wafer – Spress https://en.spress.net Spress is a general newspaper in English which is updated 24 hours a day. Sun, 27 Jun 2021 20:25:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 191965906 Semiconductor wafer arena | Wafer supply exceeds demand: the international Matthew effect, domestic efforts to catch up https://en.spress.net/semiconductor-wafer-arena-wafer-supply-exceeds-demand-the-international-matthew-effect-domestic-efforts-to-catch-up/ Sun, 27 Jun 2021 20:25:07 +0000 https://en.spress.net/semiconductor-wafer-arena-wafer-supply-exceeds-demand-the-international-matthew-effect-domestic-efforts-to-catch-up/ The opening preface of semiconductor wafer rivers and lakes: On the afternoon of June 16, a “chip robbery” was staged on the streets of Hong Kong. A logistics company transported high-priced chips worth about HK$5 million. Behind the “chip robbery”, it reflects the trend of crazy price increases in the chip industry chain under the global “chip shortage”. According to reports, foundries such as TSMC and UMC in Taiwan are expected to continue to increase prices in the third quarter of 2021, with a maximum increase of 30%. In fact, since the beginning of the year, due to the epidemic caused serious problems in logistics and labor, the production capacity of foundry has become more and more tight, and manufacturers such as UMC and the world’s advanced manufacturers have reported price increases. Huang Chongren, chairman of Power Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., also pointed out that it is now 2023 orders with customers, and price increases are the general trend. As long as the gross profit margin of customers exceeds that of Power Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., they will increase. Why can a small wafer have a tendency to “touch the whole body” in the chip market? What is the relationship between the two? In addition, in the global wafer foundry market, why is the voice of major international companies such as TSMC and UMC so high before, and as a country with a large demand for chips, why does not a company compete with it… In response to the above problems, the Caihua News Agency uses “Semiconductor Wafer Rivers and Lakes” as the topic and adopts easy-to-understand writing techniques to lead readers and friends who have been following and supporting Caihua News Agency and Caihua News Agency’s sub-column “Hong Kong Stock Decoding”. We will study the “Wafer Rivers and Lakes” together, and accompany your investment and cognition to a higher level. As the beginning, Caihua News Agency will lead readers and investors to understand the relationship between wafers and chips, as well as the competitive landscape of the global wafer market. Wafer: semiconductor chip, indispensable for me Wafers are also called silicon wafers. Silicon wafer refers to the silicon wafer used to make silicon semiconductor circuits, and its raw material is silicon. The picture above is the source of the silicon wafer: Baidu Gallery A responsible process is needed from elemental silicon to artificial material silicon wafer. First, the purified polycrystalline silicon is dissolved and mixed into silicon crystal seed crystals, and then slowly pulled out to form a cylindrical single crystal silicon, that is, a silicon crystal rod; second, the silicon crystal rod is subjected to photo-engraving, grinding, and polishing. After slicing, a silicon wafer, or wafer, is formed. Generally, the thickness of a silicon wafer is about 1mm or less, which is a round silicon wafer. In addition, silicon wafers have different sizes according to specialized process technology. At present, the domestic wafer production lines are mainly 8-inch and 12-inch. After the silicon wafer is formed, it can be processed into IC products with various circuit component structures, including products such as chips. Specifically, through process technology, millions of transistors (semiconductor devices) are etched on wafers. Semiconductors manage data by controlling current to form various characters, numbers, sounds, images and colors. They are widely used in integrated circuits. Some of these applications are daily applications, such as computers, telecommunications, mobile phones and televisions, and others are used in advanced microwave transmission, laser conversion systems, medical diagnostic and treatment equipment, defense systems, and NASA space shuttles. At present, most common semiconductor chips are made of silicon wafers. Among them, process chips below 14nm are basically manufactured using 12-inch wafers. Therefore, half of the current semiconductor chips are 12-inch wafers. According to statistics, the 12-inch wafer shipment area accounts for about 65% of the semiconductor chip shipment area, and the 8-inch wafer shipment area is about 20. The remaining size wafers share the remaining market. In this regard, the current wafer price increase is focused on 12-inch and 8-inch wafers. Global wafer market: under the three pillars, domestic struggling to catch up Before 2000, compared with the mature United States, Japan and Europe, China’s integrated circuit industry started relatively late, resulting in a low right to speak in this field. In June 2000, my country formulated encouraging policies specifically for the software and integrated circuit industries for the first time. In the following six years, various laws and regulations for integrated circuits and related industries, policies that regulate industrial development and encourage industrial growth were introduced one after another. Among them, 2016 is the first