaTak or Qualcomm. Xiaomi already knows this path. In 2017 Xiaomi launched the Xiaomi Mi 5cthe company’s first phone with the chip S1 arises. It was the first time that Xiaomi, along with Pinecone Electronics, launched a phone with a chip of own development. The Mi 5C was the only phone to use it, comparable to a Snapdragon of the 626 series, and functioning as a strategic experiment rather than a model to follow. Beyond co-processors. Since 2017, Xiaomi has focused on the development of coprocessors. In 2021 the market was released Mix fold With the arise C1, an ISP (image processor) of Xiaomi. The arise P1 was the co-processor aimed at managing energy tasks during fast charge, trained in the Xiaomi 12 Pro. And models like the Xiaomi 13 Ultra They arrived with the G1 arise, also in charge of energy tasks. Since then, Xiaomi has not resumed the development of a complete chip. Something that could be looking for the new investment. The arduous task of developing its own processor. Developing chips is very expensive. So much, that TSMC has just announced increases of 30% due to the tariff war between the United States and China. With a lot of help from SMICthe main Chinese semiconductor giant, brands like Huawei have achieved the independence of TSMC. Xiaomi would need the help of the Chinese government (fiscal exemptions, bonuses and direct aid) to manufacture their own chips with the help of SMIC, something that would help him reduce dependence with the American TSMC. An example to follow. If Xiaomi manages to follow Huawei’s steps and become a company capable of producing its own chips, the Chinese industry will be hitting the table again. Hardware is not the only key, Xiaomi is committed to Hyperos with hardly any mentions of Android. He understands it as its own software, an ecosystem to be implemented in any consumption product. The tariff storm is torpedoing the Big Tech strategywith China seeking to reduce dependence on US companies and vice versa. Achieving this is not viable in the short term, but the door has been opened to a change in the consumer industry as we know it. Image | Xataka In Xataka | If the question is “how tariffs are going to affect the price of mobiles”, none of the answers is optimistic

Particle accelerators to make chips

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The photolithography equipment that designs and produces The Dutch Company ASML They are extraordinarily complex. These integrated circuit manufacturing machines have many sophisticated components, but one of the most advanced is, without a doubt, The ultraviolet light source. Its purpose is to generate extreme ultraviolet radiation (UVE) necessary to transport the geometric pattern that contains the design of the chips to the silicon wafer. Very broadly, this light source generates UVE radiation using high power lasers capable of instantly heating tens of thousands of tiny tin drops in a single second until they reach a temperature of half a million Celsius degrees. This interaction produces an extremely hot plasma that emits ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 13.5 nm. It looks like a relatively simple strategy, But it is not at all. In fact, the UVE source is one of ASML’s disruptive components. Pat Gelsinger has joined the Xlight team Interestingly, to manufacture avant -garde semiconductors using integration technology less than 7 Nm it is not essential to use an ultraviolet light source like the one I just described. You can also opt for other approaches. The UVE lithography machine prototype that, according to leaks, He is testing Huawei In its Dongguan Laboratory (China), it uses an LDP type ultraviolet light source (laser induced discharge), and not LPP class (plasma generated by laser) like the one used by ASML. Another option requires using a syncrotron -type particle accelerator to generate ultraviolet radiation. This is the path that is following the Chinese Academy of Sciences in The installation that is putting up in Beijing (China). Your heps (High Energy Photon Source or source of high -energy photons) has been designed for Deliver High Power UVE Light simultaneously to several integrated circuit manufacturing plants. However, this is not all. There is at least another option that is also being explored to generate the UVE light. Your plan consists in replacing the ultraviolet light source that ASML uses with a free electrons laser It is precisely the strategy for which the American company Xlight, to which Pat Gelsinger has just addedthe former director general of Intel, as executive president and the Organization for high energy physics with accelerators of Tsukuba (Japan). Of course, each of these organizations works on their own. Whatever your plan consists of replacing the ultraviolet light source that uses ASML with a free or fel electron laser for its English denomination (Free-electron laser) as those used in particle accelerators. In fact, in their tests they are using a fel laser generated by a linear accelerator of energy recovery. In theory the radiation delivered by a Fel laser allows to manufacture integrated circuits with a resolution comparable to that of an ultraviolet light source. A priori sounds good, but it seems reasonable to accept that a fel laser linked to a particle accelerator is not exactly cheap. The reason why some technicians prefer this option to which ASML uses is that a single linear accelerator of energy recovery is able to simultaneously feed several lithography machines. In addition, according to Xlight its Fel laser is designed to feed the next generation of ASML photolithography equipment. In fact, in theory it is four times more powerful than the light source used by this Dutch company in its most advanced machines. According to Gelsinger Xlight technology allows the price to be reduced by wafer by 50% and will achieve a higher wafer performance than current solutions. It sounds good, but we will have to wait until 2028 to know if this proposal is really up to expectations. That year Xlight and ASML hope to try their first Fel laser prototype with a lithography team. Image | Xight More information | Xight In Xataka | TSMC acknowledges that it has been considered taking its factories out of Taiwan. It is impossible for a good reason

