{"id":151925,"date":"2025-06-25T18:20:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T18:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/the-two-most-important-chip-companies-in-china-are-facing-a-problem-they-are-struggling-with-5-nm-technology\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T18:20:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T18:20:45","slug":"the-two-most-important-chip-companies-in-china-are-facing-a-problem-they-are-struggling-with-5-nm-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/the-two-most-important-chip-companies-in-china-are-facing-a-problem-they-are-struggling-with-5-nm-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"The two most important chip companies in China are facing a problem: they are struggling with 5 nm technology."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In mid-May, Dr. Kim, an expert in integrated circuit manufacturing with experience at Samsung and currently researching at TSMC in the U.S., revealed that \u00a0Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC)\u00a0 was about to \u00a0start production of 5 nm chips\u00a0. She also indicated plans to launch its first 3 nm nodes equipped with \u00a0Gate-All-Around (GAA)\u00a0 transistors by 2026.<\/p>\n

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As China’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, SMIC has been working for at least two years on developing its own \u00a05 nm photolithography\u00a0 in collaboration with Huawei. It is crucial for both companies to possess this capability, yet they are facing significant challenges with this integration technology. In her May statements, Dr. Kim noted that SMIC had achieved a wafer yield of less than 30% at this node. Remarkably, two somewhat opposing sources\u2014Canadian platform \u00a0TechInsights\u00a0 and the Chinese newspaper \u00a0SCMP\u00a0\u2014highlight the difficulties faced by Huawei and SMIC.<\/p>\n

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According to TechInsights, Huawei’s new \u00a0MateBook Fold Ultimate Design\u00a0 includes a SoC \u00a0Kirin X90\u00a0 manufactured by SMIC. This is not particularly surprising until one considers that the ambitious chip is not being produced at the 5 nm node. Instead, SMIC is utilizing its second-generation 7 nm node (N+2) with a production technique called \u00a0multiple patterning\u00a0. This process involves transferring the pattern to the wafer multiple times to enhance the resolution of the lithographic process.<\/p>\n

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China Requires Cutting-Edge Lithography, Yet Thrives on Mature Chips<\/h2>\n

The issue confronting SMIC and Huawei, as previously mentioned, is that \u00a0multiple patterning\u00a0 increases chip costs and reduces production capacity. These two Chinese companies are compelled to rely on this technique in their \u00a0deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV)\u00a0 equipment due to U.S. and Netherlands sanctions preventing Dutch firm \u00a0ASML\u00a0 from selling extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines to its Chinese clients. The latter is capable of producing more advanced semiconductors than the DUV systems.<\/p>\n

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According to TechInsights, Huawei’s new MateBook Fold Ultimate Design includes a SoC Kirin X90 manufactured by SMIC.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Given the current circumstances, it is reasonable to conclude that Huawei has not yet integrated 5 nm chips manufactured by SMIC into its most advanced devices due to the extremely limited production of these integrated circuits. This is supported by findings from TechInsights and SCMP. However, it\u2019s crucial not to overlook an essential point: \u00a0China requires cutting-edge lithography\u00a0 technologies to manufacture chips as advanced as those produced by South Korean companies Samsung or SK Hynix, Taiwan’s TSMC, or American firms like Intel or Micron Technology. Interestingly, the Chinese semiconductor industry is surviving due to its reliance on mature chips.<\/p>\n

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In fact, production of these mature chips increased by \u00a012.5% in 2024\u00a0 compared to 2023. This is quite impressive, especially considering that U.S. sanctions and those of its allies prevent Chinese manufacturers from accessing EUV lithography equipment. Since early 2024, they also cannot procure additional DUV lithography machines. Throughout much of 2022, production in China’s semiconductor sector suffered a significant decline, only to begin recovering towards the end of that year. Notably, growth was nearly steady in 2023, leading to a monumental increase in 2024, particularly towards the year’s end.<\/p>\n

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\n {“videoId”:”x81felr”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”A FUTURE without MADE IN CHINA The INDUSTRY shifts the PARADIGM and we explain WHY”, “tag”:””, “duration”:”182″}\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In this scenario, it is pertinent to inquire about the types of integrated circuits that Chinese manufacturers are mass-producing. The answer is quite revealing: these are chips derived from \u00a0mature integration technologies\u00a0, typically with nodes of \u00a028 nm or less advanced\u00a0. After all, semiconductors found predominantly in electronic devices, home appliances, or vehicles, among other products, have been produced using these technologies.<\/p>\n

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For more information, refer to the articles by TechInsights<\/a> and SCMP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The article originally titled The Two Most Important Chip Companies in China Have a Problem: They Are Stuck at 5 nm<\/em> was published by Xataka<\/strong> and written by Juan Carlos L\u00f3pez.<\/p>\n


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General News – 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In mid-May, Dr. Kim, an expert in integrated circuit manufacturing with experience at Samsung and currently researching at TSMC in the U.S., revealed that \u00a0Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC)\u00a0 was about to \u00a0start production of 5 nm chips\u00a0. She also indicated plans to launch its first 3 nm nodes equipped with \u00a0Gate-All-Around (GAA)\u00a0 transistors by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36399],"tags":[2397,10792,1723,14106,458,1142,3294,2835],"class_list":["post-151925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-china","tag-chip","tag-companies","tag-facing","tag-important","tag-problem","tag-struggling","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}