year of integrated circuit policy, “National Innovation-Driven Development Strategy Outline”, “13th Five-Year” National Science and Technology Innovation Plan, “13th Five-Year” National Informatization Plan, and “Information Industry Development Guide” 》The continuous introduction of policies to promote, improve and encourage the development of integrated circuits. Under the favorable industrial policy environment, driven by the superimposed technological wave, market demand is increasing day by day. China’s integrated circuit industry has achieved rapid development, and the market growth rate is significantly higher than the global level. According to statistics from the China Semiconductor Industry Association, the sales of China’s integrated circuit industry in 2016, 2017 and 2018 were 433.6 billion yuan, 541.1 billion yuan and 653.1 billion yuan, respectively, with growth rates of 20% and 25% respectively. And 21%. Although China’s integrated circuit industry has achieved rapid growth, the right to speak in some key areas is still firmly controlled by major international companies. Especially in the IC foundry industry with fast process technology iteration, large capital investment, and long R&D cycle. According to the statistics of Guoyuan Securities, judging from the current changes in the competitive landscape of the foundry industry, with the advancement of process nodes, affected by factors such as rapid process technology iteration and large investment funds, there are fewer and fewer players participating in the competition. , 28nm to 14nm is an obvious watershed, 14nm began to use 3D structure transistors, the manufacturing difficulty increased sharply. At present, there are only six companies in the world with manufacturing capabilities of 14nm and below. Among them, major international manufacturers occupy five seats, and domestic manufacturers occupy one seat. The five major international manufacturers are TSMC, Samsung Semiconductor, UMC, Intel, and GF. The domestic entry is SMIC. From the perspective of the foundry market share, the Matthew effect in the international market is very obvious. TSMC is the dominant player, while the domestic SMIC advantage is not obvious. In 2020, the global foundry market share, the three giants in the international market, TSMC, Samsung Semiconductor and UMC, accounted for nearly 80% of the market share. Among them, TSMC is the absolute leader with a market share of 56.21%, Samsung and UMC are ranked second and third with 15.62% and 7.03% respectively; while the domestic manufacturer SMIC ranks fifth with only 4.61%. There is still a big gap between China’s market share and the giants. However, with China’s strong support for the integrated circuit industry policy, the gap between the technical level of the integrated circuit field and the international leading technology is getting smaller and smaller, and the production capacity of superimposed integrated circuits is gradually shifting to mainland China, and the domestic foundry market will usher in Big growth. By then, there will be more local foundries like SMIC going abroad, gradually narrowing the gap with international manufacturers. This gap is shrinking as the mainland’s investment in semiconductor equipment and production capacity increases. Investment: According to a research report by Guosheng Securities, in 2020, domestic wafer fabs will be built and the semiconductor industry will increase investment. The mainland semiconductor equipment market ranks first in the world for the first time, reaching 18.1 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 35.1%, accounting for 26.2%. From 2021 to 2022, storage demand will recover and South Korea will lead the world, but the mainland equipment market will remain at a high level of approximately US$16 billion. In terms of production capacity, at present, the integrated circuit industry chain is gradually shifting from the United States, Japan, Europe and Taiwan to China, Southeast Asia and other regions. This is not only conducive to the research and development of advanced technology and accumulation of management experience by domestic enterprises, and promotes the rapid development of local enterprises, but also conducive to the domestic integrated circuit industry to provide new support in reducing costs, expanding production capacity, and geographical convenience. The development played a role in promoting. According to SEMI data, there are 62 semiconductor fabs in production globally between 2017 and 2020, of which 26 are located in mainland China, accounting for 42% of the global total. It is expected that at least 38 12-inch wafer fabs will be added from 2020 to 2024. In the global wafer expansion, TSMC and Samsung’s two major international fabs have invested more than 30 billion US dollars in expansion. Although mainland wafer companies are not as wealthy as large fabs, domestic wafer manufacturers are not far behind. SMIC , Silan Micro, China Resources Micro, Wingtech, Hua Hong, Yuexin Semiconductor, etc., have joined the team to expand wafer production capacity. It is foreseeable that with the gradual completion and commissioning of new wafer fabs by companies such as SMIC, Silan Micro, China Resources Micro, Wingtech, etc., it will not only greatly meet the strong demand of the mainland market, but also promote China The training of professionals in the integrated circuit industry and the development of supporting industries have narrowed the gap between domestic manufacturers and international manufacturers. Text: Yizhi Author | Yizhi Edit | lala