Tariffs on imported chips will soon come into force

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The US administration responsible for the deployment of tariffs does not rest. Last Friday and near midnight, the US Customs and Border Protection Office He published a statement in which he officialized that some electronic devices and strategic components They were temporarily exempt from tariffs. Of all of them. Of 10% global applied to most of the planet’s countries, and also of the very tariff that penalizes Imports that come from China. This villantazo of the Government of Donald Trump is unexpected in the context of confrontation that the US maintains not only with the country led by Xi Jinping, but essentially with all the nations with which it maintains commercial relations. However, it makes sense. One of the categories of strategic components that at the moment are exempt from these taxes are semiconductors. The business of many US technology companies depends on the integrated circuits that import from Taiwan, China or South Korea, and tariffs They have the ability to compromise it. Tariffs will soon reach the imported integrated circuits With all Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, Broadcom and many other US companies whose activity depends largely on semiconductors made in Asia They have breathed relieved after knowing the exemption from which the chips benefit. However, joy must last little. And just a few hours ago President Donald Trump has confirmed That during the week we have just started, it will announce the tariff rate with which it will finally tax the imported integrated circuits. The Government led by Donald Trump seeks to reorganize the global semiconductor industry He has also anticipated that some companies in the semiconductor industry will have some flexibility, although they have not specified those companies or to what extent they can continue to import integrated circuits by avoiding tariffs. We will have to wait a little longer to have this information. As it is, it is evident that the government strategy led by Donald Trump pursues Reorganize the global chips industry To ensure that the US does not need to import any integrated circuit of critical value, such as those used by their companies to train models of artificial intelligence (AI) or develop advanced armament. The challenge that the US administration has ahead is that the relocation of an important part of the chips production infrastructure and the reorganization of supply chains cannot be carried out in a short time. This is the authentic reason why the Government has been forced to release the critical components needed by their tariff companies. All this does not respond to any elucubration. Trump has expressed it With total clarity a few hours ago. “We wanted to simplify it for many other companies because we want The entire supply chain of electronics in the next tariff investigations for the good of national security “, Donald Trump has sentenced. Thus paints the panorama. In a period not exceeding two months, the US will definitely announce to which tariffs both semiconductors and other critical technological products from China will be subjected. We will keep the expectation until then. More information | Reuters In Xataka | Nvidia will continue to sell its H20 GPU in China. It has cost a dinner of 1 million dollars per diner

If you do not build its Arizona chips factories, you will face tariffs up to 100%

