China’s largest semiconductor manufacturing firm, SMIC, has reportedly achieved a new milestone, and that too, without the use of advanced EUV machinery that gives companies like Samsung and TSMC an edge in the cutting-edge chipmaking space. The latest information claims that using DUV equipment, the 5nm process has been completed, and SMIC is ready to mass produce the first batch of wafers. Huawei was previously said to be working closely with its local foundry partner to introduce a new Kirin SoC that will be found in the upcoming Mate 70 series for October later this year.
No word on yields, but SMIC’s 5nm process was previously said to be more expensive to produce due to the lack of next-generation machinery
Successfully taping the 5nm process was already going to be a Herculean task for SMIC, as the U.S. trade ban forbids companies like Dutch-based ASML from supplying its cutting-edge EUV machinery to any Chinese company. With its competitive edge stifled, SMIC had to achieve this goal using its existing DUV equipment. According to a chip guru, 5nm wafers could be mass produced on older machinery, but it would be a costly endeavor, and yields would suffer.
Later, it was estimated that SMIC’s 5nm chip prices would be up to 50 percent more expensive than TSMC’s on the same lithography, meaning that Huawei would experience a tough time selling its Mate 70 series to consumers with a decent margin if it attempts to absorb a majority of those component costs. One area that the former Chinese giant can capitalize on and lure customers is its in-house HarmonyOS Next, which will reportedly debut with the Mate 70 series and is said to be more efficient in memory management compared to Google’s Android platform.
While SMIC likely intends to make 5nm wafers for a couple of years, it will not keep itself limited to an older manufacturing process, as it has been rumored to form a research and development team intended to pursue the development of 3nm chips. For now, we will wait for the arrival of Huawei’s first 5nm SoC and see what improvements are made on SMIC’s 5nm node, so stay tuned.
News Source: Hankyung