]]> 27745 Lithography machine, graphene wafer, TCL Li Dongsheng has expressed his opinion, and Bill Gates is right! https://en.spress.net/lithography-machine-graphene-wafer-tcl-li-dongsheng-has-expressed-his-opinion-and-bill-gates-is-right/ Wed, 16 Jun 2021 04:00:10 +0000 https://en.spress.net/lithography-machine-graphene-wafer-tcl-li-dongsheng-has-expressed-his-opinion-and-bill-gates-is-right/ With the rapid development of the global semiconductor industry, more and more chip manufacturing technologies have been conquered by Chinese companies. In the field of advanced foundry, SMIC Liang Mengsong officially announced last year that the risk trial production of 7nm chips will be carried out in April this year.

From this, it is not difficult to see that domestic chips have begun to catch up in the field of advanced foundry after experiencing the impact of the US revised rules. Independence and autonomy in chip manufacturing technology will become the “main theme” of domestic chips in the future.

Lithography machines and graphene wafers are here! The continuous development of domestic chip technology has also brought more and more good news. In the field of lithography machines, the 28nm lithography machine designed by Shanghai Microelectronics is expected to be delivered within the next two years. In October last year, the Shanghai Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences also announced an 8-inch graphene wafer, which has attracted the attention of many people in the industry. As a key material required for third-generation semiconductors, Graphene wafers are likely to bring “curve overtaking” opportunities for domestic chips. At the same time, due to the rapid development of domestic lithography machines, the president of ASML has also stated many times that he hopes to sell more lithography machine products to Chinese companies. Then, Will the time for domestic high-end chips be far behind? TCL founder Li Dongsheng recently stated that Bill Gates did not make a mistake before!

TCL Li Dongsheng expressed his opinion Mr. Li Dongsheng said in an interview “It will take at least 5 years to solve high-end chips.” For any country, It is very difficult to solve the production problem of high-end chips in about 5 years. . It is not unreasonable for Li Dongsheng to make such an estimate. First of all, domestic chips are not without accumulation in the field of advanced foundry technology. For example, SMIC Liang Mengsong once officially announced that the company’s eight most difficult tasks for 5nm chips have also begun. As long as the EUV lithography machine arrives, SMIC can carry out actual tests on 5nm chips, greatly reducing the time required to develop the process. Secondly, in some high-end chip manufacturing equipment, domestic equipment still exists. For example, the etching machine designed and produced by China Micro Semiconductor has successfully entered TSMC’s high-end process production line. . With these high-end equipment, the possibility of domestically-made high-end chips will continue to increase. Finally, key universities such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University have begun to deploy integrated circuits. Technical research on advanced equipment such as lithography machines is also proceeding in an orderly manner. In the field of research and development of high-end chip technology, the outdated concept of “buying is worse than making” has been overturned, and the development of the domestic chip manufacturing industry has already had a brand new situation.

Bill Gates was right! Microsoft founder Bill Gates once said that “limiting chip companies’ supply to China will cause some Americans to lose their high-paid father-in-law, and China will gradually become self-sufficient in this process.”

Today, the domestic layout under mature craftsmanship just confirms Bill Gates’ prediction. Starting from chips with mature technology, domestic chips will gradually complete localized production. In the field of high-end chip manufacturing, we have also never been absent. The good news of lithography machines and graphene chips has confirmed the feasibility of domestic high-end chips.

Under the layout of enterprises and key universities, the problems encountered in chip manufacturing will be gradually solved. However, we cannot be too conceited, as Li Dongsheng said, In the manufacturing of high-end chips, we It will take at least 5 years.

]]> 23378