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Donald Trump Does not take care of your effort with TSMC. During the electoral campaign the current US president said on several occasions that he was determined to make the decisions that were appropriate so that the country that now governs Recover the leadership of the semiconductor industry. Untilly entered the 80s of the last century, it had some of the most robust companies in this sector, such as Intel, Texas Instruments, IBM or Motorola, but little by little it was giving control of a market that Now it is in Asia’s hands. TSMC currently has a global fee of approximately 60% and manufactures avant -garde chips for many US companies, such as Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom or Qualcomm, among others. This Taiwanese company has factories in the US, such as the Phoenix (Arizona) plant that is about to start the large -scale production of Integrated 5 nm circuits In the N4 lithographic node, but a good part of the semiconductors that he gives to their American clients leave their Taiwan plants. Donald Trump wants to end this strategy. This statement He did it on January 27, a few days after returning to the White House and starting his second presidency: “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 you to return. We do not want to give them billions of dollars Biden. Tariff up to 100% to TSMC are still on the table The stir that has triggered The tariff strategy of the US government throughout the planet during the last week is not precedents. But in terms of integrated circuits in general, already TSMC in particular, Donald Trump has not modified his least. The statement you have made Just a few hours ago during an event of the National Republican Committee of Congress, it places TSMC again in the Center for Care despite the planning to build several more plants in Arizona in the medium term. “If they do not build their plant here they will pay a great tax. Maybe 25%. Or 50%. Or 75%. Or even 100%” “I did not give TSMC money. It is a great company. The most powerful in the world. The largest chips company on the planet (…) is spending 200,000 million dollars in Arizona by building one of the largest plants in the world. All that without money (USA). All I did was: ‘If they do not build their plant here they will pay a large tax. Maybe 25%. Or 50%. Or 75%. Or even 100%“, Donald Trump has argued. It is evident that the goal of having forced TSMC is being pointed out to settle in Phoenix with the purpose of producing avant -garde chips in the US in the US in the US already manufactured to those already manufactured in Taiwan. Trump does not strive in the least to take care of forms. His statements, that of January and yesterday, threatenly threaten TSMC. As I mentioned a few lines above, the first plant of this company in Phoenix is ​​about to manufacture large -scale chips, but its plan does not end here. The second factory will be operational in 2028 and will produce integrated circuits 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. In addition, the TSMC production infrastructure in Arizona will have two advanced chip encapsulated facilities and an R&D center. At the current situation it is unlikely that this company renounces this project. Image | TSMC More information | Reuters In Xataka | Intel’s plan in front of an unattainable TSMC: beat Samsung and consolidate as the second largest chips manufacturer

Chinese memory chips manufacturers are a nightmare for the US and South Korea. There is a lot at play

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Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) is one of the largest memory chips manufacturers in China. Its quota in the global market is approximately 6%so it is far from South Korean companies Samsung and SK Hynix, and also from the American Micron Technology, the three companies that lead this sector. Even so, Its weight in the Chinese market is very largeespecially because US sanctions They prevent American and South Korean memories manufacturers selling their most sophisticated integrated circuits to their Chinese clients. YMTC is in the spotlight of the US administration for more than two years. In fact, at the end of 2022 the Department of Commerce led by Gina Raimondo He decided to include this company in his blacklist because he had managed to develop an ambitious 128 layer memory chip. Currently YMTC is one of the companies that have the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology in China, and curiously, According to Techinsights He has reached this position without resorting to foreign technology. Not even Asml’s. YMTC aspires to intimidate the leaders of the memory chips market This achievement seems to have been possible because YMTC has the complicity of three of the most important Chinese lithography equipment: Naura Technology, Amec (Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China) and Piotech Inc. The most shocking thing is that according to Techinsight analysts, which is a Canadian communication platform intimately linked to the semiconductor industry and with Great credibilityYMTC has managed to put avant -garde memory chips capable of rivaling the most advanced foreign solutions. YMTC has published about 20 new patents in which it describes processes that seek to increase efficiency And it has managed to refine its technology of stacking of memory cells in layers known as ‘xtacking’ until reaching a level of performance in its integrated nand type circuits similar to that of the comparable memories of Samsung or SK Hynix. However, this is not all. According to SCMPYMTC has recently published about 20 new patents in which it describes processes that seek to increase efficiency and optimize chips stacking structures. It is evident that the development of the technological capacity of Chinese manufacturers of integrated memory circuits represents a threat to Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron Technology. However, YMTC is not the only Chinese company with the ability to put in trouble the manufacturers of South Korean and American memory chips. 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 deploying a very aggressive pricing policy. CXMT in particular has increased its production capacity of DRAM chips almost five times during the last four years, which has allowed it to increase its global market share until it reaches a very worthy 9%. This growth has placed this company just behind Micron Technology if we stick to its market share, so it is already the fourth largest memory chips manufacturer on the planet. To curl the curl even more The Chinese government is supporting economically to its manufacturers of this type of semiconductors in response to the sanctions deployed by the US and its allies, so the competitiveness of Chinese companies is upwards. More information | SCMP In Xataka | China needs to develop a new type of immune chips to US sanctions. And their scientists have just achieved it

The new US tariffs penalize Taiwan almost as much as China. And its chips industry is the most damaged

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The tariffs imposed by the administration led by Donald Trump They are here. The current US president has used this pressure tool throughout his electoral campaign, and just two and a half months after returning to the White House is running your promise. These taxes affect most of the countries with which the US maintains a commercial relationship, among which Spain is, but Taiwan presumably is One of the most damaged. And it is that the Trump government is determined to do everything necessary for the US to recover leadership in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. At the moment In Asia they occur 90% of memory chips, 75% of microprocessors and 80% of silicon wafers. However, the most outstanding country in this continent in this sector is Taiwan, with a production of 90% of high integration chips and 41% of microprocessors. This is the exemplary punishment to Taiwan: some tariffs of 32% The US administration is already taking the necessary measures to cause US companies to buy integrated circuits made of homeland. The tariffs you are approving They largely pursue this objective, and, despite the alignment in the geopolitical field that support the US and Taiwan, the manufacturers of Taiwanese chips are not at all safe from the tariffs. In fact, Donald Trump made a statement at the end of January which he presented his intentions with total. “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” “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 billions of dollars in the ridiculous Biden program. They already have billions of dollars. They don’t need money; They need an incentive. And the incentive will be that they do not want to pay a tax of 25, 50, or even 100%, ” The current US president declared. The near future of which speech has already arrived. As explained The countryon Vietnam there are 46%tariffs; About Cambodia, 49%; over China, 34%; and about Taiwan, 32%. The case of the nation led by Xi Jinping is a bit special because the new tariffs approved by the administration of Donald Trump are added to those who had been deployed by the US government previously, which makes a total of 54%. Even so, to some extent it is surprising that Taiwan comes out so disadvantaged. In any case, in regard to this last country, this measure is consistent with the statements in which Donald Trump anticipated that he wants the US to recover leadership in the semiconductor industry. However, Taiwan still has an oxygen ball, although It seems that it will not last long. And is that an epigraph of the newly announced tariff plan Expressalthough in an unclear way, that tariffs for some specific products, such as semiconductors or medicines, will not yet come into force. In that case they will presumably be temporarily subject to the universal tariff of 10%. In Xataka | The USA hits China again with a double purpose: to stop the development of its hypersonic superorders and missiles In Xataka | What’s behind the chips megafabrica that TSMC and Samsung plan to build in Arab Emirates

China is already unstoppable. It is finishing an ultraviolet light mega -source to make avant -garde chips

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China has been engaged in its own “Manhattan project”. Unlike the plan that executed USA during World War II, it is not dedicated to the creation of nuclear weapons (China has them since the mid -60s of the last century); It seeks to put in the hands of Chinese companies the ability to MANUFACTE INTEGRATED VANGUARD CIRCUITS comparable to the most advanced currently produced in Taiwan, USA, South Korea or Japan. The sanctions that have deployed US governments and the Netherlands They prevent the Dutch company Asml extreme ultraviolet (UVE). Without them Chips Chinese, such as SMIC (Semiconductor manufacturing international corp), Hua Hong Semiconductor, China Resources Microelectronics or Guangzhou Zensemi cannot produce integrated circuits comparable to those who are already manufacturing TSMC, Intel or Samsung. China needs to have Your own UVE photolithography teams as soon as possible. Its economy, and, above all, its technical and scientific development are at stake. The problem is that developing this machine is very complex. In fact, Asml took more than two decades put it up. And he had the economic support of his best clients (TSMC, Intel and Samsung), as well as the collaboration of several owners of avant -garde technologies, such as the German Zeiss, which manufactures the optical elements of the lithography machines, or the US company of American origin, which produces the ultraviolet light source. China is finishing a gigantic syncrotron that will produce UVE light In the middle of last March several Asian media collected a photograph taken at the Huawei Research Center in Dongguan, in the province of Canton, in which it appeared The prototype of a UVE lithography team Designed and manufactured entirely in China. Presumably this machine is similar to those produced by ASML, which invites us to anticipate that for 2026 the country led by Xi Jinping will have the ability to produce advanced chips on a large scale. However, China’s plans do not end here. And it is that the Chinese Academy of Sciences is finishing the one that is undoubtedly the most ambitious project of those who are developing the Chinese semiconductor industry. According to Dr. Kiman expert in the manufacture of integrated circuits who has worked in Samsung and that He currently investigates for TSMC in the USChina is about to reach a “Deepseek” in the field of integrated circuit industry. This simply means that it is preparing to reach a disruption that has the potential to place this Asian country at the same height as the US, Taiwan or South Korea. UVE light has the ability to make the manufacture of integrated circuits with a higher resolution than UVP light However, China’s strategy to produce avant -garde chips is very different from what their rivals have used until now. As we have seen, each of the ASML UVE machines incorporates its own ultraviolet light source, but the Chinese Academy of Sciences seeks to generate this important radiation to produce advanced chips using a syncrotron, which is nothing other than a circular particle accelerator that is used to analyze atomic level the properties of matter, such as various types of materials, or, even, even, of proteins. It’s called heps (High Energy Photon Source or high -energy photons source), it is in Beijing and we can see it in the cover photography of this article. An important note before moving forward: the ultraviolet light (UV) is responsible for transferring the geometric pattern that contains the design of the chips to the Silicon wafer. This means, in broad strokes, that UVE light has the ability to make possible the manufacture of Integrated circuits with a higher resolution that the light of deep ultraviolet (UVP) that use the previous generation lithography machines that China has in their hands. And a greater resolution in practice implies that it is possible to produce semiconductors with more transistors, and, therefore, more sophisticated and powerful. A priori we can think that a particle accelerator has nothing to do with the manufacture of integrated circuits, but we would be overlooking something very important: the Heps syncrotron has the ability to produce high power UVE light. In fact, it is a source designed to generate a large amount of radiation. China’s plan is to place several semiconductor manufacturing plants around particles to which The syncrotron will deliver the UVE light in the same way that a power plant delivers electricity to its customers. That simple. The date on which China plans to start this megaphabrum of avant -garde semiconductors has not yet leaked, but as we can see in photography, it is already very advanced, so we can take it for granted that it will enter into production soon. Image | Dr. Kim More information | Dr. Kim In Xataka | TSMC acknowledges that it has been considered taking its factories out of Taiwan. It is impossible for a good reason

In just a few days Rapidus will begin operating a pilot line of 2 Nm chips

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Rapidus is a very young company. It was founded on August 10, 2022 by the Japanese government with an initial capital of 7,346 million yen (just under 46 million euros) contributed by, and here comes the interesting, Sony, Toyota, Nec, SoftBankKioxia, Denso, Nippon Telegraph and Mufg Bank. The initial capital invested in the constitution of this company is not very bulky, but there is no doubt that the companies that participate in it have an indisputable relevance in the sectors of technology, automotive and telecommunications. The relevance of this organization, in any case, lies in the role entrusted to him by the government currently led by Shigeru ishiba. And this is the company with which Japan aspires to recover competitiveness in the semiconductor manufacturing industry that had three decades ago. Its economy is at stake. In fact, this Asian country began to deploy its strategy to reinforce its integrated circuit industry more than two years ago, so the first results begin to see the light. Rapidus is ready to start the manufacturing tests of avant -garde chips Japan is currently investing more money in its sector of integrated circuits than the US, Germany, France or the United Kingdom. Not in terms of net value, but its effort is greater if we weigh the investment of these countries on their gross domestic product (GDP). The US dedicates 0.21% of its GDP to its semiconductor industry, and Germany 0.41%. France, according to Nikkei Asia0.2%, and, finally, the United Kingdom 0.04%. The difference is very significant and puts on the table the effort that Japan is making with 0.71% of its GDP. Private investment has a very important role in the economic support of Rapidus Today several solvent media, such as Nikkei Asia either BloombergThey have collected that the Shigeru Ihiba administration is preparing an injection of 5.4 billion dollars specifically for Rapidus. And, as we have seen in the first lines of this article, Private investment It has a very important role in the economic support of this company. In any case, the most interesting is what Rapidus already has. And it is that the state -of -the -art semiconductor production plant that has taken to point in northern Japan, in the city of Chitose (Hokkaido), will begin in April the wafering processing tests in a pilot line. The directive’s directive plan is to start large -scale production of 2 Nm semiconductor In 2027. If he succeeds, this company will get recorded in a record time to TSMC, Intel and Samsung, which a priori will be its main short -term competitors. In addition, what is causing the new Rapidus factory to monopol It will be completely automated. Its purpose is to resort to robots and artificial intelligence (AI) to tune an automated production line that will be specialized in the manufacture of 2 nm chips for AI applications. Its plan consists, in short, to produce integrated circuits faster, with a lower and more quality cost. More information | Nikkei Asia | Bloomberg In Xataka | Japan takes the initiative with nuclear fusion and sets an extremely ambitious date: the 2030s In Xataka | Japan has taken the carrier to dominate the chips industry. Prepare a 325,000 million dollar plan

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